Skills crisis from aging infrastructure – warning

North Sea: Decommissioning to become major issue, says expert

Oil and gas industry woes have created a potential skills crisis for North Sea decommissioning, an expert has warned.

Tim Haidar, the industry commentator behind market intelligence website Oil and Gas IQ , said the recent collapse in oil prices meant aging infrastructure would “rocket to the top of the owner-operator agenda”.

He added: “As of 2015, there were 1,357 offshore instal lations o perating in

“80% of these fixed structures will come out of service by 2030”

the Ospar maritime area (the mechanism by which 15 governments and the EU co-operate to protect the north-east Atlantic), of which 545 are fixed steel assets.

“Approximately 80% of these fixed structures will come out of service by 2030, with an expected attendant cost of some £47billion.”

But there are big hurdles which “need to be vaulted” as decommissioning activity ramps up in the short to medium-term, Mr Haidar said, adding: “The 24 months since the oil price slide have seen as many as 440,000 redundancies worldwide, as well as thousands of early re- tirements for veterans with three decades and more of experience in their fields.

“Combined with the fact decommissioning in the North Sea is a comparatively unknown quantity and both the cost and scope of work are almost certain to creep upwards during the project cycle, one truth persists: an already limited pool of talent is evaporating fast.

“In addition, the skills of those with prior decommissioning experience may not be as transferable as they seem. Any dismantlement work that has taken place in less than 100 metres of water in benign conditions may not be relevant in at three times that depth in the inhospitable murk of the North Sea.”

Mr Haidar also warned decommissioning “notoriously” goes over budget.

WARNING: Decommissioning of North Sea installations will become harder, it has been claimed Tim Haidar