Global decommissioning opportunity for industry

Oil and gas: North Sea experience can assist in areas planning well closures

A surge in decommissioning hot spots around the world should be seen an “opportunity” for North Sea expertise, according to an analyst.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has published a new report outlining the main areas outside the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico set for an “intense period of decommissioning”.

“I believe that countries are hungry for expertise”

Among them, Southeast Asia, Latin America and West Africa have been identified as the top areas for activity.

South-east Asia has over 7,000 wells and 1,500 structures to be shut down, while Latin America has 4,000 and 700 respectively.

The Arabian Gulf is the main future prospect and will have over 3,000 wells older than 30 years old by 2038.

However, Martha Vasquez, report author and part of BCG’s global decommissioning team, says many of these areas do not have the correct supply chain in place. And she said that this should be seen as an opportunity for North Sea firms to export their expertise in this area.

“Many of these countries have started to prepare for decommissioning but there’s still a long way to go for many of them,” she said.

“I completely believe that countries are really hungry for expertise and experience and to develop the local supply chain, they will see decommissioning in the coming years and the supply chain isn’t ready.”

The report acknowledges that the North Sea is now in an intense phase of decommissioning with around 7,000 wells to be plugged and abandoned.

However, Ms Vasquez believes that the industry still has not “cracked it” in terms of finding the right conditions for the work.

END STAGE: Thousands of platforms, like Shell’s Brent Delta pictured, are due to be decommissioned around the world