A report from Wood Mackenzie, ‘Decommissioning in the North Sea’ examines the challenges and issues associated with decommissioning and discusses ‘areas of uncertainty’ surrounding regulation, tax and decommissioning liability rules.
$ 42 billion
Wood Mackenzie forecasts that the remaining decommissioning expenditure in the North Sea sector will be US $42 billion with the bulk to be spent in Norway (48%) and the UK (40%). To date 40 fields have been abandoned. A further 66 fields are in the process of being decommissioned or await abandonment. The number of fields that be are to be abandoned will increase dramatically in the next decade.
Ricketts
WoodMac analyst Malcolm Ricketts said, ‘We anticipate the majority of future decommissioning expenditure to be between 2015 and 2031. However, operators can delay spending by extending the economic life of the field for example with enhanced oil recovery or by converting platforms into processing hubs for nearby fields.’
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