Decommissioning is a rising challenge and raises questions regarding the actual engineering of assets. Assets for producing petroleum are a great tool during their lifetime, but what is to be done with them when they are no longer of use? This is the question that arises from decommissioning rigs, pipelines, refineries, floating vessels, and gas stations. The circular economy approach seeks to find new uses for assets and their components consistent with commercial and sustainable objectives. The—primarily financial and environmental—burden of decommissioning oil and gas assets would become more attractive. The circular economy approach to decommissioning brings a new perspective that considers reuse and regeneration as critical aspects to be considered along with other matters from the earliest stages of designing and constructing assets.
Sophie Theys will present the application of circular economy concepts to decommissioning and propose ways of integrating such circular concepts at the earliest stage of building oil and gas assets during a webinar set for 8 November.
Theys is the technical, quality, and risk manager for the Africa region at Bureau Veritas, a testing, inspection and certification company. She has 20 years of experience in the upstream and midstream oil and gas sector with a mix of project management, technical, and field experience. Theys has lead efforts in optimizing water usage, monitoring CO2 capture and storage, and providing solutions for assets to last longer without affecting safety or the environment. Having grown up with the industry, Theys said she believes that oil and gas has a powerful social and technical lead in implementing a sustainable local footprint to serve a global market.
Read more about the webinar here.