Decommissioning
Despite a 2.8% drop in liquefied natural gas exports in 2025 because of lost market share in China, Australia anticipates a 2026 rebound as new North West Shelf capacity comes online. Meanwhile, East Coast operators brace for a tsunami of wells entering the decommissioning pipeline and potential energy shortfalls necessitating LNG imports.
The North Sea Transition Authority has published its first table identifying 13 operators that are behind schedule in decommissioning their inactive North Sea wells.
Estimates commissioned by the Australian government suggest that increasing efficiency will lower costs for decommissioning offshore Australia.
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Archer’s Stronghold Barricade well decommissioning system leaves the casing in place, while perforating, washing, and cementing the annulus to create a cement barrier in a single trip. -
A new downhole-tool-based abandonment system was developed and deployed successfully on four wells for a major operator on a field in the North Sea.
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The supply chain is now actively working to develop low-cost solutions and is gaining valuable experience through recent projects (as documented in many recent SPE papers). Owners need to engage the supply chain early with the relevant asset data for planning and execution of decommissioning.
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The optimization model presented in the complete paper is the first multioperator offshore network-optimization model that considers decommissioning in the Netherlands.
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The complete paper describes how various P&A designs can be compared by use of a risk methodology that takes account of degradation mechanisms, potential flow rates, and the effect on the environment.
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Decommissioning experts in the UK examine the advantages and disadvantages of removing offshore installations vs. leaving them in place, discussing cost efficiencies, environmental factors, and long-term risks.
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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.
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Decom North Sea has developed the Late Life Planning Portal system, a web-based information portal, to capture tools that add value as well as good practices and lessons learned from the execution of decommissioning projects.
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This paper aims to develop a Brazilian baseline for front-end planning and cost estimation of the decommissioning, removal, and disposal options.
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Using decision analysis as a software tool helps to clarify and evaluate decommissioning alternatives against a comprehensive set of objectives, including both market and nonmarket values.
