Decommissioning: A Call for a New Approach

Abstract

Abstract As the one sure thing in the life of a human being is death, the only one sure thing for an oil or/and gas well is the operator's compliance to its permanent plugging and abandonment. Around the world, regulators are tightening rules and controls that are not necessarily being reflected in the budgets allocated for decommissioning. Coupled with a low oil price, this insidious issue has the potential to weight on several operators’ end-of-lease capital of expenditures and shareholders expectations. The complexity of dismantling offshore production and well infrastructures in the oil and gas industry has substantial potential impacts to health, safety and the environment. In fact, each well is a potential path to bring polluting fluids to water and surface. Furthermore, Plug and Abandon responsibilities and liabilities do not necessarily end with the operator lease, carrying a major overburden if not done right. The lack of offshore installation's standardization of the past decades tends to be confused as a reason to think that each decommissioning job is different. However, if more knowledge is built and shared across the industry, it is possible that the sump costs of abandoning can be minimized altogether while best practices for permanent isolation are implemented. This paper is a call for a new approach of total sharing well abandonment and installation decommissioning practices moderated by an independent third party. This third party will provide with access to specialized technologies, engineering and compliance certifications to current industry standards to governmental regulations. This will help achieve the most cost-efficient solution for the industry.