Co-creation of knowledge – an effective mechanism for managing decommissioning stakeholders

Abstract

Despite the fact that it has been 26 years since the events of Brent Spar, stakeholder impacts are still continuing to affect the performance of oil and gas decommissioning projects. If stakeholders are not well managed, not only can they have devastating consequences on project costs and schedules, but there may also be further social and environmental implications as well. On the flip side, if organisations can get it right, stakeholders can also bring about various benefits. An ongoing research project to enhance project managers’ understanding of the United Kingdom and Australian decommissioning landscapes found that knowledge creation through interactions between organisations and stakeholders has brought about benefits to various decommissioning projects, including the Maureen, Miller, and Brae decommissioning projects. The concept of co-creation of knowledge has been mentioned in many academic works to be an effective mechanism for managing stakeholders in the field of sustainable development, product development, and healthcare. However, the explicit links between co-creation of knowledge and decommissioning have yet to be drawn. This article proposes that co-creation of knowledge be adopted as a best practice to manage decommissioning stakeholders. By actively co-creating knowledge with stakeholders and extending the existing body of knowledge in decommissioning, the extent of alignment and trust between organisations and stakeholders are strengthened, creating long-term relationships that greatly improves the probability of stakeholder acceptance and approval.