Page 42: of Marine News Magazine (November 2018)

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GULF COAST: OFFSHORE ENERGY

Deepwater

For the decommissioning and removal of a deep-water platform the methodology, engineering, and procedures are all key areas of focus in the removal design process, and all aspects are likely to be commensurately more complex than for smaller shallow water platforms.

Looking forward, Alan anticipates that many of the techniques likely to be applied in the Gulf of Mexico will be tried and tested, with little call for new innovations. He explains that innovative practices can often turn out to be prohibitively expensive, as was the case in the early days of decommissioning. New methods can be viable if there are many similar platforms to remove and dismantle, but in the Gulf he expects it’s likely to be done on a platform by platform basis, with evolution of existing techniques rather the development of completely new ones.

Today, more offshore structures are being removed than installed in the Gulf of Mexico and the contractors who historically would normally focus on installation are in- creasingly looking at decommissioning as an area of busi- ness. They have the capabilities and the equipment, which just need to be adapted and utilized differently to meet decommissioning and removal project requirements.

Clifton says that the key driver for decommissioning in the region will be, as it is in all other areas of the world, cost. It’s an unwelcome cost for oil companies and straight- forward, trusted methods are likely to be favored. This will offer good opportunities for both local and international contractors to be involved, building on existing knowledge to develop their service offering, as more and more struc- tures face the same process.

David Ballands is LOC Group’s Regional Director for the Americas, covering LOC’s of