Danish sustainable offshore decommissioning - In progress

Goal

The project aims to develop a Danish concept and consortium for the sustainable elimination of obsolete offshore installations. The concept will have particular emphasis on the environmental aspects of decommissioning including removal techniques, recycling of discarded materials and safety for preventing leakage of environmentally hazardous substances in connection with the workers. The strong Danish competencies within the environment will become an important competitive factor.

Description

Since the 1960s, around 600 of offshore oil and gas platforms have been installed in the North Sea. A number of these platforms are becoming obsolete and must be removed (decommissioned), within the next year. This will create a huge new market.

An offshore platform contains several thousand tonnes of steel and other metals which are recyclable. At the same time platforms contain pollutants such as oil residues, chemicals, gases and radioactive substances that can leach into the marine environment. There are international legal requirements for removal of obsolete platforms.

Preliminary analysis of the technical aspects of offshore decommissioning has shown that the task will include engineering specialist at a high level, in other words knowledge workplaces in large scale. This includes competencies in design, calculation, project management, environmental planning, environmental control, purification, liberation, lifting and transportation, well off and shredding and recycling on land.

The project builds on a project by the Ministry of Science, whose purpose was to implement aseries of preliminary tests of techniques for removal of offshore installations, focusing on safety, environment and economy. In this context an EIA report and project outline for a reception facility at Esbjerg Harbour was developed.

Milestones

- Analysis of North Sea removal market in terms of construction, size and tender forms.
- Sustainable removal techniques, including analysis of technical and environmental framework, removal techniques, receiving stations on land in Denmark, economy and competition in Denmark, Norway and Britain, subcontracting to Norway and Great Britain, Law and certifications.
- Establishment of removal consortium including participants, foreign partners from Norway and Britain, organizational form, IPR etc.

Results

Platforms the consortium would handle for decommissioning.

Environment report no. 1 general.