Decommissioning Insight 2019

DECOMMISSIONING INSIGHT 2019

Central North Sea

Figure 23: Well Decommissioning in the Central North Sea 2019, to 2028

30

100

Suspended Subsea E&A Wells Subsea Development Platform Number of Fields With Decommissioning Activity

90

25

80

70

20

60

50

15

40

10

30

20

5

Number of Wells to be Decommissioned

10

0

0

Number of fields with well Decommissioning Activity

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028

Source: OGUK, OGA

Well Type

Sub-Totals

Percentage

Platform Well Subsea Well

272 267

48% 47%

Suspended Exploration and Appraisal Well

29

5%

TOTAL

568

100%

In the central North Sea, 272 platform wells, 267 subsea wells and 29 suspended E&A wells are scheduled for decommissioning over the next decade, totalling 568 across the region. For a second year in succession, there is a reduction in the expected activity in the region, with the 2017 and 2018 Decommissioning Insight reports anticipating that 633 and 599 would be decommissioned, respectively. While previous changes were the result of the oil price and market conditions, this year’s reduction is likely the result of increased M&A activity. Unlike last year’s report, which showed a relatively stable profile of work throughout the dataset, this year’s data show a relatively low anticipated workload in the initial period, gradually rising over the ten years (with the exception of a peak in 2020 which anticipates a large quantity of subsea wells). The number of fields with expected activity increases gradually throughout the dataset, from an average of ten over the first three years, rising to 24 at the end of the dataset. As in previous years data, we see an even split between platform and subsea well activity, and the number of fields with decommissioning activity steadily rises throughout the dataset.

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