Wireline Magazine Autumn 2020 Issue 49

sit round the same table as the operators and removals contractors. “Operators need to be able to know they are working with partners who can take 50,000 tonnes [of water] on a specific weekend. If they think there’s a risk that you can only take 10,000 tonnes, then everything else will stop.” Good communication and planning, combined with the flexibility to move materials across the North Sea, are likely to prove invaluable as operators and contractors continue to grapple with the scale and cost of decommissioning in the coming decades. RGS is confident that its experience in the Danish sector puts it in a strong position to be part of that value chain. In the coming years, Cope believes there will be much greater engagement with the waste remediation process, in oil and gas and in other sectors. This will be driven by a combination of tougher regulations and by companies looking to truly get a handle on their environmental outputs, but it’s encouraging to see companies like RGS engage with both sides to make sure that can be made a reality. In aligning itself and its operations with the UN’s Sustainable Development goals, Cope is confident that RGS’ services will be of growing interest to increasingly conscious industries. “I think it’s been a ‘nice to do’ but it’s got to move to a ‘must do’ task. That’s where we believe it will go, it’s getting so much airtime and column inches that it has to move forward, and that means treatment processes and practice will change.” “We advocate planning and that industry sets clear high requirements of us as a supplier. We welcome more commitment, tighter legislation, more planning and openness up front, and then RGS as a supplier has to meet those requirements. That’s how we see our position - at the forefront of future change.”

capabilities. If granted, it would the first company to be able to do so with waste water, marking an important step forward in the basin-wide approach for which the company has been advocating. So far, Cope says, engagement from the regulators has been very encouraging: “It’s been an extremely positive experience talking to them… We only see a very proactive, dialogue-based approach where we’ve been welcomed into trying new options in the name of increasing the holistic environmental impact.” “This licensing process is going to be crucial to a flexible market in future. The ability to export water rather than invest heavily in ageing equipment, in a sustainable controlled traceable manner, is an interesting proposition to the market.” Sustainable partnership RGS’ flexibility and experience in the sector is of particular interest to the decommissioning market. Having been involved in major Danish operations for several years, Cope says the benefits of planning and securing water processing along with other major contracts in advance are significant – especially given the potential for encountering unplanned environmental hazards on older assets. “Having the ability to go in and sit at the table at the pre-planning phase of these projects has been very beneficial for the whole process of decommissioning activity that’s been happening in the Danish sector,” he continues. Whether that’s the opportunity to analyse expected chemicals to determine facility treatments, confirm volume expectations, arrange logistics providers or examine risk factors, he argues strongly that water and other environmental partners should

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