Decommissioning offshore oil and gas production systems have been progressively increasing the concern of the industry, government and interest groups through the last years. There are at least two reasons for this sudden regard. First, it is the maturing of several oil and gas fields around the world in recent years. Second, it is the growing impact of environmental concerns in international affairs. Despite several works published address to some techniques and to potential problems and risks related to decommissioning offshore oil and gas production installations, its procedures are in some extent an innovative issue, especially in the case of deep-water fields such as the Brazilian ones. Therefore, the motivation of this paper is the novelty of the subject in Brazil, since the national industry is just beginning to deal with the end-of-leasing obligations, which involve decommissioning operations, and the governmental regulatory agency is filling the current gaps in the official guidelines. The main ambition is to stimulate debate about pertinent issues. Introduction Decommissioning refers to the dismantling, decontamination and removal of process equipment and facility structures. It may be described as the best way to shut down production operation at the end of a field's life [1]. This involves a multidisciplinary process, which requires detailed method balanced on several areas, e.g., environmental, financial, political, health and safety. In the late 90's, this balance was disturbed by a turning point fact on decommissioning history: the experience of UK operator [2] with its spar buoy in Brent (UK sector in North Sea). Although both UK Department of Energy and UK Government were in full agreement and support of the deep sea dumping option proposed, the European consumer opinion forced the operator to seek another solution: cut its ‘Brent Spar’ in pieces and use it in a quay extension in Norway. Despite this solution had been more expensive, less safe to the employed workforce, had consumed a large amount of energy and had entailed risks to coastal navigation routes and environments; it had full European consumer agreement. Since then, every step in a decommissioning process should be informed to the society. That is why communication is so important. Their approval will of course never be fully measured but quite certainly their disapproval will have major economic consequences for any operator who fails in his communication plans [3]. A recent assessment of the decommissioning program in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico has disclosed that, although political pressure may determines what decommissioning options should be taken to the oil industry, a previous design may induce the circumstances of that pressure [4]. International literature contemplates only the U.S. Gulf of the Mexico and the North of Sea regions as the main areas where the decommissioning will face the biggest challenges due to quantity of large platforms. That is truth only in absolute terms. In relative terms, the decommissioning of large platforms is not a problem only of these regions. Brazil, for instance, has relative proportions of large platforms at least three times larger than those presented in U.S. Gulf of Mexico [5]. Besides, Brazil has some offshore fields with more than twenty years of production. The first field, Garoupa, located in the Basin of Fields-RJ, has been producing for 26 years. Therefore, the end of their economic life is getting closer. The decommissioning process starts to occur in briefing. However, it has barely known about final destination of these field's installations. The Brazilian national industry has just initiated studies about this theme [6].
Decommissioning offshore oil and gas production facilities have been progressively increasing the concern of the industry, government and other interest groups through the last years. There are at least two reasons for this sudden regard. First, it is the maturing of several oil and gas fields around the world in recent years. Second, it is the growing impact of environmental concerns in international affairs. Despite several works published address to some techniques and to potential problems and risks related to decommissioning offshore oil and gas production installations its procedures are in some extent an innovative issue, especially in Brazil. Therefore, the motivation of this paper is the novelty of the subject in Brazil, since the national industry is just beginning to deal with the end-of-leasing obligations, which involve decommissioning operations. The main ambition is to stimulate debate about appropriate issues.
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