In the offshore oil and gas industry, when production facilities reach the end of their economic life, field owners need to decide whether to replace, extend the life of, or decommission assets. Although life extension is a popular choice among end-of-life (EOL) management strategies, decommissioning of assets is inevitable. The decommissioning of deep and ultra-deep water pipelines used for the transport of oil and gas products has become a serious issue in recent years because it is a complex process and presents challenges to stakeholders. The current paper presents the experiences of pipeline decommissioning in different regions of the world, and then highlights issues and challenges related to decommission of pipelines in deep and ultra-deep waters. These issues and challenges can be broadly categorised into technical, financial or economic, health and safety legislation, environmental, and human or organizational aspects. Technical challenges are associated with the selection of appropriate decommissioning procedures for handling hazardous pipelines. Asset managers are also under pressure to reduce the costs associated with pipeline decommissioning operation as it involves huge financial commitments to companies. The decommissioning of deep and ultra-deep water pipelines may involve dangerous activities, which could adversely affect the immediate environment; therefore, asset managers must ensure that the impact of decommissioning processes on the environment is minimized. Human resource issues, such as lack of requisite skills, knowledge and experience about deep and ultra-deep water pipelines decommissioning, as well as their safety, are another challenge. In order to address the challenges identified in the study, some directions for future research are suggested.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.