The Challenges Facing the Industry in Offshore Facility Decommissioning on the California Coast

Byrd, Robert C.; Smith, J.; Spease, Steven J.

doi:10.4043/28844-ms

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In addition to cost, Ars and Rios [30] reported that future liability and government regulations contribute to the reasons why the expected decommissioning rate has never been achieved. Therefore, companies are currently facing major challenges and risks in the planning and execution of decommissioning projects [31]. These include:…”

Section: Systems For Decommissioning and Environmental Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Sustainability and Efficiency of Offshore Platform Decommissioning: A Review

Zawawi,

Danyaro,

Liew

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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Malaysia has inherited many aged offshore platforms that have reached their decommissioning deadline. Many platforms need to be detached through subsea processes. Although there are good techniques for this, they are usually costly and necessitate a great deal of post-cut checking to ensure complete detachment. Explosive cutting techniques, on the other hand, are cost-effective and reliable for offshore decommissioning as they ensure complete cutting with little uncertainty. Until 2019, statistics showed that almost 35% of offshore platform decommissioning processes involved the use of explosive materials and other mechanical severance options. The method was reliable and cheap, but it had a large environmental impact. During blasting procedures utilizing pressure waves, many sea animal species are threatened, such as fishes, turtles, and dolphins. Depletion of already scarce fish stocks through the unsustainable use of explosive removal should be prevented by reducing the environmental impact of underwater explosives. Moreover, due to safety hazards, vessel and aircraft movement around the explosion zone is prohibited. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive review of using a highly vacuum-sealed pile for the explosion to control and reduce shock wave propagation. This effort appreciates the benefits of the explosive cutting technique and reduces its environmental side effects. Our findings indicate an accurate and clean-cut method serving the efficiency of offshore platform decommissioning as well as environmental sustainability. Finally, recommendations for future perspectives have been provided based on the decommissioning of offshore platforms, such as topside removal, planning, time scale, and optimization of available space.

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Section: Systems For Decommissioning and Environmental Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Sustainability and Efficiency of Offshore Platform Decommissioning: A Review

Zawawi,

Danyaro,

Liew

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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“…According to Byrd et al (2018), the state of Qatar established regulations that sought to ensure the safety of all those accessing the country's seabed which may impact the future implementation of the R2R approach. Accordingly, reefing oil platforms in the EEZ of Qatar will lead to several legal challenges (da Fonseca et al, 2020).…”

Section: Implementation Determinants Of Rig-to-reefmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rig-to-reef is meant to offer favorable environmental conditions for fish and other macroinvertebrate communities to thrive but with the increased oil and gas exploration, the project would pose significant legal, logistical, and environmental challenges to stakeholders (Lim, 2021). Byrd et al (2018) noted that the development of artificial reefs on any oilfield requires the removal of the top structures while leaving behind those buried deep in the sea.…”

Section: Implementation Determinants Of Rig-to-reefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing and Reporting Potential Environmental Risks Associated with Reefing Oil Platform During Decommissioning in Qatar

et al. 2022

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Decommissioning obsolete oil platforms in the upcoming decades in Qatar, through a complete removal, will imply a major loss of the fouling biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions and services. The rig-to-reef approach, successfully implemented in other seas of the world, provides an attractive alternative to the complete removal by reefing the underwater oilrig structures and theoretically provides positive environmental, economic, and social benefits to a wide range of stakeholders. This manuscript critically reports and analyzes the risks associated with the implementation of the rig-to-reef approach in Qatar oilfields by using a DPSIR conceptual framework focusing on the pressures, states, impacts, and responses. By portraying reefing approaches as an issue, several pressures were identified including potential navigational safety issue, pollution, and physical disturbances. These pressures are expected to modify the physical, biological, and chemical state of the ecosystems, potentially leading to several impacts, such as the loss of habitats, biodiversity, and associated ecosystem services. The identified hazards and their potential risks were analyzed, and these seemed to be outweighed by the potential benefits of reefing obsolete oil platforms. Nevertheless, the critical impairment to the rig-toreef implementation, mainly associated to existing regulatory frameworks, should be addressed.

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California Outer Continental Shelf Platform Decommissioning Update, Outlook, and Challenges

Smith¹,

Byrd²

2023

Day 3 Wed, May 24, 2023

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The authors have been working with the challenges related to decommissioning facilities offshore California since 1996. In a 2018 OTC paper (OTC-28844-MS) they reviewed the challenges for offshore facility decommissioning in this region. This paper reviews and updates the oil and gas platform decommissioning projects being conducted on the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) offshore California and the decommissioning outlook for OCS platforms through the end of this decade. There are a total of 23 oil and gas platforms on the federal OCS offshore California which are submerged lands located more than three nautical miles from the coastline. The authors project that one-third of the 23 OCS platforms and one state water platform are likely to be decommissioned by the end of the decade, and at least 50 percent of the OCS platforms are likely to be removed by the middle of the next decade. Three of the eight OCS platforms being decommissioned, if fully removed, would each establish world water depth records for removing conventional steel platform jackets from the seafloor. The paper also describes the major technical, logistical, environmental, and regulatory challenges operators face in planning and conducting decommissioning projects offshore California.

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The Challenges Facing the Industry in Offshore Facility Decommissioning on the California Coast

Cited by 5 publications

References 3 publications

Environmental Sustainability and Efficiency of Offshore Platform Decommissioning: A Review

Environmental Sustainability and Efficiency of Offshore Platform Decommissioning: A Review

Assessing and Reporting Potential Environmental Risks Associated with Reefing Oil Platform During Decommissioning in Qatar

California Outer Continental Shelf Platform Decommissioning Update, Outlook, and Challenges

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