Report details $76 billion spend to dismantle North Sea’s 500+ oil and gas platforms.
The UK will be on the hook for $48 billion of the total bill for taking down and making safe North Sea structures, said the study, published by professional services firm Deloitte and oil research business Douglas-Westwood.
The report looked for the first time at decommissioning as oil production declines across the North Sea region including Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and Britain. Norway will have the second-largest costs behind the UK at$26 billion, it found.
With an average of $2.5 billion per year due to be spent on removing almost 500 offshore platforms, the report said dismantling equipment and plugging the wells represented a big opportunity for oil service firms and regional economies.
Andrew Moorfield, Lloyd’s head of oil and gas, said in an interview that decommissioning would become an important part of the industry.
“The industry of decommissioning really will become almost a sub-sector of the oil and gas industry itself.”
One of the authors of the report said countries would have to fight for their share of the job creation from decommissioning.
“All this activity will create a lot of jobs. The question is physically where will all these jobs be created?” the chairman of Douglas-Westwood, John Westwood, said in an interview.
“It will come down to where the actual deconstruction yards are placed and how suitable they are for the job.”
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