ENERGY NEWS
11
DECEMBER 2021
UK NORTH SEA
Energy Review By Tsvetana Paraskova
The state of North Sea oil and gas exploration and decommissioning, the industry’s efforts to decarbonise operations, and updates on project developments on the UK Continental Shelf have featured in the past month’s news about the UK North Sea oil and gas sector.
Exploration and production of oil and gas from the North Sea is still needed if the UK is to meet its energy needs, while ensuring a successful energy transition to net-zero, the Chairman of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), Tim Eggar, said at a conference at the end of November. “If we need to be reminded of their importance to daily life, we only have to look back a matter of weeks, when we saw long queues at petrol stations and a gas crisis which brought the prospect of higher gas bills for millions of consumers. Security of supply is back in vogue – not before time,” Eggar noted. According to OGA’s analyses, domestic gas production has less than half the carbon footprint of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), OGA’s chairman said. “In fact, we can produce gas with a lower carbon footprint than almost all other producing countries. So it really makes no sense to be more reliant than we need to be on imports – particularly from countries with less to no commitment to reducing their emissions,” Eggar concluded. OGUK published at the end of November its Decommissioning Insight 2021 report, which showed that over the last five years the UK decommissioning industry has improved its efficiency and cut its costs by an estimated 23 percent. The industry remained resilient during the pandemic, spending £1.07 billion in 2020, and is expected to spend £1.46 billion in 2021, the report finds. Decommissioning is set to account for 12 percent of industry expenditure offshore the UK in 2021. From 2022 to 2024, the OGUK forecast shows business returning to its usual pace after the slowdown. With annual expenditures just over £1.5 billion, it is anticipated that almost 600 wells and around 45 topsides and jacket structures will be decommissioned. A total of 69 km of pipelines, almost 6,000 tonnes of subsea structures, and just over 4,000 mattresses are expected to be removed.
UK NORTH SEA REVIEW SPONSORED BY
“This is going to be an exciting 10 years – there’s a huge amount of work to be done and with £16.6 billion to be spent, there will be many opportunities for UK companies and workers,” said Joe Leask, OGUK’s Decommissioning Manager. “Decommissioning is more than a great challenge. It’s also a huge opportunity for UK companies to show their engineering skills, powers of innovation and ability to compete on a global scale,” Leask added.
Continues >
"OSSO is a value focused provider of specialist fluid temperature control and separation solutions."
www.ossoltd.com
