North Sea decommissioning
Turning challenges into opportunities - a commercial approach to the UK’s
decommissioning challenge.
Challenge
Few challenges, on both an industrial and economic level, are as complex as those associated with offshore decommissioning. Nowhere are those challenges more evident, or unprecedented, than in the North Sea, one of the world’s most mature oil and gas provinces.
A leading UK oil and gas industry body approached Precision with a remit to explore alternative methods and models for decommissioning – with the specific objective of helping asset-owners, operators and licensees fulfil their legal and regulatory obligations on viable, commercially attractive terms.
The challenge was compounded by the fact that decommissioning, traditionally, has been perceived as entirely a bottom-line expense, so any suggestions that it could be viewed through a commercial lens needed to be compelling and supported by hard evidence.
Scope of Work
Research & Analysis/Consultancy/Strategic Advisory/Workshop Planning/Reporting & Recommendations
Approach & Solution
1 Undertake intensive discovery process, led by Precision’s Oil & Gas faculty head, to establish the client’s precise requirements, desired outcomes, programme participants, etc.
2 Determine the specialisms required to pursue the brief, e.g. legal, regulatory, environmental, financing, tax, etc., and assemble the relevant practitioners accordingly.
3 Facilitate direct engagement between Precision’s specialists and their client-side counterparts to elicit detailed understanding of their most significant challenges, obstacles, identify external stakeholders, etc.
4 Provide feedback to qualitative research team, enabling them to build and conduct external stakeholder survey.
5 Prepare and align workshop agenda, taking survey feedback into account; further augmenting it with specialist insight and case studies designed to help participants realise the desired outcomes.
6 Convene workshops, capture, analyse and evaluate further feedback.
7 Prepare report and recommendations, based on findings.
Outcome
The commissioning body disseminated our strategic report and recommendations amongst its members and partner network for further comments and recommendations. Based upon their feedback, it is apparent that the report hit its mark and successfully challenged the perception that decommissioning costs are purely off the bottom line.
Selected feedback included:
In summary, the programme was a resounding success, which has led to requests for further work from participants seeking to build on the knowledge and insight imparted.
Schedule a call with one of our Oil & Gas experts today to discuss your current challenges and see how we can help.