Aqualis Offshore signs up to Decom North Sea

LONDON -- Aqualis Offshore UK Ltd has joined Decom North Sea (DNS) – the industry trade body to promote decommissioning and reuse opportunities throughout the supply chain. This followed a market review by Aqualis Offshore in Aberdeen, which identified that there is a market demand for the marine, transportation and reverse installation engineering skills. Such skills can be provided by Aqualis Offshore Naval Architects and Master Mariners, who have experience of both installation and removal operations.

The recent significant drop in the price of oil has meant that more fields will become uneconomic sooner, and it is important to make the correct decision as to what should be done with such facilities. For floating facilities' disconnecting risers, umbilicals and moorings, and then taking the unit under tow, is relatively straightforward, as long as suitably experienced personnel are engaged. For bottom mounted facilities, removal is more complicated and as has been pointed out by the Wood Review, may not always be the optimum decision from a UK PLC point of view. This is due to the possible reuse of such infrastructure in the future using either new techniques for oil and gas recovery/satellite fields or for use with marine renewable energy devices, or even for marine life enhancement. The energy balance associated with all decommissioning options should also be taken into account in the decision-making process.

“Since the marine aspects of decommissioning are potentially expensive and high risk, Aqualis Offshore is keen to make use of DNS to promote our specialist marine expertise to a much wider audience,” commented Aqualis Offshore’s general manager, Martin Brown. For example, Aqualis Offshore will attend DNS’s Offshore Decommissioning Conference from the 17th to the 19th of November, at the Fairmont Hotel in Saint Andrews, to establish mutually beneficial contacts with other specialists, covering the full range of decommissioning activities.