The Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) has announced Harbour Energy, ConocoPhillips, Spirit Energy and Repsol Sinopec as members of its well decommissioning collaboration initiative.
Supported by the Technology Leadership Board (TLB), North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) and Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), the initiative aims to enable new technologies to be tested in multi-operator collaboration field trials - both offshore in the UK and onshore in some international locations - enabling faster, lower-cost trials and wider industry adoption.
The NSTA has identified that well decommissioning represents circa 46% of UK Continental Shelf decommissioning costs, or an estimated £20bn spend over the life of the basin.
The multi-operator led initiative will aim to fund up to five technologies per year and support a minimum of three field trials for each technology. The goal is to have a minimum of six technologies successfully qualified and adopted by year four of the collaboration.
Technology ideas to support the validation and qualification of alternative well decommissioning materials, inspection and verification technologies, and other well decommissioning enabling technology streams will be considered.
Rebecca Allison, head of emissions reduction at NZTC, commented: “This collaborative approach is a real game changer for well decommissioning technology development realised through the proactive attitude and willingness of our existing members to collaborate and share information.
“The initiative is this unique multi-operator approach that will deliver the pace of technology development required to meet the industry commitment to reach a minimum of 35% cost reduction and 50% emissions reduction in well decommissioning by 2035.”
Nicky Riley, UK well operations manager at Spirit Energy, added: “The cost and carbon reduction challenge will be met by achieving incremental gains in efficiency across all aspects of wells decommissioning.
“We will use innovative technology to shift scope from pipe-conveyed abandonment to less resource-intensive intervention techniques to enable us to deliver those gains.”
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