Case Study

Making better decommissioning decisions

Module decommissioning in the North Sea

We’ve partnered with a client to identify decommissioning opportunities for all its Australian assets. We’ve improved its decommissioning decision-making and reduced their liabilities in the process.

Operators often see decommissioning as a lose-lose situation. It’s costly and time consuming because assets are in their late life, with limited opportunities to generate revenue. That’s why many haven’t managed and centralized it.

But industry lessons from mature energy markets show that a proactive, centralized approach can help operators plan for decommissioning by identifying opportunities. This includes reducing liabilities and creating new value streams that are mutually beneficial.

Following a period of strong growth, our client expected to spend a considerable amount of money on decommissioning over the next decade. But without a standard baseline, it was difficult to identify potential opportunities to save costs. It also had portfolios split across different regions, each with their own reporting standards, and it was difficult to plan for the future.

Reducing liability and harnessing future opportunities

We helped our client consolidate its decommissioning portfolio and structure short- and long-term initiatives. This involved aligning its team around a shared vision for decommissioning. We then built a knowledge bank by integrating lessons from our own experience and other regions. This included advice from stakeholders and experts from the energy, chemicals and resource sectors.

We identified opportunities to reduce liabilities across the portfolio. And we gave our client an industry snapshot of the next 10 years so that its strategic initiatives reflected the sector’s progression and potential opportunities.

It was great to work on this initiative. We were able to raise corporate awareness, challenge conventional project thinking and form a common ground where business units, asset representatives and industry experts could share improvement initiatives.

Francesco Piasentin, Principal Consultant

Bridging technical requirements with strategic planning

We translated our technical awareness of constraints and problems into a strategic implementation plan. And consolidated its portfolio in the process.

Currently, we’re helping the Australian Government to lay the groundwork for a national offshore decommissioning plan. And we’re bringing our expertise and experience to other operators in Australia and South East Asia so they can start thinking and planning for the future.