Decommissioning is big business

There are literally thousands of structures left behind from oil & gas exploitation around the world that will require decommissioning, removal and cleanup of contaminants on the seabed.

The big players are building expensive vessels and equipment to cover the big jobs, but the wast majority of such structures are relatively small.

Here is an article about an inexpensive solution being developed for that purpose:
https://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/longitude-concludes-pre-decommissioning-plan-contract-for-pttep-with-a-cost-effective-conversion-solution/

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But Fishes need Niches.

or see for yourself, without the editorial:

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Heerema is quitting the pipe laying market and concentrating on the decommissioning and wind farm markets:

Here is a video showing our approach. https://youtu.be/5uIHD7RuAZM

also low cost but with NESSIE you can navigate waters as shallow as 10 M. Where is Longitude 's barge going to drop the jacket off? Some of those things are 100 meters on their side.

Two Jackups for decommissioning specially designed for the offshore oil &gas and wind farm market under construction in China:

Shell has a Brent dilemma again; how to decommission the concrete structures left behind when the topsides are removed. (Last time was when the Brent Spar became a major issue):


Leaving the concrete structures, with the oil and chemicals in place, sounds to me like a logical solution. To re-float them would be very difficult, if not impossible after 40 years in place. Cleaning and disposing of the contaminants in place would also be difficult. Sealed off these structures could last “forever”.

If they were somehow re-floated, what do you do with them? To break them up would be an equally difficult, if not impossible task, even if done in a deep Norwegian fjord, slowly reducing their draft until the bottom slabs and skirts could be put into a dirt dock for final cutting. (Reversing the building sequence)
To recycle the concrete and reinforcement steel would be difficult and costly.

If you thought that decommissioning was the salvation for the Offshore oil & gas industry, think again. It is not as easy as many think:

Sable Offshore Field off Nova Scotia has run out of oil and decommissioned.
SSCV Thialf has completed the job by the “revere installation method”:
https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/heavy-lift-ship-removes-seven-aging-platforms-from-exxon-s-sable-field#:~:text=The%20heavy%20lift%20crane%20platform,NGLs%20for%20the%20Canadian%20market.