Atteris is working on the guidelines with the Energy Pipelines Cooperative Research Centre, which is supported by the Australian government.

 

The Energy Pipelines CRC is a collaboration involving the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association research and standards committee, the University of Adelaide, Deakin University, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the University of Wollongong. 

 

While states and territories and the federal offshore regulator have various decommissioning regulations in place, Energy News has heard concern from several subsea companies about the environmental impacts around the options for complete removal, or in-situ disposal. 

 

Questions remain for many aspects of decommissioning, including how subsea materials may degrade over time, and Atteris general manager Eric Jas told Energy News that there are many small issues that can have a big impact and need to be studied.

 

"That whole process is a completely new way of looking at offshore oil and gas fields, and we are currently writing the guideline for the industry," Jas said.

 

"For us, that's a way into do these projects and come up with the best solutions."

 

Decommissioning is an increasingly hot topic among Australia's oil and gas industry, particularly with ageing infrastructure off the coasts of Western Australia and Victoria needing to be taken care of. 

 

Decommissioning was a key part of National Energy Resources Australia's Sector Competitiveness Plan launched at AOG this year, which flagged building and scaling abandonment and decommissioning capability as one way Australia's oil and gas industry could improve its score on global workforce opportunities.

 

A Deloitte report then launched at the subsequent APPEA conference, also in Perth, said that a US$21 billion (A$28.3 billion) decommissioning bounty awaits over the next 50 years as Australia's next major opportunity.

 

The report also suggested that multiples of that amount are also on offer across the Asia Pacific.

 

More than 100 platforms and subsea structures are located in Australian waters, spread out across Australia's vast coastline, in some of the most pristine and unique marine environments on the planet.

 

Given the scope of that challenge, University of Western Australia Professor Susan Gourvenec of the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems and Oceans Institute said offshore decommissioning was going to be "complex, challenging and costly".

 

Yet while there has been much talk around how decommissioning will be the next boom in Australia with an associated liability to industry in the order of tens of billions of dollars, Jas is not buying into that hype.

 

"I'm not quite sure I agree with that," he said. 

 

"We take more of an approach of what work can we do in a smart way to make sure there's absolute minimal impact on the environment, on people and on other users of the sea.

 

"There are a lot of guidelines, but there is a big difference of opinion between groups and people on the best way to do things. 

 

"If an operator decides it wants to decommission a field, the first thing they have is lots of question marks, and it's not crystal clear, which is where we come in to help operators coming up with the best plan for their field."

 

The guidelines Atteris is developing are focused on subsea pipelines and ancillary equipment, and are planned to be released within the next month.

 

"From then on we've tried to get involved with other groups to set up hubs to lead by example in the industry, particularly on decommissioning," Jas said.