Decommissioning Insight 2017

Dutch Continental Shelf • Of the some 1,400 wells drilled in the waters in offshore Netherlands, 410 are forecast for P&A to 2025. • Eighty-four per cent (345) of these are platform wells and the remainder subsea wells. • Activity in the near-term to 2020 is forecast at 20 wells on average per year, increasing to an average of over 70 from 2022 onwards.

Figure 7: Well P&A Forecast on the Dutch Continental Shelf

100

Suspended Exploration and Appraisal Wells Subsea Development Wells Platform Wells

90

80

4

70

60

50

40

Number of Wells

30

20

10

0

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Source: The Netherland's Nexstep National Platform for Re-use & Decommissioning

Number of Wells

Proportion that are Platform Wells

410

84%

Rig Types Well P&A is typically carried out using a drilling rig, although in some cases, technologies exist that preclude the need for a rig altogether. The requirements depend on various factors, including well type, water depth and availability of rig-less techniques. Platform wells are typically plugged and abandoned in phases. The first phase can be rig-less and uses lower cost methods such as wireline, coil tubing or a hydraulic workover unit. This is followed by the second and third phases that are more likely to require a rig. Many platforms in the UK central and northern North Sea and the Norwegian Continental Shelf have an integral rig that could be used for platform well P&A. The decision to upgrade the integral rig for P&A will depend on when it was last used, the cost to upgrade and the availability of alternative approaches. Rig upgrades can be challenging and costly, and operators are considering alternatives to this approach.

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