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DECOMMISSIONING INSIGHT
2015
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7.1.2 The Southern North Sea and Irish Sea
Between 2015 and 2024, 274 wells are forecast to be plugged and abandoned in these regions. This is a decrease
of 143 wells on the 2014 report, as seven projects are deferred and therefore move partially or completely outside
of the survey timeframe while operators work to maximise economic recovery and extend field life or postpone
decommissioning expenditure to improve current cash flow.
The associated expenditure for well P&A in these regions has therefore also fallen by £200 million to £1.5 billion.
The decline in the forecast is relatively small compared with the anticipated fall in activity as the average costs for
well P&A in these regions have been revised up, as seen in Figure 10 opposite.
Figure 9 shows that the majority of activity in the SNS and Irish Sea is concentrated in the first half of the survey
timeframe, where there has been a slight increase in well P&A activity. This reflects how some operators are
consolidating well P&A activity for their projects into fewer years than previously forecast.
By contrast, the forecast towards the end of the timeframe has reduced as projects are deferred, highlighting the
level of uncertainty in forecasts towards the end of the decade. Oil & Gas UK expects that activity will smooth out
more evenly across the ten-year timeframe as forecasts are revisited.
As in the CNS and NNS/WofS regions, the years with higher subsea well P&A activity tend to have relatively higher
expenditure forecasts as these wells are more expensive to plug and abandon.
Figure 9: Number of Wells Forecast to be Plugged and Abandoned by Type
and Total Annual Expenditure in the Southern North Sea and Irish Sea
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Forecast Expenditure (£ Million - 2015 Money)
Number of Wells
Platform Subsea Development
Subsea E&A
Total Well P&A Expenditure
Increased Uncertainty
in Forecasts
Source: Oil & Gas UK
Number of Wells
2015 to 2024
Total Expenditure
2015 to 2024
Proportion of PlatformWells
274
£1.5 billion
73%