Decommissioning and abandonment

Decommissioning and abandonment

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ENVIRONMENTAL AND SAFETY INFLUENCES ƒ Environment ƒ Look for environmental benefits ƒ Least-impact option ƒ Assess environment hazards and injury to personnel ƒ ‘Sterilisation’ of seabed for future pipelines ƒ Return shoreline to original ƒ Safety ƒ Safety – nuisance on seabed ƒ Snagging of trawler nets ƒ If cannot present a good safety case – leave as is! ƒ Consider all risks during removal and disposal Shell Brent Spar The decision as to whether the pipeline is abandoned in-situ or recovered to land for disposal or recycling, is influenced by the above issues. The considerations include: Environmental Would the removal represent a benefit to the environment or would resources required be better spent in other directions? It is common for coastal and local authorities to demand the removal of lines at the landfall, allowing the sea to erode beaches and cliffs naturally (for decades to come) Contamination from unclean lines Determine best possible environmental option. Greenpeace demonstrated about the decommissioning of the Shell Brent Spar. Finally, they admitted the original solution would have been a cleaner option overall Safety Hazards relating to subsea pipelines Snagging of trawl equipment Nuisance to future seabed construction

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