Decommissioning Insight 2016 - Oil & Gas UK

Norwegian Continental Shelf • Approximately 800 of the 3,800 wells that will eventually require decommissioning on the Norwegian Continental Shelf have already been plugged and abandoned 16 . Of the remaining 3,000 wells, 12 per cent (362) are forecast to be decommissioned between 2016 and 2025, rising from 284 reported earlier this year due to ten new projects that lie at the end of the survey timeframe.

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2

• Eighty-five per cent of wells for P&A over the next decade are platform wells compared to 95 per cent forecast in the last Norwegian Decommissioning Insight as the new projects have a higher proportion of subsea wells.

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• All of the well P&A activity is concentrated in the Norwegian North Sea region of the basin with the exception of one suspended subsea E&A well in the Norwegian Sea.

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• Activity in the near term (2016 to 2020) has increased as the durations of a number of large P&A campaigns have reduced in light of experience gained from previous activity.

• Forty-eight wells are forecast to be plugged and abandoned in 2016, with an average of 41 wells per year from 2016 to 2020.

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• Activity is estimated to peak at 90 wells in 2025 due to the new projects included. Figure 6: Number of Wells Forecast to be Plugged and Abandoned on the Norwegian Continental Shelf

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100

Increased Uncertainty in Forecasts

Platform Wells Subsea Wells

90

80

7

70

60

8

50

40

Number of Wells

30

9

20

10

0

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

Source: Oil & Gas UK

Number of Wells 2016 to 2025 Proportion that are Platform Wells

Total

362 361

85% 85%

Norwegian North Sea

Norwegian Sea

1

0%

Barents Sea

No activity

No activity

16 See Abandonment of Obsolete Wells and Installation on the Norwegian Continental Shelf; a Study into the Magnitude and Technical and Economic Challenges , June 2014, University of Stavanger, at http://bit.ly/1m8jpNW

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