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420bn kroner to dismantle North Sea oil rigs
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February 6th, 2012
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This article is more than 12 years old.
Rise of wind power could increase price of winding down North Sea oil exploration
After decades of offshore drilling, oil and gas companies must be prepared to pay 420 billion kroner over the next 30 years to dismantle and remove more than 470 oil rigs throughout the North Sea.
The price tag covers the cost of transporting the platforms to land, capping the wells and scrapping the rigs.
A joint report prepared for science weekly Ingeniøren by Douglas-Westwood and Deloitte states that the decommissioning of the platforms will gain momentum between 2016 and 2031.
A boom is expected in the number of new offshore windmills being constructed throughout the same period that the old oil rigs are being torn down.
Analysts predict that this could lead to a shortage of vessels that can haul the heavy payloads needed both to carry the old rigs to shore and ship the new windmills out to sea.
Ingeniøren points out that although estimates have previously been made as to the cost of decommissioning only those North Sea platforms in the British sector of the North Sea, this is the first report that looks at the price of removing every rig.
The reports also points out that scrapping the platforms creates opportunities for nearby port cities to create jobs and collect fees for dismantling and storing the scrap.
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