The challenges facing the industry in offshore facility decommissioning on the California coast.

Abstract

From the Abstract: “This paper addresses the challenges of decommissioning oil and gas facilities offshore California, where there are a number of large, deep-water platforms, and decommissioning infrastructure and services are severely lacking. The regulatory process for decommissioning platforms is also very complex and expensive and the prospects for reefing platform jackets are uncertain at best. These circumstances have created a situation that the domestic oil and gas industry has not really faced before, i.e., that the cost risk may not be determinate. This will pose a major challenge to decommissioning project management. The paper addresses the major issues and attempts to put boundaries on the cost risk.”