Out of sight out of mind – subsea pipeline decommissioning

Existing legislation, regulation and documentation dealing with decommissioning of offshore oil and gas infrastructure has traditionally been derived from experience gained in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The Australian operating environments are very different and, consequently, there is no Australian industry-wide engineering standard dedicated to the decommissioning of offshore pipelines. Decommissioning of Australian offshore pipelines is currently handled on a case-by-case basis. The efficiency and effectiveness of any given decommissioning project is variable, and highly dependent upon the experience of the pipeline operator. Given the maturity stage of the Australian offshore oil and gas industry, it is foreseen that in the coming years many operators will approach the task of decommissioning offshore pipelines for the first time. In 2014 the Energy Pipelines Cooperative Research Centre (EPCRC) formed an offshore users group, comprising pipeline experts from several offshore oil and gas operators and engineering consultancies that are members of the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association’s Research and Standards Committee (APGA RSC). This group is developing an engineering guideline for the decommissioning of offshore pipelines. It is being developed in close communication with the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), which has formed a decommissioning committee in relation to offshore facilities. This ensures the guideline is being developed by and with input from a broad spectrum of the Australian offshore oil and gas industry, with the aim of capturing best practice in the Australian context.