scholarly journals Exploring Understandings of Different Decommissioning Options for Offshore Oil and Gas Structures in the South Taranaki Bight of New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Carmen Lau

<p>The majority of the world’s offshore oil and gas structures will need to be decommissioned in upcoming decades as they near the end of their production phase. Once decommissioned, there are three main options available for the now-obsolete structures: complete removal, partial removal, and re-use. Since New Zealand has yet to decommission any offshore structures, there are no past examples or legislative precedent to guide the process. International case studies indicate that social acceptance is crucial to the successful implementation of these projects, so the aim of this thesis was to examine perceptions of different decommissioning options for offshore oil and gas structures in the South Taranaki Bight of New Zealand. Grounded in agenda-setting theory, Study 1 examined the prominence and portrayal of offshore decommissioning in the media. We found an exceedingly low coverage (N = 13) which indicates that the public are likely unaware of the issue. Within the limited sample, the themes 'disregarding decommissioning' and 'addressing decommissioning' were identified which, when combined, suggest that New Zealand is in the pre-planning stage of decommissioning and has yet to explore the options available. Using a postal survey (N = 154), Study 2 measured how the Taranaki community currently understood different decommissioning options, and explored whether and which familiarity variables, psychological constructs, and demographic variables could predict support for different options. The results confirmed a lack of knowledge and awareness (but high levels of interest) among the sample and revealed heterogeneity in which option was supported. Moreover, path analyses showed that awareness, knowledge, age, individualist worldviews, and egalitarian worldviews were significantly associated with support for different options. As will be discussed, these findings have significant implications for communication, engagement, and policy-making in both New Zealand and the international context.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Carmen Lau

<p>The majority of the world’s offshore oil and gas structures will need to be decommissioned in upcoming decades as they near the end of their production phase. Once decommissioned, there are three main options available for the now-obsolete structures: complete removal, partial removal, and re-use. Since New Zealand has yet to decommission any offshore structures, there are no past examples or legislative precedent to guide the process. International case studies indicate that social acceptance is crucial to the successful implementation of these projects, so the aim of this thesis was to examine perceptions of different decommissioning options for offshore oil and gas structures in the South Taranaki Bight of New Zealand. Grounded in agenda-setting theory, Study 1 examined the prominence and portrayal of offshore decommissioning in the media. We found an exceedingly low coverage (N = 13) which indicates that the public are likely unaware of the issue. Within the limited sample, the themes 'disregarding decommissioning' and 'addressing decommissioning' were identified which, when combined, suggest that New Zealand is in the pre-planning stage of decommissioning and has yet to explore the options available. Using a postal survey (N = 154), Study 2 measured how the Taranaki community currently understood different decommissioning options, and explored whether and which familiarity variables, psychological constructs, and demographic variables could predict support for different options. The results confirmed a lack of knowledge and awareness (but high levels of interest) among the sample and revealed heterogeneity in which option was supported. Moreover, path analyses showed that awareness, knowledge, age, individualist worldviews, and egalitarian worldviews were significantly associated with support for different options. As will be discussed, these findings have significant implications for communication, engagement, and policy-making in both New Zealand and the international context.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shannon Lenihan

<p>This thesis proposes a way to re-inhabit and transform the adverse identity of an old offshore oil and gas platform. Located 35 kilometers off the West Coast of Taranaki, New Zealand, the Māui A Platform (also known as MPA) is transformed in this thesis design investigation into an Environmental Centre, a living retreat for ‘children’ (in fact, for adults who will be encouraged in the design to see life through the eyes of children). The intention is to generate knowledge and awareness about the environment.  The Māui A and Māui B offshore oil and gas platforms are nearing the end of their economic lifespan. Globally, the current most common decommissioning method of oil platforms involves the use of explosives at the base of the jacket. The structure is then towed to shore and dismantled. The explosives leave scars not only on the landscape the platforms once inhabited; they critically damage the surrounding marine ecology, vast numbers of marine species. This is of severe concern for the marine life and ecosystems surrounding the Māui A & Māui B Platforms as they are located in an extremely sensitive marine area where over 30 percent of the world’s cetacean species inhabit or through which they frequently migrate. Only two of these marine mammal species are not listed as ‘species of concern’ in the New Zealand Threat Classification list.  The future of these platforms does not need to cause more adversity to the environment, but rather can regenerate it. By re-purposing rather than exploding and dismantling these structures, this thesis aims to propose a way to re-inhabit the Māui A Platform and transform it into an educational retreat that enables further awareness, reconciliation, restoration, and protection of marine systems, environment, and threatened marine species. This thesis explores opportunities to create a closed circuit system as a means of providing food, fresh water, water treatment and energy for the platform.  To achieve this regenerative solution in ways that will resonate with those who visit the Māui A Platform, this project enters the realm of the imagination. The imagination is fundamental to learning - hence the proposition that this design be framed as both mythological and experiential. Narrative design – story telling – is explored as a tool to connect sustainable awareness and consciousness as a means to help educate the beneficiaries of this world – our ‘children’. To encourage the adult visitors to fully recognise that the beneficiaries are indeed our children, the thesis investigation will design the new Environmental Centre through the eyes of the child. As a tool to enhance the historic narrative of the site and context, the design strategically frames traces of important or unnoticed elements or equipment of the Māui A Platform.  In order to be understood and engaged with by ‘children’, this project enters the realm of the imagination enabling the design to be both mythological and experiential.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shannon Lenihan

<p>This thesis proposes a way to re-inhabit and transform the adverse identity of an old offshore oil and gas platform. Located 35 kilometers off the West Coast of Taranaki, New Zealand, the Māui A Platform (also known as MPA) is transformed in this thesis design investigation into an Environmental Centre, a living retreat for ‘children’ (in fact, for adults who will be encouraged in the design to see life through the eyes of children). The intention is to generate knowledge and awareness about the environment.  The Māui A and Māui B offshore oil and gas platforms are nearing the end of their economic lifespan. Globally, the current most common decommissioning method of oil platforms involves the use of explosives at the base of the jacket. The structure is then towed to shore and dismantled. The explosives leave scars not only on the landscape the platforms once inhabited; they critically damage the surrounding marine ecology, vast numbers of marine species. This is of severe concern for the marine life and ecosystems surrounding the Māui A & Māui B Platforms as they are located in an extremely sensitive marine area where over 30 percent of the world’s cetacean species inhabit or through which they frequently migrate. Only two of these marine mammal species are not listed as ‘species of concern’ in the New Zealand Threat Classification list.  The future of these platforms does not need to cause more adversity to the environment, but rather can regenerate it. By re-purposing rather than exploding and dismantling these structures, this thesis aims to propose a way to re-inhabit the Māui A Platform and transform it into an educational retreat that enables further awareness, reconciliation, restoration, and protection of marine systems, environment, and threatened marine species. This thesis explores opportunities to create a closed circuit system as a means of providing food, fresh water, water treatment and energy for the platform.  To achieve this regenerative solution in ways that will resonate with those who visit the Māui A Platform, this project enters the realm of the imagination. The imagination is fundamental to learning - hence the proposition that this design be framed as both mythological and experiential. Narrative design – story telling – is explored as a tool to connect sustainable awareness and consciousness as a means to help educate the beneficiaries of this world – our ‘children’. To encourage the adult visitors to fully recognise that the beneficiaries are indeed our children, the thesis investigation will design the new Environmental Centre through the eyes of the child. As a tool to enhance the historic narrative of the site and context, the design strategically frames traces of important or unnoticed elements or equipment of the Māui A Platform.  In order to be understood and engaged with by ‘children’, this project enters the realm of the imagination enabling the design to be both mythological and experiential.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Izzat Mohd Thiyahuddin ◽  
Azam Abdul Rahman ◽  
Emily Hazelwood ◽  
Amberlea Sparks ◽  
Mark Benfield ◽  
...  

Abstract In Malaysia, numerous offshore oil and gas platforms are approaching the end of their operational lifespans and will soon be scheduled for decommissioning. Traditional decommissioning typically involves the complete removal of the platform from the seabed, consequently resulting in the destruction of the established marine life communities present on the structure. A Rigs-to-Reefs strategy provides an alternative to the complete removal of obsolete, non-productive offshore oil and gas platforms, by converting the platform into a permanent artificial reef by utilizing one of the following three methods: partial removal or topple-in-place (in-situ), or tow and place (ex-situ). In-situ reefing provides a means of conserving the marine communities found on the platform by decommissioning the platform jacket in place as an artificial reef. However, not all platforms are good candidates for a Rigs-to-Reef conversion. Thus, pre-decommissioning biological assessments should be undertaken to determine the most appropriate decommissioning strategy on a case-by-case basis. In this study, a biological assessment was developed to catalog the marine life assemblages present on two offshore oil and gas platforms in Malaysia using remotely operated vehicles. Given the limited amount of biological data available on the marine ecosystems found on Malaysia’s platforms, this data may be useful for minimizing adverse impacts of platform removal, while enhancing benefits to the marine environment.


The kinds of technology currently being applied to the design, construction, installation and operation of offshore structures for oil and gas exploration and production are quite sophisticated and include many examples of innovative configurations and approaches. The decade of the 1990s should see further evolution, reinterpretation and improvements of concepts that are already in service or being readied for service. The importance of offshore oil and gas may be judged by the projection that over half of overall exploration investments will go to offshore prospects in future years. This paper surveys some expected evolutions, with particular emphasis on the challenging area of deep-water applications. Some features of a tension leg platform design are discussed as an example of a deep-water oil production system. An attempt is made to recognize the problems of applying advanced engineering and analytical capabilities, when many specialists must interact, to producing a thoroughly engineered design, which is also balanced and economical, for such innovative systems.


2015 ◽  
Vol 713-715 ◽  
pp. 205-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilya Vladimirovich Dunichkin ◽  
Pavel Kirillovich Kalashnikov

The new typology of marine facilities deals with the problem of offshore oil and gas fields’ infrastructure usage after their elimination. The influence of climate on offshore structures and the authorities’ requirements in the matter of natural environment protection create huge costs for oil and gas companies, if the abandoned platform will be at sea. The concept of oil platform reconstruction with the change of functionhas allowedto create theoretical model of offshore structure and to identify the most relevant functions for the reconstructed objects. It has led to the following basic groups of architectural typology.


Significance Fourteen days beforehand, Ardern said no new offshore oil and gas exploration permits would be awarded -- evidence she said of the “government of transformation” she promises. The offshore ban does not affect the wide areas already open for exploration and exploitation over the next three decades, but it reinforces the government’s intention to be more active on climate change and environmental protection. Like the government's “wellbeing economics”, this might prove transformative if Ardern can retain office through to at least the next election in 2020. Impacts The offshore oil and gas exploration ban could see earlier withdrawal by major oil producers. Onshore permits for oil and gas exploration and coal mining will continue. Any major political or economic shock will affect “transformation”, as Robertson warns.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Elias G. Carayannis ◽  
Alina Ilinova ◽  
Alexey Cherepovitsyn

As risk and uncertainty factors have become more prominent in the already volatile energy market because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of Arctic hydrocarbon resources has become a debatable issue. At any rate, oil and gas companies need to improve their strategic management systems (along with the development of technologies) for the successful implementation of such complex projects. The purpose of this study was to propose the conceptual basis for transforming strategic management and planning systems of oil and gas companies so that they can successfully face global challenges when implementing offshore oil and gas projects in the Arctic as well as provide more sustainable energy sources. The article discusses the current situation with Arctic initiatives and the results of an analysis of price instability in the energy sector, along with an analysis of several megatrends affecting oil and gas companies. All this allows for presenting a conceptual vision of how a strategic management system should be transformed in order to become able to meet the requirements for implementing Arctic projects, with the emphasis being placed on sustainability, management requirements, and the key principles. The research is based on the fundamentals of strategic management and strategic planning and relies on methods such as desk study, content analysis, event analysis, comparative analysis, and factor analysis.


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