The effects of Statoil’s standardization on decommissioning projects
The standardization of designs and equipment for offshore field developments has become a major area of focus for operating companies, particularly in the North Sea.
Statoil is currently studying the standardization of subsea modules and interface technologies, with DNV GL being contracted as an independent party to undertake the work as a Joint Industry Project (JIP). Also, in 2014 Statoil awarded contracts to FMC Technologies, Saipem and Kongsberg for separate feasibility studies related to the implementation of standardized subsea process equipment.
Separately, FMC Technologies signed an agreement to undertake a JIP with Anadarko, BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell in 2014. The project will focus on the development of subsea production equipment and systems that will be used in deep-water reservoirs with pressures of up to 20,000 psi and temperatures of 350°F at the mudline.
Standardization could have positive effects on costs, time and the technical complexity of field developments. As a result of this, future decommissioning projects will also reap the rewards of greater efficiency.
Reduction in decommissioning time and costs
The implementation of standardized designs can greatly reduce the time it takes to undertake a decommissioning project and in turn reduce the costs.
“From an engineering perspective if you have standard procedures, standard techniques that you use, the more and more projects that you do, the repetitive gains that you get will make the process quick and efficient,” said Joe Leask, Subsea Decommissioning Engineer.
Alan Stokes, Global Decommissioning Manager, Worley Parsons, supports the view that standardization will reduce project times due to repetitive gains, stating that “the engineers and the offshore tradespersons become experienced with the decommissioning equipment and tasks.”
The time reductions that can be gained through standardization will have a knock on effect on costs, potentially making future decommissioning projects cheaper. “If we could standardise our platforms, when we come to decommissioning we will see a 10% percent reduction, platform on platform in terms of costs and duration,” Stokes explains.
“That’s born out of work done by myself in the ship building industry when I was looking at standard ships being built. When one ship follows another there was a 10% cost reduction for each subsequent ship. These reductions have been seen in our industry with platforms in the Caspian Sea and the Gulf of Mexico (Union Oil platforms in 800 feet water depth),” Stokes added.
Changing contracting methods
Standardization could result in the creation of standard contracting templates for decommissioning projects and allow for greater collaboration between operators who are working on projects at similar times which are also located in close proximity to each other.
“Some problems we have within an operator is the fact that they are all competitors and collaboration becomes quite difficult because of the way contracts are set up and makes things like sharing workloads difficult,” said Leask.
“Because of the core values of the operators and the way they set up contracts it could be difficult for these operators to share a vessel and do the same work scope at the same time. I think that’s one way in which standardisation could help,” Leask added.
Under a standardized system operators will be able to sign contracts with companies to provide them with the same or similar equipment over a various number of field development projects. This contracting model can then be translated to decommissioning and provide further savings.
“It would reduce the contractual and administrative costs as the oil company can offer the contractor two or three platforms removals that are the same,” Stokes said.
Clarification of legislation
Standardization can also bring about cost and efficiency savings through the provision of more clarity with regards to decommissioning legislation. If installed equipment follow a standard design then decommissioning plans can be repeated across projects.
Focusing on the UK North Sea Leask says, “Because we have not undertaken a lot of decommissioning projects as an industry yet, the legislation is still very woolly and we have to justify a lot of the decisions we make. This is an issue because it increases workloads and I think the only way to have clearer legislation is to go down this route, and eventually norms can be recognised and clearer legislation can brought in.”
“It will make the whole planning process quick because at the moment it does take a substantial amount of time to develop Decommissioning Programs and run Comparative Assessments of every single option to inform your decisions and be accepted by the government,” Leask added.
Decommissioning to become technically easier
Standardization will also reduce the complexity of decommissioning projects as it will enable contractors to create and follow a standardized plan when the time comes for them to decommission equipment.
“We need to start designing infrastructure with decommissioning in mind. For instance mattresses. We’ve got 45,000 mattresses down in the North Sea and they’re all different shapes and sizes and there’s no one size fits all method of removing these. That’s one thing that’s enforced in the North Sea to take them out,” Leask said
“Standardizing design, standardizing lift points infrastructure can really help the efficiency of our projects in the future,” Leask added.
The installation of the same or similar equipment across various fields will make decommissioning technically easier when the time comes for this equipment to be removed.