Tackling old oil and gas platforms

摘要

There is a long legacy of oil and gas production in the North Sea. For 40 years, operators have exploited fields across the UK continental shelf, setting up rigs far out and deep down into the water and installing a network of associated pipelines and other infrastructure. Over that time, they have extracted more than 43 billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent. But many of these fields are now reaching the end of their productive lives and need to be closed. The industry is already closing more sites than it is opening and by the 2050s much of it is expected to be gone. That will eventually mean plugging and abandoning over 3,500 wells and deciding what to do with more than 250 platforms, 250 subsea production systems and thousands of kilometres of pipeline (see map, p48).