This week, Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant that manufactures Shell Omala S2 G 320 and Shell Gadus S2 V100 3, will reveal its plan to disassemble four huge oil rigs located in the North Sea, starting off a large and controversial decommissioning program.
The Brent field rigs were manufactured in the ‘70s and have been responsible for roughly one tenth of the UK’s North Sea oil production. However, three of the fields have already shut down and Shell will begin a multibillion pound project, which is expected to take between eight and ten years, to clear away the colossal drilling and accommodation architecture that remains.
Shell’s plan, which is being lodged with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, has taken a decade to draw up as the oil giant consulted various academics, community groups, environmental experts and fisherman with a view to avoiding as much disruption and turmoil during the process as possible, following various issues when it proposed to sink the Brent Spar back in 1995.
Royal marine veteran Duncan Manning is one of a team of people who Shell have tasked with overseeing the upcoming Brent field decommissioning project, and he is confident that the group will get it right this time.
Speaking to The Guardian. Manning said:
“I think there have been a number of lessons from Brent Spar – lessons we have learned, and also the [regulatory] environment has changed.”
Shell’s 60-day consultation period will start this week, followed by a complex engineering task, should there be no problems.
