U.K. operators aim to seal 200 North Sea oil and gas wells per year in decommissioning goal

(WO) — The 2024 Decommissioning Insight being published next month by Offshore Energies U.K. (OEUK), will detail the scale of the challenge facing the North Sea energy industry.

Operators need to plug 200 abandoned North Sea oil and gas wells a year to stay on top of targets but multiple changes to the tax regime are causing continuing economic and fiscal uncertainty and have damaged activity levels.

OEUK will invite journalists to an embargoed briefing to share the findings and analysis of the 2024 Decommissioning Insight on Monday 18 November 11:00am–11:45am. The full report will be released as hundreds of decommissioning business leaders gather in St Andrews, Scotland on Nov. 18–20 for OEUK’s 2024 Decommissioning Conference, the biggest industry event of the year.

Homegrown oil and gas producers now face yet another move of the goalposts following the Chancellor’s Autumn statement later this month.

Despite these setbacks the Insight report and the conference will showcase the expertise and capabilities of the U.K. decommissioning industry. The Insight report shows that stable government policy can keep the decommissioning industry in the U.K. and prevent multi-million-pound decom contracts being won by European rivals. A successful approach would secure the future of thousands of skilled U.K. jobs for decades to come.

The packed decommissioning conference agenda will hear from experts outlining the industry’s new opportunities, ideas, successes and challenges.

“Operators must continue to sanction projects and the supply chain must remain resilient and competitive,” said OEUK decommissioning manager Ricky Thomson. “The energy transition has decommissioning at its heart and sharing cross-sector information and expertise is crucial. I have no doubt we can make this happen.”