NEwS Issue No. 2
October 2010
www.decomnorthsea.com
Offshore Oil & Gas Decommissioning – Contracting Strategies It is generally recognised that collaboration is going to play an increasingly important role in the decommissioning sector over the coming decades. It is therefore entirely appropriate that Decom North Sea should practice what it preaches!
Fig. 1
Decom North Sea is facilitating the industry discussion on the contracting strategies and models used to manage major, complex decommissioning projects. In support of this initiative we teamed up with The Robert Gordon University (RGU) and Accenture in a project designed to provide fresh, independent and unbiased research, analysis and thinking on this somewhat, sensitive issue.
Our partnership was set up as follows. Decom North Sea articulated the general industry situation relating to decommissioning contracting strategies, and with input from Chris Gray of ConocoPhillips we set the strategic ambition for the research. A team of eight oil & gas MBA students at RGU undertook research with a range of operators, major contractors and service specialists, followed by a thorough analysis of the data obtained. On Tuesday 7th September the team presented their findings to an audience of nearly 50 people, most of whom are Decom North Sea members. Accenture provided sponsorship for the whole project, supported the students by coaching throughout the course of the twelve week project, and kindly agreed to share the findings of the study with Decom North Sea members. A good example of a win-win-win.
Contents page 2 Director’s foreword Membership of Decom North Sea Decomnorthsea.com Future newsletters page 3 New Directors Elected at AGM page 4 Strong turn out for first members’ event page 5 Forthcoming DNS events and
Taking account of the strategic drivers (see Fig. 1) which influence which contracting strategy and model is most appropriate, the students analysed the various contracting strategies (In house, Tier 1, Heavy lift, Project management and collaboration) against operator and contractor value drivers. They then compared this with the traditional contracting models of Lump Sum and Cost Plus and suggested alternative contracting models which could meet both operator and contractor value drivers. The presentation by the students at the September workshop was excellent, and attracted very complimentary remarks from the industry professionals in attendance. The project has provided Decom North Sea with a valuable perspective that is recognised as being independently researched and analysed, and which makes some realistic recommendations on possible future development of industry models. These recommendations will now be discussed and debated at the October decommissioning conference in Dunblane, which in turn could possibly lead to the identification of a model that could be worked up by industry experts for adoption on future projects and programmes.
exhibitions pages 6 and 7 Members News: Proserv Offshore, CSL, People=Positive and DSL page 8 Member Listing