Plan to Fully Decommission the Beatrice Oil Field
Tuesday 30 May 2017
Plans are being put together to fully decommission the Beatrice oil field in the Moray Firth.
Production at the field has ceased and it has been proposed to remove the platform complex, two demonstrator wind turbines, and cables.
These operations could take place between 2024 and 2027.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) had an interest in using the complex as a training facility, but it has decided not to pursue this idea further.
This decision means a decommissioning programme approved by the UK government in 2004 has been updated and widened out to include the removal of the field's platforms and other structures.
Energy company Repsol Sinopec Resources UK has set out details of the planned decommissioning and uploaded an environmental impact assessment scoping report online.
The field, about 13 miles (22km) off the Caithness coast, forms part of the site of a massive offshore wind farm project.
The planned decommissioning project involves the removal of five platform structures and power cables.
Forty three wells in the field are to be "plugged" and abandoned.