Brent Field Topsides Decommissioning Programme
Tuesday 7 August 2018
After more than 40 years of production, the Brent Field is reaching the end of its economically-viable life. There are no viable alternative uses for any of the installations in future oil and gas production, whether from the Brent Field or from other adjacent hydrocarbon reserves. The installations in the Brent Field must, therefore, be decommissioned.
The decommissioning of the Brent Field, which comprises four platforms, twenty-eight pipelines and four subsea structures with a total mass of approximately 1.8 million tonnes, has required an extensive period of planning and consultation which started in 2006. Permitted programmes of work (plugging and making safe the wells, dismantling the topsides) are now being undertaken offshore and onshore, and it is planned that all the decommissioning work will be completed by about 2023.