NewswireToday - /newswire/ - London, United Kingdom, 08/06/2007 - Eddie Grant MD. of Norse Cutting & Abandonment and a veteran with more than 20 years in the Offshore decommissioning industry will be speaking about the challenges faced by contractors in the UKCS at the 4th Annual Decommissioning Conference 2007.

Decommissioning remains an expensive fact of life.

There are over 500 oil and gas installations in the UKCS and as the old cliché states – what goes up must come down. With a price tag of well in excess of $420,000,000 decommissioning is an issue that will not go away.

When asked to comment on the current state of decommissioning in the UKCS, Eddie Grant of Norse Cutting & Abandonment and a veteran with more than 20 years in the Offshore decommissioning industry said “Redundant structure may come to the end of their lives but will not fade away. Decommissioning although important is generally classed as a 'dead money' industry, this said only forward thinking 'specialist' companies who are prepared to invest in decommissioning technologies will succeed. Unfortunately most of the good ideas emanate from within SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) who cannot afford huge R&D costs therefore the operators need to have a financial assistance structure in place to assist with the good ideas to bring them to the market place.

Mr Grant went on to comment on the ITF (Industrial Technology Facilitators) which is funded by some operators does seek out innovative technologies but not specifically for decommissioning.

It can be difficult for the operators to give financial assistance at the tendering stage as it can be seen as giving a specialist company preferential treatment in assisting to win a contract therefore assistance for good ideas needs to be given perhaps by a consortium of operators before such an event.

Finally Mr Grant focused on the role of conferences in the decommissioning debate.

Over the years there has been many discussions and conferences in the decommissioning market however in my view there has historically been too much talk and not enough action. This is mainly due to the fact that decommissioning keeps being deferred [this said I still feel] it is vitally important that we continue to have decommissioning events such as EyeforEnergy Annual Decommissioning Conference (eyeforenergy.com) where like minded individuals can discuss the challenges ahead in areas such as remote cutting technologies top discover solutions.

We should not be seen as the 'undertakers' but more as the 'caretakers' looking after the environment.”

Mr. Grant and a number of other leading figures in the UKCS will speak at EyeforEnergy’s 4th Annual North Sea decommissioning conference which will take place on the 23-24th of October in Aberdeen.

This press release continues the thought whereby decommissioning technologies should be implemented to reveal their real benefits.

Agency / Source: CPVtoday.com / FC Business Intelligence

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