Offshore staff
LONDON — Britain’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) will remove the current requirements for offshore operators to submit Cessation of Production (CoP) reports.
Operators were obliged to provide details of production history, the recovery factor, operational costs, a decommissioning schedule outline and potential for reuse of infrastructure. The purpose was to determine whether a field had achieved the maximum possible economic recovery, with all prospectivity in the area developed.
According to the NSTA, the CoP preparation could occupy two members of an operator’s staff for up to six months. But the NSTA's revised stewardship survey, and data drawn from other sources, mean the information is still being obtained, with no need to report it twice.
In certain cases where the NSTA does perceive a need for further information, it may use the stewardship strategy for targeted reviews.
Last year operators submitted 25 CoP reports, with on average 16 issued annually over the past five years. Dispensing with the process should save the industry millions of pounds, the NSTA said, adding that the reports were never published as they contained commercially confidential material (although operators could use some of the information when submitting a Relinquishment Report).
Time freed up should allow operators to focus more on other priorities, such as carbon capture and storage stewardship, electrification and hydrogen, the NSTA concluded.
NSTA's area manager Brenda Wyllie said, “It is important that the NSTA and industry adapt to changing priorities and review our workflows for efficiency savings.”
11.01.2022
