ABSTRACT
Many offshore oil/gas installations are at the end of their useful lives and require decommissioning. The process involves shutting down wells, cutting, lifting, moving components and these activities can cause adverse effects on the environment. Today the operators of an installation must perform an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and have plans in place for decommissioning. A most useful approach would be to incorporate decommissioning requirements at the design stage or adopt the concept of Design for Decommissioning (DfD) methodology. This paper gives the main features in applying this methodology. These features include a full examination of the installation in question, before a removal method is selected. An EIA is then conducted to determine the risk of each hazard present during the decommissioning operations, the critical ones would be selected for risk reduction by through each phase of the installation’s lifecycle. It is at the design phase that fresh methods and barriers would be introduced to enhance the care of the environment during decommissioning operations.
