9:00 am
10:00 am
Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi
6300 Ocean Drive
Corpus Christi, TX 78412
DISSERTATION SEMINAR NOTICE
COASTAL AND MARINE SYSTEM SCIENCE PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-CORPUS CHRISTI
SUBJECT: Status, strategies and cost management of offshore oil rig decommissioning and rigs-to-reefs programs in the Gulf of Mexico: Addressing decommissioning challenges using a multi-criteria approach
SPEAKER: Elena K. Keen
CHAIR: Dr. Richard McLaughlin
COMMITTEE: Dr. Alex Sadovski, Dr. Anita Reed, Dr. Brooke Shipley
Offshore oil and gas decommissioning financial issues in the Gulf of Mexico have escalated over the past two years into a substantial problem for the U.S. regulatory agencies BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) and BSEE (Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement) under the Department of the Interior. Although oil and gas structural material is required to be removed by both the lease contract and U.S. and international law, significant delays have occurred recently due to insufficient decommissioning funds. This research takes an in depth look at this dilemma. It provides a broad overview of history and background, legal matters, and international perspectives. Financial topics that are all playing a role on a large scale such as cost estimation, disclosure and liability are also discussed. Finally, two actual platform case studies will be presented that highlight the complexities of developing decommissioning strategies. A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) model is applied to these scenarios, incorporating both expert and stakeholder views, generating an optimal ‘best option’ decommissioning result. The goal of implementation of the MCDA model is to showcase one possible solution to an often controversial subject, which allows unlimited inclusion to generate the final result.