Seabed Concrete Mattress Recovery Decommissioning Opportunity
Scottish supply chain companies are being asked to propose solutions for the recovery of concrete mattresses from the seabed as part of the offshore oil and gas decommissioning programme jointly developed by private sector economic development company Opportunity North East (ONE) and Scottish Enterprise (SE).
The fourth decommissioning opportunity in the programme addresses seabed concrete mattress recovery, sponsored by Fairfield Energy, and SMEs are invited to submit propositions by 29 April 2019. Further information can be found here.
When decommissioning an offshore facility, the licensees have an obligation to remediate the site of subsea infrastructure. This typically requires the removal and recovery of a large number of concrete mattresses that were placed there to construct, stabilise and protect the subsea infrastructure within the platform and subsea development 500m safety zones. At this point, activity within the 500m safety zone will be post-hydrocarbon risk, minimising any impacts caused by the platform and subsea infrastructure still being in-situ. Mattresses are removed to reduce exposure to future users of the sea and also to provide access to infrastructure, and have traditionally been recovered by controlled marine handling and lifting supported by divers and ROVs.
Propositions are sought to resolve the full scope of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) mattress removal challenges (i.e. from removal to shore) although solutions that have restrictions, e.g. working marine environments or water depth, will be considered if deemed suitable for significant elements of scopes.
Submissions to the programme will be reviewed by an industry panel with successful applicants going on to pitch their solutions to operators. Support will be provided to selected applicants throughout the process, including one-to-one support to build business cases and to develop the operator pitches.
The programme aims to give successful applicants access to and feedback from the end-user operators, improved understanding of operator needs, improved business cases and business development support. Operator sponsors gain access to targeted solutions focused on their future project needs, which can inform their related procurement and contracting strategies.
For further information, contact Keith Mackie, SME Development Manager – Oil, Gas & Energy, Opportunity North East