Regulatory Advisory

Context

NNF provided technical support to the regulatory body for oil activities in Angola, to ensure the management of well abandonment activities and decommissioning of offshore structures and equipment.

Based on the plug & abandonment (P&G) plans submitted by oil companies, the regulatory agency requested NNF for a technical-economic analysis of these plans to ensure they were in compliance with the current legal framework and that the expected costs listed by the operators to execute decommissioning and abandonment were in accordance with international benchmarks for these activities.

Action

The project consolidated a complete analysis of the abandonment plan for a given offshore asset. The company divided the analysis into three stages:

  • Methods and procedures
    • Technical analysis of the current regulatory framework, considering the best international practices;
    • Revision of regulatory standards.
  • Calculation Matrix (Abandonment Costs)
    • Listing and classification of the structures to be decommissioned and dismantled, as well as of wells to be plugged and abandoned;
    • Methodology and criteria for calculating abandonment costs;
    • Creation of a calculation matrix for well abandonment costs and dismantling of structures, in which the benchmark markets were Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil.
  • Waste Management
    • Evaluation of the Environmental Impact Study (EIS), Waste Management proposal and Inspection and Monitoring activities.

Concurrently with these activities, NNF, in partnership with academic institutions, conducted two training courses for the client's work group (Decommissioning of Structures and Abandonment of Wells), which totaled 70 hours.

Results

The consulting firm delivered a report containing methods and procedures to be implemented, criticisms, suggestions and improvement in the wording of relevant topics in the existing local decommissioning legislation. It also established a cost spreadsheet specifically for the analyzed offshore asset, taking into account the main international experiences in decommissioning. It also presented an evaluation and recommendations report on environmental subjects, notably the Environmental Impact Study, Waste Management and Inspection and Monitoring.

The work culminated in an overview of decommissioning operations in Angola. It also raised the prospect of the agency creating its own database, capable of promoting correlations between the mandatory reports submitted by the operators with the best practices in the global oil and gas market. Thus, it became possible to accurately assess the chances of extending the life of a field or to adequately prepare it for decommissioning and abandonment activities, ensuring the preservation of the environment and the country's economy.