A portfolio approach to decommissioning

'Changing the lens’ and ‘flipping the script’ are just two of the ways that I’ve heard TAQA’s portfolio-wide offshore decommissioning strategy in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) being described. With one of the largest portfolios of infrastructure to be decommissioned in the North Sea, and the only operator in the basin focused solely on late-life operations and decommissioning, TAQA is taking the opportunity to do things differently.

Although the UK energy sector continues to face significant uncertainty, the pace and direction of North Sea decommissioning are clear. The requirement to proceed quickly provides a rare sense of certainty within an otherwise evolving energy landscape and we are embracing this reality, turning it into an opportunity for innovation and leadership.

Given the scale of our decommissioning responsibilities, it would have been easy to view the task one asset at a time. Instead, however, we chose to step back and engineer an approach built around a programmatic, portfolio level view of the task – a model that we believe offers valuable lessons for the future of North Sea decommissioning activities.

Central to TAQA’s strategic approach is the recognition that decommissioning is more than simply the removal of assets. Done well, programme level decommissioning can protect capability, sustain good jobs, reduce costs, strengthen supply chain resilience and create meaningful opportunities to carry us all into the next energy era. Portfolio-scale decommissioning enables:

• Cost reduction through economies of scale, repeatability and learning transfer.
• Supply chain resilience through long-term visibility and continuity of work.
• Workforce sustainability through sustained demand for specialist skills.
• Innovation through the commercial and organisational space to invest in new methods.
• Global competitiveness by positioning UK companies as leaders in large-scale decommissioning.

From projects to programmes

Given the extensive scale and complexity of TAQA UK’s infrastructure, with assets at various interdependent stages of their life cycles, decommissioning each asset individually would be impractical. This approach would result in competition for the same limited resources – such as vessels, specialised personnel, and facilities – across assets simultaneously undergoing late-life operations, well plug and abandonment (P&A), preparation for removal, active removal, and post-removal activities. By treating these stages as interconnected within a broader programme, we avoid fragmented resource allocation and ensure a more efficient, coordinated decommissioning process.

Consequently, we took the decision not to decommission one asset at a time but to change the nature of the challenge. Moving from individual projects to a more integrated, sequenced, and sustained methodology, we are progressing the safe decommissioning of multiple assets at various stages of their life cycles, simultaneously.

With a move from project management to programme management, the critical question is no longer ‘How do we remove this platform?’, rather, it is: ‘How do we sequence dozens of complex scopes across multiple assets so that vessels, people, approvals and supply chain capacity are aligned, year after year, without interruption?’

Back to the future

Programme planning for all four of our Northern North Sea assets ceasing production in 2024, and our Central North Sea assets by 2027, began back in 2017, with major investment in feasibility studies to provide us with a clear understanding across our entire portfolio. From this early stage, we engaged with our supply chain, regulatory authorities and other stakeholders, all prior to tendering. Combined with transparent data sharing, this enabled us to optimise design and maximise efficiencies, and our suppliers had time and space to think differently. Instead of asking suppliers, ‘how will you execute our design’, we wanted our partners to help us design the most efficient programme.

The value of this early-stage planning and engagement has been critical to programme success. One example of this is demonstrated by data revealed in a North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) league table, published in December 2025, in which TAQA is shown to have decommissioned 99% of the 164 wells within the consent deadline. This is compared with an industry average of just 59%.

A review of the wider work programme undertaken across our portfolio throughout 2025 also shows this in action. In short, we made tangible progress across a wide range of complex scopes. We safely disembarked North Cormorant and reached Cessation of Production (CoP) and disembarkation on East Brae. We commenced a multi-year, multi-field subsea wells P&A campaign, while platform P&A activity progressed on Brae Alpha and Cormorant Alpha. In the Central North Sea, we completed de-energisation activities, flushing and isolating the Braemar, Devenick and East Brae pipelines. We also awarded the Brae Alpha EPRD contract and, in October, successfully completed the Eider EPRD topsides removal.

Read the full article in the July/August issue of Oilfield Technology Magazine.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/special-reports/29092026/a-portfolio-approach-to-decommissioning/