UK Oil and Gas Industry Association : New guidance aids decommissioning planning

January 4, 2018

An industry workgroup has issued new guidance that will help companies plan decommissioning more efficiently.

Common Data Access (CDA) - the Oil & Gas UK subsidiary that provides shared services for the management of UKCS well and seismic data - has worked with the Shell Brent Decommissioning Project and the School of Law at the University of Aberdeen to create the first publicly available 'records retention schedule' for use in oil and gas decommissioning, helping operators determine what information must be retained after an offshore installation has been removed from the field.

Daniel Brown, Manager, CDA Projects, said: 'Over the 40-plus year lifespan of an offshore asset, many thousands of boxes of physical records, and millions of electronic files are created.

'Once the asset is removed to be dismantled, many of the records associated with it are no longer required - but deciding what must be retained, and what may lawfully be destroyed, is not a simple task.

'Over the last 18 months we've pooled our understanding of what data and documents must be kept to comply with UK laws and regulations.

'The resulting example retention schedule and accompanying guidance provide a starting point for operators to determine their individual record retention requirements. Over time it may become a standard framework that the diverse range of companies now operating on the UKCS can work to.

'A freely available records retention schedule is a first for the oil and gas industry, and we hope it will prove a great time saver as companies seek to meet their legal obligations while recognising their individual business drivers to retain or dispose of asset information.

'We hope companies find the schedule and guidance useful in helping them increase the efficiency of their decommissioning planning while avoiding the substantial cost of retaining asset data and documentation for years longer than needed.'

The legislation review, example schedule and accompanying guidance document are now available for download from cdal.com.

A workshop will be held in March 2018 to present current understanding on records retention requirements and to get feedback on the new guidance.
For more information about the documents or to attend the workshop contact Daniel Brown at [e-mail].

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Issued by the Communications Team, Oil & Gas UK. Contact Communications Adviser Lucy Buglass on 020 7802 2404 / [e-mail]

CDA, a subsidiary of Oil & Gas UK, supplies the UK oil and gas industry with shared services for managing UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) subsurface information. It provides a secure collection of well and seismic data, contributing to the industry's collaborative efforts to maximise economic recovery from the UKCS.

Oil & Gas UK is the leading representative organisation for the UK offshore oil and gas industry. Its membership comprises oil and gas producers and contractor companies.