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Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Australia’s 2024 decommissioning landscape

Francis Norman A * and Shaun Sadler A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Centre of Decommissioning Australia (CODA), Perth, WA, Australia.




Dr Francis Norman is the CEO and Managing Director of the Centre of Decommissioning Australia (CODA). Prior to taking the inaugural CEO position with CODA, Francis worked as General Manager with National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) from 2016 to 2021, joining NERA following a 30 year career holding engineering and executive positions in a global engineering and project delivery company which saw him holding a number of long term international postings. Francis is a Fellow and past WA Division President of Engineers Australia, a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM). He holds an MSc in Project Management and a PhD in Management.



Dr Shaun Sadler is currently General Manager at Centre of Decommissioning Australia (CODA). Shaun has over 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, working for start-ups, mid-caps and global multi-national E&P organisations worldwide. From a background in geoscience, technical management and opportunity leadership, he has pursued more diverse leadership pathways, including emissions management and innovation strategy. Shaun has a BSc in Applied Geology from the University of Plymouth (UK) and PhD in sedimentology and basin analysis from the National University of Ireland.

Australian Energy Producers Journal 64 S78-S80 https://doi.org/10.1071/EP23062
Accepted: 14 March 2024  Published: 16 May 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of Australian Energy Producers.

Abstract

Australia’s decommissioning workload has continued to grow at a pace in the past year, several scopes are now awarded, and significant progress is being achieved on a number of studies. However, there is still a lot to do for Australia to deliver its decommissioning outcomes efficiently, safely and to best achievable standards. This paper will provide an update on decommissioning developments across Australia as well as highlighting some key activities helping grow a sustainable local industry. Coming off a low historic volume of activity of the previous decade, Australia’s decommissioning industry has had to rapidly scale and skill-up to address the significant volume of activity anticipated for the remainder of the decade. This increase has impacted the entire value chain, with everyone struggling to find experienced staff, access technologies and secure the all-important vessels to execute the work. Government is moving to support local companies grow into the industry. Regulators are working to balance societal expectations and industry plans. The service sector is mobilising into Australia, and everyone is looking for access to facilities to land equipment and to understand recycling and disposal chains. Meanwhile the workforce, keen to understand where to position themselves for the energy transition, are looking for opportunities. CODA has continued to work strategically to build the local industry. In the past 12 months, CODA has been developing a new online lookahead, completed several port studies, started to map industry skills needs and looked deeper into materials disposal and recycling.

Keywords: decommissioning, disposal, ESG, infrastructure development, recycling, regional development, supply chain capacity, technology.

Biographies

EP23062_B1.gif

Dr Francis Norman is the CEO and Managing Director of the Centre of Decommissioning Australia (CODA). Prior to taking the inaugural CEO position with CODA, Francis worked as General Manager with National Energy Resources Australia (NERA) from 2016 to 2021, joining NERA following a 30 year career holding engineering and executive positions in a global engineering and project delivery company which saw him holding a number of long term international postings. Francis is a Fellow and past WA Division President of Engineers Australia, a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM). He holds an MSc in Project Management and a PhD in Management.

EP23062_B2.gif

Dr Shaun Sadler is currently General Manager at Centre of Decommissioning Australia (CODA). Shaun has over 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, working for start-ups, mid-caps and global multi-national E&P organisations worldwide. From a background in geoscience, technical management and opportunity leadership, he has pursued more diverse leadership pathways, including emissions management and innovation strategy. Shaun has a BSc in Applied Geology from the University of Plymouth (UK) and PhD in sedimentology and basin analysis from the National University of Ireland.

References

CODA (2024a) Skills Review for the Australian Oil and Gas Decommissioning Industry. Retrieved from https://www.decommissioning.org.au/work/australian-skills-review/

CODA (2024b) Western Australia Decommissioning Hub Location Study. Retrieved from https://www.decommissioning.org.au/work/wa-hub-study/