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

Building a world-class Australian decommissioning industry

Kym Bills
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Western Australian Energy Research Alliance, PO Box 1130, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia. Email: kym.bills@waera.com.au

The APPEA Journal 58(2) 690-694 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ17154
Accepted: 9 March 2018   Published: 28 May 2018

Abstract

Collaboration in decommissioning offshore infrastructure could save both industry and taxpayers billions of dollars and facilitate new industries and exports for Australia, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. At the end of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant construction boom, Australia must not miss out on this major new opportunity.

The 2017 bid for Commonwealth funding to establish a Decommissioning Offshore Infrastructure Cooperative Research Centre (DOI-CRC) involved more than 30 participants and many other collaborators. High-level commitments were made by Chevron, Woodside, Shell, BHP, ExxonMobil, Quadrant, The University of Western Australia, Curtin University, the University of New South Wales, Deakin University, Australian Maritime College, CSIRO and Australian Institute of Marine Science. A Perth-based DOI-CRC was supported by National Energy Resources Australia, National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority and other Australian Government bodies and by the Western Australian Government and its Chief Scientist and agencies but did not receive sufficient support from the CRC Advisory Committee.

Meeting decommissioning challenges in the North West Shelf, Bass Strait and the Northern Territory in a timely, robust, scientific, efficient and cost-effective manner that contributes to a sustainable marine environment should draw upon and augment international best practice with local capability and expertise. Good science and innovative engineering are needed to support regulatory approval of options such as ‘rigs to reefs’ and commercial opportunities such as in waste management and expanded fishing and tourism.

APPEA and operators wish to maintain DOI-CRC’s momentum and learn from UK research arrangements through funding marine science projects. But we must be much broader if we are to build a sustainable world-class Australian decommissioning industry. In particular, we need to work more closely with state and federal regulators and policymakers and undertake more engineering science research and innovation.

Keywords: abandonment, ALARP, APPEA, Bass Strait, collaboration, comparative assessment, CRC, CSIRO, Curtin, DMIRS, DOI-CRC, INSITE, LNG, NOPSEMA, North West Shelf, Oil & Gas UK, offshore infrastructure, offshore oil and gas, petroleum resource rent tax, PRRT, R&D, regulation, rigs to reefs, UWA, WA, WA:ERA.

Kym Bills was CEO of the 2017 bid to establish a Decommissioning Offshore Infrastructure Cooperative Research Centre (DOI-CRC). He has been CEO of the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance (WA:ERA) – a joint venture of CSIRO, Curtin University and The University of Western Australia – since 2011. He was a member of the NOPSA, NOPSEMA, AMSA and ANL Ltd boards and was the foundation head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau based in Canberra for its first decade from 1999 to 2009. Previously, he had been head of the Commonwealth Government’s Maritime Policy Division. In 2009, he investigated the billion-dollar Varanus Island gas pipeline explosions with then WA:ERA Chair David Agostini AM. In 2010 and 2011 he was engaged by the Department of Resources, Energy & Tourism as a consultant to federal and state/NT ministers to progress national mine safety reform linked to the model Work Health and Safety Act. He is past Chair of the Western Australian Branch of the Safety Institute of Australia. Kym holds degrees from the University of Adelaide, Flinders University, Oxford University, the Australian National University and Charles Sturt University, and is a fellow of seven professional bodies (FAICD, FAIM, FAIE, FSIA, FCILT, FRGS, FRAI) and a member of many others including SPE, SUT, IFAP, IPAA and the Petroleum Club of WA. He originally trained as an economist and diplomat.


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