PE Live: Decommissioning throws up opportunities

Picking up the tab for end-of-life liabilities is inevitably a thorny issue in a mature basin. But decommissioning offers pros as well as cons

“The decommissioning issue has been vexing everyone in the industry for decades.” John Conlin, partner at law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, does not mince his words on the magnitude of the subject. It touches on “almost every activity, from field development through to M&A and onto the funding of decommissioning security agreements”, says Conlin. “And I think it could be a potential opportunity for the UK continental shelf [UKCS] and its supply chain. If you look at the current cost estimates for decommissioning in the basin, it is c.$50bn. “That presents a potential growth story for specialist companies focused solely on decommissioning solutions, such as Petrodec or Fairfield Decom