BSEE decommissioning cost estimates in the shallow water US Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has collected decommissioning expenditure data from operators in the US Gulf of Mexico since 2016 to estimate the decommissioning liability of federal leases. BSEE uses the collected data to estimate the expected decommissioning cost for every active wellbore, structure, and pipeline segment in federal waters but does not otherwise disclose the statistical results of their data collection efforts or methods employed in cost estimation. The task of this paper is to summarise BSEE decommissioning cost estimates in the shallow water US Gulf of Mexico for each of the main decommissioning stages and to infer unit cost statistics and cost functions in the region. Fixed platform removals are expected to cost on average $977,000 in water depth less than 30 m and up to $3.6 million in water depth from 61 to 122 m, about three times more expensive than caisson removals in similar water depth.