2015 Update of the Inventory of Oil and Gas Offshore Installations in the OSPAR Maritime Area

Data are available on ODIMS via:  https://odims.ospar.org/documents/378

Introduction

The OSPAR Oil and Gas Offshore database is an inventory of all oil and gas offshore installations, within the jurisdiction in the OSPAR maritime area, of the OSPAR Contracting Parties with this type of offshore installations on their continental shelves (Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom).

This inventory is prepared in accordance with OSPAR Decision 98/3 on the Disposal of Disused Offshore Installations (paragraph 6) which says that “Contracting Parties should report to the Commission by 31 December 1999 and every two years thereafter, relevant information on the offshore installations within their jurisdiction including, when appropriate, information on their disposal for inclusion in the inventory to be maintained by the Commission”. This inventory is available to the general public on the OSPAR web site (under “publications”).

Latest Update

The inventory was made for the first time in 1999 and the information in it was updated on 31 July 2001, on 31 July 2003, on 14 July 2005, on 1 July 2007, on 1 July 2009, on 1 August 2011 and on 1 February 2013. Since the 2005 update all the installations have been renumbered per Contracting Party.

Main Outcomes of the Database

The database shows that there are currently 1357 offshore installations operational in the OSPAR maritime area. Most of the operational installations are sub-sea steel installations (726) and fixed steel installations (545). There are 22 gravity-based concrete installations which are operational and 3 that have been decommissioned. Gravity-based concrete installations are identified as category (b) of disused offshore installations where derogations to OSPAR Decision 98/3 on decommissioning of offshore installations may be considered.

According to the latest update of the inventory, 156 installations have been decommissioned. Of these, 50 installations are subsea steel, 68 are fixed steel and 28 floating steel.

OSPAR Decision 98/3 on the disposal of offshore installations also contains a derogation category (a) for steel installations weighing more than ten thousand tonnes in air. In this category, derogation may be considered only for all or part of the footings of such installation. The database shows that 53 fixed steel installations with a substructure weighting more than 10 000 tonnes are recorded and 48 of them are still operational. The database also shows that 18 floating steel installations with a substructure weighting more than 10 000 tonnes are recorded and that 11 of them are operational.

Details of the location and status of Offshore Installations within the OSPAR maritime area, together with the water depth, operator, installation type and weight in 2015. Available via https://odims.ospar.org/layers/geonode:ospar_offshore_installations_2015_01_001