At an industrial dockyard in southwest Norway, decommissioned oil platforms are slowly being dismantled for a second life in the circular economy.
Three gigantic disused platforms stand at the docks in the island community of Stord, where they are being dismantled piece by piece – up to 98 percent of their total 40,000 tonnes are recyclable.
“If you come here in a year and a half, you won’t see anything,” says Sturla Magnus, a senior official at Aker Solutions, a group that specializes in the construction and dismantling of oil platforms.
Behind him, workers in hard hats and neon jackets are busy on the three structures: the platform from the Gyda field, which was closed in 2020, and two others who have paid their dues on the Valhall field, which is still in operation.
When security checks are complete and electrical appliances and hazardous materials such as asbestos are removed, the rest, the giant empty shells, are left to powerful cutting machines.
The most attractive waste is the tens of thousands of tons of high quality steel that can be reused on new oil platforms, other industrial structures or offshore wind turbines.
“This is steel that has to withstand the harsh weather conditions in the North Sea. In other words, this is the best there is,” says Thomas Nygard, Deconstruction Project Manager at Aker Solutions.
While the company is a player in the highly polluting oil industry and still makes more oil installations than it demolishes, it advocates recycling.
According to various estimates, one kilogram of recycled steel produces 58 to 70 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than one kilogram of new steel.
– 10,000 plants to dismantle –
The North Sea is one of the oldest offshore oil and gas basins in the world and is gradually being depleted. Many of the oil platforms there are nearing the end of their useful lives.
In a 2021 report, industry body Oil and Gas UK (OGUK), which has since renamed itself Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), predicted that more than a million tonnes of North Sea platforms would need to be dismantled by the end of the decade.
It’s a big market and one that’s growing. A few years ago, OGUK forecast 200,000 tons.
“If you look globally, it’s probably close to 10,000 installations that will eventually come back to shore,” says Magnus.
The current workload of Aker Solutions is planned until 2028.
In the meantime, some platforms are maintained despite their advanced age.
One of Norway’s oldest platforms, Statfjord A, has been in operation since 1979. She was scheduled to be decommissioned in 2022, but oil giant Equinor decided in 2020 to extend her lifespan to 2027.
The same applies to two other platforms in the same field, Statfjord B and C, which are only a few years younger but have been extended to 2035.
The pardon is due to the remaining oil reserves believed to be “substantial,” a decision that has certainly been sugar-coated by soaring oil prices.
– environmental commitment –
Even so, even some environmental activists balk at the complete disappearance of platforms.
The earliest installations were made with legs made of concrete – metal was preferred for later models – and according to the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth, the cement’s rough, pockmarked surface made it suitable for “fantastic” artificial corals.
“Anyone who has ever worked on a platform will tell you: there are a lot of big fish living nearby because there is no industrial fishing and the fish can live up to 10 years,” says the group’s marine biologist, Per- Eric Schulze.
The organization has therefore called for the concrete pillars to be left at sea, as difficult as they are to uproot. The rest can be mined and marine sanctuaries created around the sites.
After decades of siphoning the depths of the oceans, Norway’s oil sector may end up helping to protect them – if only a little.
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