CODA has appointed six industry leaders to form the organisation’s inaugural Supervisory Committee to bring increased strategic focus and expertise to the efforts to address the challenges and opportunities of decommissioning Australia’s aging oil and gas infrastructure.
Speaking in advance of the official announcement at SEAAOC — one of Australia’s largest and longest established petroleum conferences — CODA General Manager Decommissioning and Strategy, Dr Francis Norman, said the Committee’s appointment marked a change of gear for CODA.
The support and input from a group of such experienced and engaged industry leaders will help accelerate CODA’s ability to work across the whole of Australian industry to build our domestic capability to address our own decommissioning needs, as well as position Australia to become a significant partner in the region’s decommissioning work,” he said.
The Committee, which will form the heart of CODA’s strategic focus and decision-making, consists of:
- Richard Perry — Decommissioning Manager, ExxonMobil Australia
- David Banks — Chief Technical & Marketing Officer, Santos Ltd
- Jay Southwell — APAC Subsea Services leader, Baker Hughes
- Brian Matthews — Marine, Subsea & Automation Manager, IAS Group.
- Ineke Reyboz — Contracts and Commercial Consultant (independent member)
- Harvey Johnstone — Environment Director, International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (independent member)
CODA, established in March, is uniquely positioned to drive collaboration in Australia’s oil and gas industry to collectively answer strategic questions about decommissioning options based on technical, safety and environmental knowledge. CODA’s research shows there is more than $50 billion of necessary offshore decommissioning work to be done — over half of which is anticipated to be started within the next ten years.
“By applying research from the National Decommissioning Research Initiative, we and our industry partners will ensure Australia’s future decommissioning activity will be built on independent and sound scientific research, providing the best possible outcomes for industry, environment and community,” said Dr Norman.
“Work’s progressing quickly to establish a secure and sustainable future for CODA built on strong, collaborative and trust-based relationships across all the parties who will play a vital role on the decommissioning journey,” he added.
Commenting on his appointment to the new Committee Richard Perry, Decommissioning Manager, ExxonMobil Australia, said: “After an extensive history of successful resource development and energy supply across Australia, our national fields are starting to reach the end of their productive life leading to the dawn of a new industry, and with it, some fantastic opportunities.”
“With the broad geographical expanse between major basins in Australia, CODA will be a crucial conduit to enable growth of this industry to be optimised for all parties throughout the supply chain and it is very exciting to be part of this journey.”
Baker Hughes’ Jay Southwell added: “The decommissioning era within Australia is swiftly gaining momentum, but it’s a complex subject. Strategic complexity requires an evolution in the way we share project and service information.”
“With the launch of CODA, we now have a great opportunity to collaborate, share best global practices and make a real difference to support the Australian decommissioning sector to permit the safe removal of assets without impacting the environment.”
CODA has been established to grow capability and capacity to service Australia’s decommissioning needs and capture work in the Asia-Pacific market that could create thousands of jobs and generate billions in economic growth for the nation.
As part of this, contracts for CODA foundation phase projects have been recently awarded. Due for delivery in early 2022, these projects will build knowledge and understanding of the local decommissioning and recycling capability, provide Australian industry with an easily accessible digest of international best practice that can be used locally, and set out a pathway for innovation and new technologies for the industry.
The projects are as follows:
- Understanding the opportunity for local disposal and recycling pathways — Advisian
- Development of a decommissioning innovation and technology roadmap — Linch-pin
- Global review of decommissioning planning and execution learnings — Advisian
These projects, along with other work being progressed by CODA, represent critical early stage building blocks in delivering CODA’s objective of maximising value for Australia from decommissioning activities.
