Oil and gas producers operating in the Gulf of Mexico will be required to set permanent plugs in nearly 3,500 nonproducing, completed wells with a subsurface safety valve in place and dismantle about 650 production platforms if they are no longer being used, US Department of the Interior officials announced.
"As part of our sustained effort to improve the safety of energy production on the Outer Continental Shelf and strengthen environmental protections, we are notifying offshore operators of their legal responsibility to decommission and dismantle their facilities when production is completed," US Interior Sec. Ken Salazar said as he and US Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement Director Michael R. Bromwich announced the requirement.
The order, which was issued in a notice to lessees, is effective Oct. 15. Salazar and Bromwich said it addresses what is known in the oil and gas industry as "idle iron"—wells, platforms, and pipelines that are no longer producing or providing exploration or support functions related to a producer's lease. Federal regulations require such facilities to be decommissioned in a timely manner and no later than 1 year after a lease expires.
"As infrastructure continues to age, the risk of damage increases. That risk increases substantially during storm season," Bromwich observed. "This initiative is the product of careful thought and analysis and requires that these wells, platforms, and pipelines are plugged and dismantled correctly and in a timely manner to substantially reduce such hazards."
In its announcement, DOI said that oil and gas producers historically have asserted that certain platforms, wells, and pipelines that have not been plugged might one day be used to support other active wells and facilities on the same lease. They were therefore reluctant to remove the equipment until they met the final decommissioning requirement (within a year of the lease's expiration or termination), which DOI said was sometimes years after the infrastructure's final use.
It said the new notice to lessees clarifies the federal regulations by mandating that any well that has not been used in the last 5 years must be plugged, and that association production platforms and pipelines must be decommissioned if they are no longer involved in E&P activities. Lease operators will have 120 days to submit a company-wide plan for decommissioning such facilities and wells under the latest order.
DOI said these plans must contain details for each well and facility, including specific dates for submission of related permits and for commencing and completing decommissioning work. After BOE has approved an operator's decommissioning plan, officials in the agency will track the progress of each company and of the industry as a whole, it said.
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