The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), with its regulatory priorities, aims to address the numerous challenges surrounding offshore decommissioning in Australia. Some of the most common ones include:

Decommissioning liability after title surrender

Australia's decommissioning industry appears to be lacking a fixed plan about its end-state, thereby affecting upcoming decommissioning projects. An additional disadvantage is NOPSEMA's recently introduced 'trailing liability' which enables former titleholders to be called back to work on residual work. Taking into account the immense costs and liability involved, the risk of future decommissioning liability following title relinquishment needs to be appropriately addressed by companies planning decommissioning campaigns. 

Dearth of experienced and skilled personnel

In its recent skills review, the Centre of Decommissioning Australia (CODA) recognised a significant shortcoming of resources in a number of areas including recycling and waste management, regulatory compliance management, decommissioning planning and reporting and stakeholder management and consultation. One major challenge is that the investment in oil and gas projects and renewable energy industry prevents the existing oil and gas workforce from transitioning their skills to decommissioning. It is therefore important for the government at a state level to address these issues and ensure that project work and revenue remains in Australia.

Limited onshore facilities

The availability of limited onshore facilities and ports that are capable of dismantling, recycling, disposing and handling massive topside and substructure loads is found to be a major challenge. In addition to this, the long distances and cost of chartering vessels have a significant impact on the cost and time of decommissioning. Building ports and onshore facilities that fulfil these purposes would help address these challenges.

Lack of vessel availability 

A limited supply of vessels poses a significant challenge for decommissioning project planning. This is exacerbated by ongoing oil and gas investments as well as emerging renewable energy projects like the offshore wind project. Promoting clarity and openness around upcoming decommissioning projects would therefore help titleholders to better plan and collaborate.