Lloyd’s Register Adds Director of Asset Management and Decommissioning

Lloyd’s Register (LR) has appointed Steve Gilbert to lead its asset management and decommissioning operations programme internationally for operators and manufacturers in the oil and gas sector.

Steve will be based in Aberdeen and brings a wealth of experience to the job, having spent more than 25 years in the industry.

“Assessing the cost of late life asset management and decommissioning for operators in the UKCS and everywhere else in the world, is a real challenge. These costs are heavily influenced by the nature of the asset, the status of the global and local market, changes in technology, local regulation and many other inflationary pressures,” said Gilbert. “Making the right choice regarding decommissioning is a crucial decision.”

Gilbert highlights that a key issue for operators is deferral, concentrating resource and maintenance effort and spend where it is most required in order to minimize the risk.

“Determining the nature, timing and sequence of asset management, and ending the life of a field or facility in the most cost effective way, requires specialist knowledge of the reservoir, well design and production properties through to the drill package, processing equipment and vessel use. We have this unique capability in LR built up over many years from the investments we have made in companies such as ModuSpec, Scandpower, West Engineering and more recently Senergy to provide a high-level of engineering expertise across the oil and gas value chain including ship recycling and nuclear.”

“Significant effort is being focused on the oil and gas industry right now to help those companies that want to seek out maximum efficiencies to realize better value and better performance, especially around in-depth asset knowledge, residual value determination and decommissioning cost liabilities. This approach using our expertise can lead to cost savings that encourage future investment in older fields making it easier for companies to compete in the market. It is an exciting time of opportunity for industry and for LR’s experts in this specialist area,” added Gilbert.