UK’s oil & gas regulator gets new head of decommissioning

UK’s offshore oil and gas industry regulator, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), has named a new head of decommissioning.

The OGA said on Monday that it named Nils Cohrs to replace the acting head of decommissioning Gunther Newcombe, who will continue in his permanent role as operations director.

To remind, the OGA said mid-July that Newcombe became the acting head of decommissioning following the departure of Jim Christie at the end of June. During the recruitment period, he also supported Terri King of ConocoPhillips on the Decommissioning Task Force.

The OGA added that the Head of Decommissioning leads the Decommissioning team within the Operations Directorate and reports to the Director of Operations.

Regarding the appointment, Newcombe said on Monday: “Nils has a wealth of industry experience gained over the last 35 years, both in the UK and overseas, including as OIM on the Brent platform. He has knowledge of carbon capture and gas storage, asset and business management and a solid understanding of decommissioning.”

Cohrs, whose most recent role was the production and asset manager in Kurdistan Iraq, added: “I am really excited to be joining the OGA and look forward to working with industry and government in improving the efficiency and reducing the cost of decommissioning.”