Jose Luis Muñoz talks to Vitality Voice on Repsol Sinopec Sources UK ramping up decommissioning, the challenges of “continual underinvestment” within the sector, and the agency’s $1 billion near-term plan for North Sea tasks.

Decommissioning is a £46 billion business for the North Sea, and Repsol Sinopec Sources UK has one of many largest portfolios of belongings on the market.

“We now have been dismantling websites however, when it comes to scale, now could be the second through which is that this going to be taking off,” stated chief govt Jose Luis Muñoz.

The following 5 years alone will see the operator perform a variety of actions, together with the whole abandonment of 100 wells within the North Sea, and decommissioning of the onshore oil terminal at Nigg within the Cromarty Firth.

Repsol Sinopec estimates its programme forward can be one of many prime, if not the most important, units of decommissioning work for the business over the following 5 years – doubtlessly for the following decade.

“I believe when it comes to scale I believe it’s going to be prime three,” stated Muñoz.

“It’s going to be about P&A (plugging and abandonment) of a lot of wells within the years to return, we’re going to transition a lot of websites in the direction of unmanned set up mode and we’re going to be dismantling infrastructure.

“So undoubtedly for us it’s a turning level. It’s additionally going to be in regards to the basin as a complete, however we’re going to be one of many front-runners opening the trail for the remaining to return.”

Together with Nigg, latest decom headlines for RSRUK have included plans for the Saltire discipline, in addition to P&A of wells on Fulmar.

Simply as the corporate can be a “front-runner”, so will the UK North Sea set the tempo for oil and gasoline areas all over the world for decommissioning experience.

That’s going to imply alternative for the provision chain, and viable long-term profession choices for younger folks getting into the business for many years, stated Muñoz, a far-cry from what some understand as a “sundown” sector.

Priorities

RSRUK itself intends to create new roles to extend its present decommissioning assets by 70%, spanning mid-career stage jobs to administration positions.

“The basin goes to be one of many front-runners at world stage, so there’s alternative for the basin, but additionally for the folks to concentrate on an space the place there can be a lot of basins throughout the globe following after. There’s undoubtedly a possibility for folks to get after and develop knowledgeable profile that’s going to be fairly thrilling.

“There are a selection of belongings – within the UK we’re in all probability speaking about 500 websites, we’re speaking about a lot of fields, and we’re speaking about 1000’s and 1000’s of pipelines.”

The agency’s first duties, nonetheless, are to evaluate alternatives for late life extension and repurposing.

As each decommissioning and the broader vitality transition decide up tempo, Muñoz expects completely different enterprise fashions to be co-existing, but additionally “competing” for prime precedence: late life administration, decommissioning and vitality transition, because it pertains to decarbonisation and repurposing of belongings.

That comes as RSRUK plans an funding programme of greater than $1 billion for its core UK belongings together with the Flotta Catchment Space and the Bleo Holm FPSO.

Life extension has been on RSRUK’s agenda for a very long time now, and, going ahead, this may proceed to be depending on points together with emissions and value effectivity.

“For lots of the belongings again in 2015 we thought we must reduce them within the subsequent three years, however they’re nonetheless producing, working and delivering worth for us.”

Muñoz doesn’t count on the formidable targets of the North Sea Transition Deal (NSTD), which mandates drastic emissions reductions, to impression the cessation of manufacturing dates for RSRUK’s belongings.

Decarbonisation is RSRUK’s “first precedence”, he stated, proudly noting that the corporate set a goal years in the past to chop emissions by 35% by 2025, a objective it has already reached.

The agency can be concerned in early stage work with different operators on electrification within the North Sea.

“For me, it’s extra a query of how one can be environment friendly and that is going to be the important thing lever to ensure that our belongings are going to have the ability to lengthen their operational life, as we now have been doing over the past 5 years.”

One latest instance of life extension in motion was information that Ithaca Vitality and Hibiscus Petroleum is working to ship barrels for his or her Yeoman/ Marigold venture through the Piper Bravo platform north-east of Aberdeen.

The Marigold cluster alone is predicted to have the ability to ship in extra of 40 million barrels of oil, with extra on prime of that from Yeoman.

Third-party enterprise will proceed to be key to extending the lifetime of the belongings, Muñoz stated.

“We are attempting to ensure that each single barrel round our hubs, we’re going to be the pure host.

“5, six years in the past it was tough for us to seize these barrels. By way of effectivity there was a interval through which we have been unable to ship very effectively. However after a lot of years of enchancment, of turnaround, I believe that we’re undoubtedly the pure host.”

A part of that $1bn determine is Tain, a venture to be delivered through the Bleo Holm FPSO, anticipated to ship 10 million barrels of oil.

RSRUK can be working to create a inexperienced hydrogen hub on the Flotta oil terminal in Orkney, supporting close by tasks such because the West of Orkney windfarm  – a scheme which TotalEnergies and companions Inexperienced Funding Group and RIDG have secured rights to within the latest ScotWind seabed leasing spherical.

“Within the Flotta terminal we see one thing that can occur in different belongings throughout the basin: alternatives that can come naturally to rethink the enterprise mannequin of this terminal.

“Co-existing doesn’t imply stopping doing what we now have been doing on this terminal, it’s simply to suppose how we will reap the benefits of our present place to be open for the vitality transition alternatives and to begin alternatives to repurpose, at the very least for this terminal.”

Offshore wind will not be one thing RSRUK is immediately in the mean time, he stated, however “on this context we now have to be open to new enterprise fashions and new alternatives that might come”.

‘Persistent underinvestment’

Jose Luis Muñoz grew to become CEO of Repsol Sinopec on April 1, 2020 – simply because the UK’s first lockdown was getting underway and a tricky time for any new leaders to get their toes below the desk.

“On this interval we now have been dedicating lots of time to suppose as an organization but additionally within the basin – what was the most secure option to give continuity to the operations and ensure we’re in a position to create a protected atmosphere for folks in a pandemic context and an oil value atmosphere which was very, very difficult.”

Brent crude was down at $20 a barrel in 2020, a stark distinction to costs of greater than $100 seen in latest weeks.

The temptation is likely to be to deal with bringing new barrels inside this context, deferring sure different actions like upkeep.

Nonetheless, he stated: “We now have been making an attempt to be constant when it comes to the deliberate shutdowns, when it comes to what we now have to do to liquidate backlogs.

“And that is what we now have been doing; to be constant and be very clear about these priorities for the security of our folks and the integrity of our websites, which is our first precedence no matter whether or not we’re in a pandemic, in a $100 oil atmosphere or a $40 one.”

What the business is now confronted with is the juxtaposition of elevated demand for home provide, within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and what Muñoz calls an issue of “continual underinvestment” within the sector.

The final 4 or 5 years have “not been a simple interval” and there was “an absence of recognition” of the business’s position in making vitality available: “one of many key sources of prosperity for the world as a complete”.

Assist from the UK Authorities is welcome on this “new context” and there’s a want for “predictable and secure regulatory regime” with the intention to see that contemporary wave of funding.

“That isn’t going to alter from in the future to a different. I believe that’s one thing we now have to work collectively on, as we did with the NSTD, and show to all the important thing stakeholders that there’s a pathway to be constructed collectively through which various things and completely different priorities are appropriate.

“And now, after all, there’s a context through which we have to speed up sure investments, through which we want to begin inserting cash for tasks that may very well be delivered within the subsequent 10-20 years.

“Many occasions up to now, crises have introduced alternatives. Let’s see if we’re in a position to reap the benefits of that collectively, ourselves as an business and likewise with the important thing stakeholders.”