Waste Management Framework for Decommissioning of Offshore Installations in Malaysia

Malaysia’s offshore platform decommissioning market is expected to significantly rise in the coming years as many of the offshore platforms are approaching their end-of-service life. It is inevitable that offshore platforms decommissioning generates a variety of wastes, hence decommissioning offshore platforms is expected to generate large quantities of waste in the years ahead. This study focuses on the waste management of offshore platform decommissioning which include the recycling, reusing and disposing of wastes after being brought onshore. The study will be based on the review of previous case studies in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. This study covers the method of identification and quantification of waste products, mainly physical wastes from offshore platform decommissioning in Malaysia. It is found that the majority of the wastes from decommissioning an offshore platform are metal and non-metal wastes, which are the physical wastes. After the physical wastes are identified and quantified, this study also focuses on the recoverability of steel and reuse of offshore platform from decommissioning. The salvage of the scrapped steels and metals can help the operators to reduce the total price of managing the wastes. At the same time, the operators can consider the rig to reef alternative. This study also suggests a waste management framework based on practices of our local oil and gas industry.