Engaging industry at the 2022 APPEA Conference
The Regulator 2022- Issue 2
The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association’s (APPEA) annual conference and exhibition is an important fixture on the industry calendar and a valuable platform for NOPSEMA to engage with a broad range of industry representatives.
Running from 16 to 19 May at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, NOPSEMA will be present at the Australian Government booth in the main pavilion. Delegates include the regulator’s executive team and representatives from the Health and Safety and Environment and Decommissioning divisions.
NOPSEMA’s Head of Safety and Integrity Division Derrick O’Keeffe will be delivering a presentation on the recently published “Cradle to Grave: Planning for All Well Decommissioning” paper.
The paper discusses NOPSEMA’s decommissioning compliance plan and strategy, and the road map to achieve the agency’s goals. These goals include all wells to be risk assessed and have accepted abandonment plans in place by 2023, and that by 2025 all wells will be permanently abandoned within three years of becoming non-operational.
The paper also outlines the decommissioning challenges faced by the industry, including the immediate challenge of reducing the backlog of unused wells to plug and abandon, and the future challenges of incorporating decommissioning considerations into each stage of a facility’s lifecycle.
The presentation will cover the context of regulatory developments around decommissioning. NOPSEMA’s involvement with these events is a continuation of our longstanding commitment to working with industry to help them understand their obligations and develop a clear, industry-wide understanding of the regulator’s expectations.
This commitment has included NOPSEMA’s involvement in APPEA’s Drilling Industry Steering Committee (DISC) Well Operations Management Plan (WOMP) working group, which seeks to create a consistent and standardised WOMP format. Members of industry are encouraged to stop by NOPSEMA’s booth and speak to our representatives.