Decommissioning Throughout the Upstream asset life cycle — from exploration to decommissioning — care is taken to limit disruptions to local communities and protect the environment. Accordingly, ExxonMobil ensures that decommissioning activities are planned and conducted to appropriately manage risks. For our fixed manufacturing assets, the same care is taken. For example, in 2015, we completed decommissioning a steam cracker at our Fawley refinery in the United Kingdom, the largest demolition project ExxonMobil has carried out in Europe. As part of the project, ExxonMobil worked to preserve materials that could be reused or recycled for other purposes. In total, we segregated and recycled around 15,000 metric tons of materials, which represented 89 percent of all materials recovered from the demolition site. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals were sold as scrap and the concrete was crushed and reused for land reclamation. Material that was unable to be recycled was disposed of according to local regulations. Up Close: Offshore decommissioning in the Gulf of Mexico The deepwater Gulf of Mexico is one of the largest sources of oil production in the United States and will likely play a key role in meeting rising global energy demand. However, Gulf of Mexico operations present a unique set of technological, environmental and social challenges throughout the life of an asset. ExxonMobil has been safely conducting exploration and production operations in the Gulf of Mexico for more than 60 years. Technological advances have enabled ExxonMobil to produce offshore oil and gas deposits in water depths that seemed unreachable a generation ago. While ExxonMobil uses a systematic process for decommissioning offshore assets, our site-specific approach varies depending on the type of structure and unique characteristics of a location.
Offshore assets present unique and complex decommissioning challenges due to a combination of factors, including the specific marine ecosystem at each site and the size and weight of facilities, as well as the inherent risks of removing such facilities in marine environments. As a result, the planning and preparation for decommissioning some offshore assets can start up to 10 years prior to the actual execution. During the planning phase, we seek to incorporate lessons learned from other decommissioning projects as well as expert advice from interested parties. These parties may include fishing communities, environmental organizations and academia. We believe stakeholder engagement is critical to helping us gain public support for the facility decommissioning recommendations we submit to the government. In recognition of the unique challenges associated with offshore assets, we created an offshore decommissioning center of expertise (COE) in 2015. This COE is tasked with planning and managing the decommissioning of our offshore assets. completed to date supports the opportunity of reefing in place. This overall area available for cold-water corals and their associated fish and invertebrate populations has established an important habitat for large, reproductively important groupers and other deepwater fishes and an opportunity to study the expansion of a cold-water coral reef community. Maintaining this habitat will also help to eliminate a population of invasive orange cup coral and associated Indo-Pacific lionfish.” Dr. Mark Benfield Professor, Louisiana State University Lophelia pertusa is an important species because it provides habitat for other invertebrates and fish in a similar manner to shallow water coral reefs. Many other deepwater invertebrates were also identified, including squat lobsters, sea stars, anemones and crabs. A variety of deepwater fish species were also identified on or very near the structure. “At this offshore platform site is a large oasis of healthy cold- water coral reef in an otherwise low-diversity, soft-bottom region of the northern Gulf of Mexico. The scientific analysis
Additionally, the project incorporated environmental considerations. For example, some activities were rescheduled to avoid potential impact on nesting birds and annual bird migrations. The Fawley site also features a small population of wild bee orchids and particular care was taken not to damage the orchids during the flowering season. “It really is the end of an era. I hope this project can stand as an example to the petrochemical industry of how the demolition of large-scale units can be achieved in a safe and controlled manner.” Rob Tarbard Project manager, Fawley demolition In all cases, we evaluate potential strategies based on a number of factors including safety, environmental and social considerations. Certain decommissioning strategies have the potential to provide continued benefits to the environment. Accordingly, we use comparative assessments as well as ecological data to determine the best strategy. One example of our approach to offshore decommissioning was demonstrated at a deepwater platform site offshore of Louisiana. To help understand the unique ecological envi- ronment supported by this offshore platform, ExxonMobil’s Upstream Research Company (URC) used remotely operated vehicles (ROV) to complete an ecologically focused deep sea survey. URC partnered with a Gulf of Mexico fisheries expert from Louisiana State University, Dr. Mark Benfield, who assisted in developing new detection methodologies and reviewing the ROV data. The survey data confirmed that the platform hosts a healthy and diverse biological community, including thriving communities of Lophelia pertusa , a deepwater coral species.
End of an era for a steam cracker at Fawley
Environmental performance exxonmobil.com/citizenship
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