Seabed Debris Clearance

(Champions: Shell, ConocoPhillips) – April 2018

To decommission an offshore facility, licensees have an obligation to remove subsea debris, typically this would be the removal of significant objects such as scaffold poles, steel walkway and handrail sections within a radius of 500 metres from a platform and within pipeline corridors. Here, debris was defined as significant seabed deposits left by the activities of oil and gas production, with individual debris items typically sized for recovery by ROV or diver. This project excluded removal of subsea production infrastructure (including mattresses and grout bags) and the removal of hazardous waste material.