Technical Guidelines for Safe and Sustainable Recycling Facilities and Waste Management Facilities for Decommissioned Offshore Structures in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Despite having 1,700 fixed offshore structures, with more than 500 structures to be decommissioned in the coming years, Southeast Asia has very few onshore dismantling yards that are capable of handling decommissioned offshore structures. Such yards are mainly located in Thailand (STP&I, UWM and ITD yards, to name a few); some in Indonesia (Meindo Elang Indah (Handil) and Elnusa (Cilegon)), and one in Malaysia (Muhibbah Engineering). Due to the legal constraints on transboundary movement of hazardous waste in Southeast Asia, each country in the region needs to handle decommissioned offshore structures by itself. In this context, some scholars suggested upgrading the current shipbuilding and offshore fabrication yards to include decommissioning activity, given the availability of primary facilities in those yards, such as the quay facility for structure load-in/ offloading operations, a large fabrication area which could be upgraded into a dismantling area, as well as workshops and equipment to support onshore dismantling operations. However, onshore dismantling of offshore structures is not just a simple reverse engineering of shipbuilding. While decommissioned offshore structures contain hazardous waste residues accumulated from oil and gas production, shipbuilding yards often lack adequate waste handling capability to handle such residues. The Technical Guidelines for Safe and Sustainable Recycling Facilities and Waste Management Facilities for Decommissioned Offshore Structures in Southeast Asia (hereinafter known as the “Guidelines” were prepared to provide guidance for shipbuilding yards as well as the existing dismantling facilities in Southeast Asia to achieve safe and sustainable dismantling of decommissioned offshore structures. Guidance is also provided for waste management facilities, which are actually Zone F of a dismantling facility, to safely and sustainably handle hazardous waste generated from offshore structures in the region.