Writing The Decommissioning Guidelines for the 10 Asian ASCOPE Countries

RESL wrote the offshore decommissioning guidelines for 10 countries in Asia, the ASCOPE countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).

Dr Brian Twomey was the UN ESCAP Technical Decommissioning expert from 1996 to 1999 and co authored the UN ESCAP reference books on decommissioning. ASCOPE engaged Dr Twomey to create closed technical workshops to assist in resolving how to develop Asia Pacific Regional Decommissioning Guidelines. RESL was asked to assist the ASCOPE member countries and the draft regional decommissioning guidelines.

The objective of this ASCOPE Decommissioning Guideline (ADG) is to outline the option of flexibility to the ASCOPE Member Countries have within the existing legal framework, enabling each to achieve a defensible and balanced decommissioning solution for each decommissioning project. The ASEAN Council on Petroleum (ASCOPE) has sanctioned the development of the ADG for Oil and Gas Facilities. The ADG is a regional decommissioning guideline tailored to the ASCOPE Member Countries with concurrence by the ASCOPE National Council for adoption by the ASCOPE Member Countries in accordance to the international laws & regulations and complying with the national legislations of each Member Country.

The ADG is designed to provide a strategic framework for offshore decommissioning of oil and gas Facilities and is not intended to be prescriptive. The ADG will be reviewed regularly and updated as required. It is hoped that the ADG will make the process of submission and approval of a decommissioning programme as flexible as possible within statutory and policy constraints, allowing adequate time for full and considered consultation but without unnecessary delay. The ADG should be flexible and consider decommissioning of all facilities and pipelines on a case-by-case basis, and acknowledges that differing approaches may be required.

The clients for the work performed by RESL with writing the ASCOPE guidelines were the member country's state oil companies and regulators:

Please contact us if you would like more information.