We are writing to you in your capacity as Committee Clerk, Science and Technology Select Committee to inform you of the innovative work being carried out by the Great Yarmouth Recommissioning Partnership (The Partnership).

  The Partnership comprises representatives from the oil and gas industry, small and medium enterprise (SMEs), local government and scientists from the University of East Anglia. The fundamental aim of the Partnership is to act as a facilitator to enable innovation to develop into commercial activity. At the present time the Partnership is undertaking the task of introducing the reuse of oil and gas platforms in the southern North Sea. This process involves moving platforms from redundant fields for refitting, before moving to a new site, a technique known as recommissioning.

  Along with this letter we have included a document outlining the case for recommissioning.[22] This document also demonstrates the thinking behind, and the benefits of, forming partnerships to promote innovation and subsequent commercial gain. In the final part of the document we have delineated certain means by which the Government could assist the progress of recommissioning.

  The Great Yarmouth Recommissioning Partnership would be delighted to give evidence relating to either of the areas of interest covered above should the Committee consider such information appropriate to its existing or forthcoming enquiries. We would welcome your Committee's response to recommissioning and any other observations your Committee has made on the complex issues surrounding the future of the energy industry and the establishment of energy policy.

  The Partnership is hosting a conference on the future of the Energy industry in Great Yarmouth on 16 April 1999. We would be delighted to extend an invitation to members of the Science and Technology Committee. Please don't hesitate to contact any of the members of the Partnership should you wish to receive further information on any aspects of our work.

FUNDAMENTAL REASONS WHY THE ACTIVITIES OF THE GREAT YARMOUTH RECOMMISSIONING PARTNERSHIP ARE OF RELEVANCE TO THE WORK OF THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SELECT COMMITTEE:

—  Firstly, it is common knowledge that over the next 25 years oil and gas reserves in the North Sea will become progressively less viable, and the Government will be under increasing pressure to build this factor into their energy policy. Therefore, it is important to examine the development of recommissioning and its significance in facilitating greater sustainability in the energy sector. In short, recommissioning can provide an extended life to the offshore industry.

—  Secondly, the role of the partnership approach in the creation and development of innovation, and perhaps more importantly, moving innovation on to the all-important stage of commercial gain.

  We have recorded the text under two headings: Recommissioning and Innovation through Partnership. Together these headings sum up the activities and objectives of the Great Yarmouth Recommissioning Partnership.

RECOMMISSIONING

  Earlier this year the Government, along with 14 other European nations, gave greater momentum to the recommissioning process by agreeing not to dispose of steel platforms at sea. This agreement was part of the Oslo-Paris Convention (OSPAR) which is designed to protect the marine environment in the North East Atlantic. Such an agreement is in line with the Government's waste hierarchy, which favours reuse ahead of recycling and disposal. Recommissioning offers a perfect fit to both these initiatives that are designed to enhance sustainability.

  Last month recommissioning received a further boost with the completion of the Interconnector at Bacton in Norfolk. This interconnector will enable gas to flow to and from the UK to continental Europe, thus opening up a market five times the size of the UK's. Increasing the size of the market offers opportunities for extending the life of existing fields, and makes future exploration in the North Sea, using recommissioned platforms, an even more attractive option. The development of interconnectors in harness with recommissioning offers the Government and the Nation more sustainable energy production and the perfect foundation on which to base a long-term energy policy. Such developments buy the Government and the oil and gas companies time, as they move toward decommissioning oil and gas fields and into the era of generating more of the Nation's energy from sustainable sources.

  Using present estimates of the life of oil and gas fields, the peak years for decommissioning are likely to be between 2003 and 2012, and it is during this period that recommissioning will be most attractive to the offshore industry. With close to 160 platforms in the southern North Sea alone, the potential for recommissioning is enormous. Indeed, the cost of decommissioning all the platforms in the North Sea is estimated at approximately £6 billion. Recommissioning will enable companies to reduce costs by increasing the effective life of platforms, and will provide the means for companies to spread costs over a longer period, as the life span of fields will be increased by virtue of the reduced overheads offered by the recommissioning process.

  The Partnership is proposing the modification and development of Versatruss removal technology for transporting the larger of the platforms located in the southern North Sea to Great Yarmouth for recommissioning. Versatruss is based on a catamaran style "A" frame which is already being used successfully in the Gulf of Mexico, following support from BP Amoco, to move platforms many hundreds of miles. This technology has enabled around 30 per cent of the topsides of platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to be recommissioned, thus saving companies 40 per cent of costs when compared to replacement with new structures. However the Gulf of Mexico experiences very different sea states from the southern North Sea. Therefore the Partnership's Great Yarmouth based expert in this field, Versatruss Europe, intends to advance the technology to overcome the challenge of rougher sea conditions. Important alterations in the lifting technology and methodology are also required to accommodate the specific structural design of North Sea installations. To establish new lifting methods the Partnership is proposing to develop and trial the most recent lifting gear in the southern North Sea, whilst also collating and disseminating information about other innovative lifting techniques. These trials are vital in order to identify, quantify and overcome any potential risks posed by the use of significantly modified lifting technologies, in sea states far removed from the Gulf of Mexico. This approach is linked to the development of refined recommissioning processes at Great Yarmouth.

  The aim of both transport and recommissioning technologies is to extend the life of platforms by refitting and reuse. An obvious every day comparison can be found in the way a motorist might refurbish and service a car before either selling on, or getting a few more years use, rather than consigning the vehicle to the scrap heap. The major difference between the two examples is that unlike scrapping a car, decommissioning an offshore platform is a very expensive exercise. The generic name for this mechanism is mature assset management: this involves the treatment of a resource, whether it is a car or gas platform, as a renewable resource rather than a waste product. This delays the cost of decommissioning and saves the costs of new construction.

  Recommissioning also has a political value, as it offers the Government an opportunity to promote environmental considerations whilst enhancing the competitiveness of the British economy. This eco-efficient approach to environmental challenges is in line with the Government's commitment to the aims of the Rio Conference, which sought to encourage sustainable development. Furthermore, recommissioning will not impact negatively on construction jobs, as there are no new platforms under construction in UK yards at present. Moreover, new jobs would be generated and existing jobs secured, both offshore and onshore, in undertaking the task of transporting and refitting platforms.

  Much publicity has been given over the years to the importance of North Sea oil and gas revenue in keeping the finances of Great Britain plc in a healthy state. By extending the life of oil and gas fields in the North Sea recommissioning can play an important role in enhancing government finances. Moreover, the challenge of dealing with ageing platforms is global: consequently refined technologies and methodologies developed by the Partnership in the southern North Sea could provide numerous export opportunities both for the technology and the recommissioned platforms. However, perhaps of more long-term importance is the means by which the Partnership approach can offer an imaginative and constructive cure for the British disease of failing to capitalise on home-grown inventions and innovations.

DEVELOPING INNOVATION THROUGH PARTNERSHIP

  The Great Yarmouth Recommissioning Partnership provides an example of the means by which the oil and gas industry and scientists can combine with other important stakeholders to produce and develop techniques and methods capable of answering pressing environmental problems. By bringing together different parties in an interdisciplinary fashion, common ground can be established and solutions produced by a pooling of expertise. This teamwork approach has enabled the development of imaginative and viable outcomes, which provide a way out of the impasse between environmental, social and commercial concerns, to emerge with a high degree of deliberation leading to greater levels of consensus.

  The whole issue of consensus building is enhanced by the inclusion of representatives from local government. The local authority is an important stakeholder in the development of the recommissioning process, which will impact on the local environment and community. This approach offers the commercial partners an early insight into the views of the local community and enables ingenious solutions to evolve in advance of, and in response to, wider concerns. In the case of Great Yarmouth the impact on the tourist industry of bringing platforms on shore has been considered by the Partnership. Due to the broad cross-section of stakeholders, ideas have emerged such as the creation of a visitor's centre, to develop and disseminate information about the energy industry in an entertaining and educational manner. The basic principle is to turn what is perceived as a problem on its head by transforming the seemingly mundane activity of refitting oil and gas platforms into a tourist attraction. This has the added value of both educating the public on energy issues and enabling public values to be identified, articulated and thus incorporated into subsequent decisions on energy futures.

  Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) also play a vital role in the Partnership's approach and this is reflected by the membership of two SMEs on the Partnership. Indeed, in the region of 300 contractors in the Great Yarmouth area have been identified as potential beneficiaries of the use of recommissioning technology at the Town's port. The Partnership has an important role to play in collecting information from SMEs on recent development in their industries. This intelligence gathering enables members of the Partnership to share fresh knowledge, and efficiently disseminate the information collected. This is of great value to SMEs, who are able to tap into the partnership's networking activities to enhance their knowledge base. It also provides a mechanism for the Partnership to pick up on new ideas and best practice in the energy sector and associated industries.

  As outlined earlier in this document, the principle underlying much of the Partnership's activities is mature asset management, and this concept provides the potential for numerous research and development opportunities, in the energy industry and beyond. The stakeholder partnership model, exemplified by the Great Yarmouth Recommissioning Partnership, offers the perfect platform on which to further the mature asset principle. Undoubtedly, consensus building through the Partnership approach has enhanced relevance when set against a backdrop where increasingly reuse is becoming the preferred environmental and commercial option. To this end the Partnership has discussed the creation of a Centre for Excellence in the Energy Industry, which would seek to initiate and develop innovations designed to reduce global warming by helping the Government meet emission targets. The Partnership approach offers a fresh formula for sparking innovation: by the deliberative examination and discussion of issues by a team of experts and interested parties with a clear objective in mind, in this way partnerships can promote eco-efficient solutions that have a broad base of support.

  In his Pre-Budget Statement the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, said: "Our policy is pro-skill and pro-science". He added "to turn scientific invention in Britain into jobs for Britain, we need to do more to honour the spirit of invention, facilitate the exploration of invention and encourage the commercialisation of invention". His statement chimes with the aspirations of the Partnership. In summary the Great Yarmouth Recommissioning Partnership is addressing the use of new technologies and environmental challenges, whilst seeking to provide sustainable employment in the UK energy sector. In a recent debate in the House of Commons John Battle, Minister for Energy and Industry, referred to the Great Yarmouth Recommissioning Partnerships approach as the three term equation of win, win, win.

MEASURES THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD CONSIDER TO ASSIST THE RECOMMISSIONING OF OFFSHORE PLATFORMS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARTNERSHIP APPROACH TO RESOLVING QUESTIONS IN THE ENERGY SECTOR:

—  Joint funding for comprehensive trials of innovative lifting techniques in the southern North Sea such as Versatruss;

—  Political support to ensure that platforms for recommissioning, which are based in the southern North Sea, come to the most appropriately located UK port, of which Great Yarmouth is a prime contender;

—  Recognition of the export potential of the advanced recommissioning technology being developed in the southern North Sea;

—  Recognition and financial support, where appropriate, for the evolution of the Partnership's work into the future development of innovation into environmental and commercial benefit in the energy sector;

—  Funding for an environmental overview of the process of recommissioning which would clearly establish the benefits of reuse in the offshore sector;

—  Recognition of the partnership approach to meeting environmental, social and commercial challenges in a sustainable way;

—  The introduction of a clause in the Costed Abandonment Programme (CAP), requiring operators to demonstrate that the recommissioning option has been fully explored before a platform is sent for decommissioning; and

—  Assess the potential for involvement and participation of the Partnership in the recently formed North Sea Taskforce.

7 December 1998