Griffin Field Decommissioning - Challenges, Best Practices, and Lessons Learnt

Abstract Offshore execution of the Griffin Field Decommissioning Programme commenced in June 2023 and is still ongoing at the time this paper was written. A total of seven (7) campaigns has been completed between June 2023 and Jan 2026, as part of one of the largest decommissioning undertakings in the Australian North-West Shelf region to date. Throughout the period, a total of 11,200 tonnes of subsea infrastructures were successfully recovered to shore, including 85.1km of pipelines, which once supply gas to the Australian domestic market. Largely due to the age of the infrastructure and limited knowledge and information during installation and production, several challenges were encountered during the undertaking of the decommissioning activities. This paper will describe three (3) main challenges from the Griffin Field Decommissioning Programme, and how innovative solutions were developed, engineered successfully through collaboration between operators and contractors. Overall, it is anticipated that the challenges, best practices, and lessons learnt from the Griffin Field Decommissioning Programme will be informative to support future decommissioning efforts.