A new innovation center in Norway aims to find alternative and cost-efficient solutions aimed at reducing the huge US$100 billion decommissioning cost that the North Sea operators and countries face, researchers and officials told Bloomberg . The SFI Swipa (Subsurface Well Integrity, Plugging and Abandonment) center was granted the status of Center for Research-Driven Innovation for the next eight years by government-run Board of the Research Council of Norway. The SFI Swipa center and its researchers will look into innovative ways for well plugging and abandoning (P&A), which makes up much of the total decommissioning costs, more than 40 percent. Offshore Norway, as well as offshore the UK, many oilfields are approaching the end of their production life in the mature areas of the North Sea, and operators are sometimes reluctant to buy mature oilfields knowing that they will have to spend on decommissioning soon. The new center will […]