Data challenges and opportunities for environmental management of North Sea oil and gas decommissioning in an era of blue growth

Maritime industries routinely collect critical environmental data needed for sustainable management of marine
ecosystems, supporting both the blue economy and future growth. Collating this information would provide a
valuable resource for all stakeholders. For the North Sea, the oil and gas industry has been a dominant presence
for over 50 years that has contributed to a wealth of knowledge about the environment. As the industry begins to
decommission its offshore structures, this information will be critical for avoiding duplication of effort in data
collection and ensuring best environmental management of offshore activities. This paper summarises the
outcomes of a Blue Growth Data Challenge Workshop held in 2017 with participants from: the oil and gas
industry; the key UK regulatory and management bodies for oil and gas decommissioning; open access data
facilitators; and academic and research institutes. Here, environmental data collection and archiving by oil and
gas operators in the North Sea are described, alongside how this compares to other offshore industries; what the
barriers and opportunities surrounding environmental data sharing are; and how wider data sharing from offshore
industries could be achieved. Five primary barriers to data sharing were identified: 1) Incentives, 2) Risk
Perception, 3) Working Cultures, 4) Financial Models, and 5) Data Ownership. Active and transparent communication
and collaboration between stakeholders including industry, regulatory bodies, data portals and
academic institutions will be key to unlocking the data that will be critical to informing responsible decommissioning
decisions for offshore oil and gas structures in the North Sea.