27 November 2023 – KIORCC, as part of the Directorate General of Ocean and Marine Spatial Management (DJ PRL) of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of the Republic of Indonesia (MMAF), supported the arrangement of a Focus Group Discussion (FGD), titled the “Korea-Indonesia Collaboration: The Future of Rigs-to-Reefs”, as a side event to the National Conference on Coastal and Small Island Management (KONAS XI).
This FGD gathers multiple stakeholders that may be affected by a future national decommissioning and rigs to reefs plan. Among the attendees present in hybrid form were personnel of the MMAF, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), the Ministry of Transportation (MoT), the Upstream Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas (SKK Migas), academicians, and oil and Gas Companies including Pertamina Hulu Energi (PHE) PHKT, ONWJ, OSES; and Kangean Energy, Mubadala Energy, and Medco E&P.
Various topics were presented during this event, split into three sessions. The first session covered the MMAF Rigs-to-Reefs (R2R) policy plan, upstream state asset management, and the write-off process. For the second session, marine conservation, the national strategy for decommissioning, and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECM) topics were presented. During the last session, R2R safety aspects, the economic and environmental benefits of platform reutilization, and lessons learned from reefing operations in the Gulf of Mexico were discussed.
KIORCC and the Indonesian stakeholders of platform decommissioning and reutilization agree on the necessity of a clear system for decommissioning, and an R2R plan for the effectivity of future operations of the hundreds of inactive offshore platforms in Indonesian waters. Multiple obstacles were highlighted during this FGD, including topics on funding, obligations, permitting, and operational zonation. Nonetheless, Indonesian parties hope that these obstacles can be overcome through more focused discussions and studies, and the development of subject-specific national policies and regulations.
