LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell hassubmitted a plan to the British government for dismantling itsBrent North Sea production platforms, a turning point for the UKoil industry as operators face the huge challenge of graduallyabandoning depleted fields after 40 years of production.
Shell on Wednesday lodged the plans for decommissioningproduction at the huge Brent field, which lends its name to theglobally traded benchmark crude oil grade and which has producedover 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 1976.
The government has in turn invited public responses toShell's proposals over the coming 60 days, a longer consultationperiod than usual because the decommissioning programme is socomplex. It will then analyse the feedback and subsequentlydecide whether to approve the plan.
"Any decommissioning plan will be carefully considered bythe government, taking into account environmental, safety andcost implications, the impact on other users of the sea and apublic consultation," a spokesman for the government'sdepartment of business, energy and industrial strategy said.
Shell will start the programme this year by removing the24,200 tonne topside of the Brent Delta platform, a processwhich was already approved two years ago. following Delta'scessation of production in 2011.
The Brent field continues to produce oil from the Charlieplatform and Shell said it expected to maintain output fromthere "for some time".
Companies operating in UK waters need to dismantle around7,500 kilometres of pipelines and more than 100 platforms at anestimated cost of 17.6 billion pounds ($22 billion) by 2025,according to industry body Oil & Gas UK.
These costs have been provided for by the operators and theBritish government through tax relief. ($1 = 0.8010 pounds) (Reporting by Karolin Schaps; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
