Gulf of Mexico Oil & Gas Decommissioning Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The market for Gulf of Mexico oil & gas decommissioning is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 6.89% during 2020 – 2025. Demand for the offshore decommissioning services in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is primarily driven by the maturing production fields, aging offshore platform infrastructure, and damaged platforms and pipelines due to hurricanes and other windstorms, among other factors. However, deteriorating infrastructure, late-life technical limits and regulatory pressure, has led mature basin operators to focus on the expensive and technically complicated challenge of decommissioning.

• The decommissioning market in shallow waters holds the largest market in recent years. But, the deepwater regions is expected to grow faster during 2020-2025, as the number of potential projects available in shallow waters is drying up.
• Deepwater projects are subject to greater levels of regulatory scrutiny and require specialized heavy-lift vessels to remove topsides. The unit cost to decommission deepwater projects is much greater, due to operational complexity and increased spread rates for marine vessels. The shift toward decommissioning deepwater facilities will present a range of new opportunities, as well as challenges for companies.