Our Environmental Director Ray Grant will once again be visiting the University of Aberdeen as he looks to share his insights to the students of the MSc Decommissioning course on the 31st of January. Ray first delivered a guest lecture last year and was happy to receive the return invitation.
John Lawrie Group has over 25 years of decommissioning experience and Ray’s personal experience, his passion for the circular economy, and expertise in the concepts of reuse and extending material life, gives him a wealth of information to share with the academic community.
Ray said:
“We feel it’s important to reach out to the communities we are involved with. With our history here in Aberdeen it seemed a fantastic opportunity to help nurture the talent emerging through courses such as the MSc Decommissioning. We hope to support the next generation of experts discover ways of maximising the reuse of materials salvaged from the oil and gas sector.”
The lecture includes an overview of John Lawrie Group’s work in the decom sector and of our operations at our many sites across Scotland, the UK and the USA. The John Lawrie Tubulars division especially is key to delivering materials back into the economy through the infrastructure and construction sectors and is a great example of following decommissioning and reuse in action.
Ray will also be focusing on the “net zero” conversation. Sustainability is at the core of materials we process; Ray’s presentation aims to give an in depth look into how we deliver reusability rates of up to 100% in many of our real-life projects as we seek to minimise the amount of waste being sent for disposal.
Ray added:
“We have achieved up to 100% reuse and recycling rates on projects and we set our sights firmly on that target at every opportunity. When reuse is impossible recycling is an extremely valuable route that not only reduces manufacturing carbon production but preserves more of the environment from future exploitation. Sustainability is on everyone’s mind and I hope we can help drive that conversation further with the help of our colleagues in higher education.”
Some examples of reuse that Ray will include in his presentation include our reuse of concrete mattresses as agricultural flooring, repurposing anchor chain as ballast and cage weights in the Scottish aquaculture industry, and of course our provision of 22,000m of pipe to the Aberdeen TECA project for foundation piling. The lecture will also discuss the benefits of our new Dundee facility and the development of recycling capabilities from quayside dismantling of large structures to transportation and storage.
Ray will help the students understand the concepts behind the transition from a linear to a circular economy and where they can contribute to that process. He will also be including a section on environmental and safety standards that are vital to the safe delivery of projects, as well as the practices that will help deliver the best results possible.
The University of Aberdeen is the recognised leader in offshore oil and gas decommissioning education and is home to the newly established National Decommissioning Centre of Excellence. Established with support from the Scottish Government, through the Oil & Gas Technology Centre, the centre will work in partnership with companies to develop and deploy technology that delivers cost-effective decommissioning at the end of field life, and during oil and gas production operations, including ‘small piece’ decommissioning techniques.
The MSc Decommissioning course is a 12-month programme that aims to provide students with a broad range of knowledge and expertise in the physical process of taking offshore platforms out of service. The course syllabus has been designed in conjunction with major operators, supply chain companies and regulatory bodies. It covers the areas of engineering, project management, business, law, health and safety, and environmental studies.
