The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) is set to publish an international standard contract for offshore decommissioning projects – DISMANTLECON.

Repsol's former Buchan Alpha floating production at Dales Voe in Scotland. Photo credit: John Coutts.

BIMCO’s documentary committee approved the standard contract for offshore decommissioning projects at its general meeting, which was held in Athens on May 14. It will be released at the end of June 2019 along with guidance notes.

“DISMANTLECON is a marine services contract designed to appeal equally to the party requiring removal of the structure and the marine contractors whose services they use. It fairly represents the interests of both parties by providing a balanced set of terms and conditions,” said Kees de Looff, contracts manager of Van Oord Marine Contractors, who chaired the project.

The contract can be used for the removal of any offshore field architecture in the oil and gas sector. This includes pipelines, mattresses, manifolds, jackets, topsides, platforms and monopiles, along with structures used in the renewables sector.

BIMCO said DISMANTLECON is not intended to cover disposal of the facility or plug and abandonment (P&A) work.

Grant Hunter, BIMCO’s head of contracts and clauses, added: “DISMANTLECON is a simple template contract that can be amended and adapted to meet the needs of contract partners. It is designed to be scalable and can therefore be used for small to medium sized projects as well as for larger and more complex ones.”

www.bimco.org