Maersk Supply Service and Maersk Drilling have formed a 50/50 joint venture to decommission oil fields.
The investment will be $20m over the first years of operations, with the partners providing assets to the new entity.
It will "leverage the companies’ heritage of over 50 years of safe and efficient operations to provide decommissioning services to oil and gas operators," Maersk Supply said.
An increasing amount of offshore oil and gas fields are approaching the end of their economic life, with more than 400 in the North Sea alone expected to cease production by 2026 at an estimated cost of $56bn. Globally this figure is more than 700.
The venture will initially offer solutions for up to 80% of the decommissioning process.
This will include the plugging and abandonment of wells, towage of floating units and removal of subsea infrastructure.
In the longer term, the company plans to provide a 100% service.
“With the growing need for decommissioning mature fields, governments and oil and gas operators are looking for experienced partners to manage and perform this challenging task," said Jorn Madsen, CEO of Maersk Drilling.
"By leveraging the strong track record of the two companies, as well as our complementary asset base and competencies, we can lower the risk and reduce the overall cost for the customers.”
Previous experience
Both companies have previously done this type of work.
Since 2016, Maersk Supply has been project managing and executing the full scope of decommissioning services for the Janice, James and Leadon subsea fields in the UK North Sea for the operator, formerly Maersk Oil, now Total, after a $5.6bn takeover.
Maersk Drilling carried out plug and abandonment work, while Maersk Supply provided vessels for all three subsea fields.
"By combining our marine knowledge and experience from recent decommissioning projects, we can provide oil and gas operators bundled solutions with one point of contact for the majority of decommissioning work scope," said Maersk Supply CEO Steen Karstensen.
The venture is aiming to add three new projects per year after 2020.
It will be headquartered at Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service joint headquarters in Lyngby, Denmark.
Lars Banke has been appointed CEO and will join the company from Total in June 2018.
He has previously worked in various Maersk companies since 2001.
Jens Klit Thomsen, currently head of decommissioning business development at Maersk Supply, will be the CCO.
A brand for the company will be introduced in the coming months.
"The JV will not impact the ongoing work in AP Moller-Maersk to establish new ownership structures for each of the partner companies," Maersk Supply said.
