INTRODUCTION

Compared with other Western European countries, the Danish oil adventure began rather late in 1972 when production started from the Dan Field. Gas production did not commence until 1984, also from the Dan Field. Since production commenced offshore, 48 steel platforms and five subsea installations have been placed on the seabed. The steel platform topsides facilities weigh between 7,000 and 15,000 tonnes, with a jacket weight of up to 3,500 tonnes. All installations are made of steel except for the South Arne Platform which has a concrete gravity-based storage (GBS) that is used to store oil before transporting this via the SAL system. In addition, approximately 1,700 km of pipelines have been installed ranging from 1” to 42” in diameter. Currently many of the facilities on the continental shelf are ageing and some of the early platforms are standing idle or only process water, having exhausted the oil and gas reservoirs in their original field. Although the Danish Continental Shelf is considered to be a “mature province”, no meaningful decommissioning activities have been carried out to date. However, this is set to change in the coming years. The Danish Energy Agency has estimated that decommissioning of existing facilities, including the plugging and abandonment of wells and related activities will cost approximately DKK 41 billion (€5.5 billion).

The Kingdom of Denmark consists of continental Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The Danish Constitution applies to all areas of the Danish Kingdom, although the Faroe Islands and Greenland have their own home rule arrangements and have established independent hydrocarbon regulatory regimes. So far, hydrocarbons have only been produced in continental Denmark and only in the Danish sector of the North Sea. From 1993 until 2014 Denmark has been a self-sufficient oil-producing nation. In fact in 1993 Denmark was the only country in the EU which was self-sufficient in both oil and gas. Although no longer fully self-sufficient, Denmark is still an exporter of oil and gas. Denmark is presently the third-largest oil producer in Western Europe after Norway and the United Kingdom, and the fifth-largest gas producer in Western Europe after Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany.