With a finite number of platforms in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), companies should look to California as the next promising US offshore decommissioning market, an expert has said. While GoM decommissioning activity should stay at a fairly high level for the next decade – with 200-plus platforms coming out each year, if historical figures were any indication – after that it’s hard to predict, says Professor Eric Smith, associate director of Tulane University Energy Institute. “You’re dealing off a finite base,” he said. “As long as you’re not installing new platforms and you’re taking out two hundred-plus platforms a year, and we’re dealing with a universe… of three thousand platforms in shallower water, you have trouble predicting past a decade or so that those kind of levels can be maintained.” “There are two or three things that look promising to me in the domestic market and one of those is California,” Prof Smith told a conference during DecomWorld’s Gulf of Mexico Decommissioning & Abandonment Summit in Houston in March. Mactech’s Take: Mactech Offshore began their offshore platform decommissioning with a focus in the Gulf of Mexico, but has managed to adapt as the global market for subsea cutting equipment and subsea machining services continued to geographically shift. The ability to act swiftly and adapt the the different needs in different regions has proven to be a priceless asset. While the offshore oil market in California does not make the headlines as much as the GoM market, it still plays a large part in our national energy production. Companies will continue to project demand over the future and must set themselves up in strategically to be able to serve that demand. Read More From the Source: DecomWorld.com