Top Ten Research Priorities for Offshore Oil and Gas Decommissioning

35 global experts identified the top ten research priorities for decommissioning offshore oil and gas structures through a horizon-scan process. The resulting list includes 257 categorized research questions across five disciplinary areas, 15 topics, and 38 sub-topics. This dataset was compiled by the Australian Ocean Data Network and is associated with a 2023 scientific paper.

Use Cases

• Prioritizing research funding based on expert-identified needs for contaminant impact assessment.
• Informing policy development based on priorities for defining risk and acceptability thresholds.
• Guiding environmental impact studies based on priorities for quantifying effects on ecosystem services.
• Supporting infrastructure planning based on research questions about the feasibility of re-using structures.

Strengths

• Derived from a structured expert elicitation process involving 35 global experts.
• Collates 257 distinct research questions from expert input.
• Categorized questions into a structured framework of 5 disciplinary areas, 15 topics, and 38 sub-topics.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic or disciplinary bias inherent to the expert selection process.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Horizon-scan process with an interdisciplinary cohort of 35 global experts.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-17 02:18:44.049211; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Global