Offshore Decommissioning Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Service Type (Project Management, Post-CoP Running Costs, Well Decommissioning, Topsides Removals, Substructure Removal, Subsea Infrastructure, and Others), By Infrastructure (Wells, Topsides, and Substructures), By Water Depth (Shallow Water, Deep Water, and Ultra-Deepwater), Regional Forecast, 2026-2034

The global offshore decommissioning market size was valued at USD 8.52 billion in 2025. The market is projected to grow from USD 9.07 billion in 2026 to USD 16.73 billion by 2034, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.96% during the forecast period.

Offshore decommissioning is primarily driven by the aging of structural assets, regulatory enforcement, and the economic reprioritization of offshore portfolios, rather than broader energy-transition narratives. These assets are now reaching the end of their engineered life, with rising integrity risks, corrosion issues, and escalating maintenance costs making continued operation economically unjustifiable. Additionally, stricter regulatory and financial liability enforcement is driving the growth of the offshore decommissioning market. Governments are increasingly closing loopholes that previously allowed deferred abandonment. For example, regulators now require full financial assurance for decommissioning liabilities, forcing operators, especially those with late-life assets and private equity-backed firms, to accelerate their plans for removal. In mature basins, license extensions are being denied unless decommissioning processes are fully funded and scheduled for completion.

Additionally, portfolio rationalization by major operators is accelerating the decommissioning of assets. Large energy companies are exiting marginal offshore fields to reallocate capital toward higher-return assets, including LNG, deepwater hubs, and low-carbon investments. This exit often transfers decommissioning obligations to specialists, triggering immediate project execution. Platform preparation in offshore decommissioning involves isolating systems, removing hazardous materials, and preparing structures for safe dismantling and removal. Safety and environmental considerations in offshore decommissioning focus on minimizing risks to personnel while preventing pollution and ecological damage.

• For instance, in December 2025, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) publicly identified 13 operators that had fallen behind on their decommissioning obligations across the U.K. North Sea, highlighting regulatory pressure on the removal of ageing offshore infrastructure and well plugging deadlines. This announcement highlights the growing number of enforcement actions by authorities aimed at ensuring that oil and gas companies comply with decommissioning schedules for inactive wells and facilities.

Allseas Group SA (Switzerland) is a leading offshore contractor with a strong focus on large-scale offshore decommissioning, leveraging its heavy-lift and pipelay fleet. The company’s ultra-heavy-lift vessels, such as Pioneering Spirit, enable single-lift removal of entire offshore platforms, significantly reducing project timelines, offshore exposure, and overall decommissioning costs in mature basins like the North Sea.

OFFSHORE DECOMMISSIONING MARKET TRENDS

Shift Toward Integrated Single-Contract Decommissioning Models is the Key Market Trend

A key trend shaping the offshore decommissioning industry globally is the shift from fragmented, multi-vendor execution toward integrated single-contract (EPC-style) decommissioning models. Historically, offshore decommissioning projects were divided among multiple contractors, separate scopes for well plugging and abandonment (P&A), topsides removal, subsea infrastructure recovery, and onshore dismantling. This approach often led to interface risks, schedule overruns, duplicated mobilization costs, and liability disputes. In response, operators are now increasingly awarding end-to-end decommissioning contracts to a single lead contractor or consortium with full lifecycle responsibility. Mobilization and demobilization of derrick barges are crucial steps in offshore decommissioning, enabling the safe lifting, removal, and transportation of platform structures.

This trend is evident in mature basins such as the U.K. and Norwegian North Sea, where regulators require detailed, cost-certain decommissioning programs before final investment approval. Integrated contracting enables operators to lock in costs early, transfer execution risk, and simplify regulatory compliance through a single accountable entity. Contractors with combined capabilities, including heavy-lift removal, subsea services, well P&A coordination, and access to certified recycling yards, are gaining a competitive advantage that is driving market demand. Offshore decommissioning in shallow waters typically involves easier access and lower lifting complexity compared to deepwater operations.

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MARKET DYNAMICS

MARKET DRIVERS

Maturing Offshore Asset Base to Drive the Market Size

The offshore decommissioning market is being driven by the maturation of the offshore asset base, particularly in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Asia-Pacific, where a large proportion of fixed platforms, subsea tiebacks, and wells have exceeded their original design life. As reservoirs decline, operators face rising integrity risks, increasing inspection failures, and disproportionate operating costs, making continued production uneconomic.

A large share of offshore platforms, subsea systems, and wells currently scheduled for removal were installed between the late 1970s and early 1990s. These assets were engineered for 20–30 years of operation, not the 40–50 years many have now reached through incremental life extensions. As a result, operators are encountering systemic degradation issues such as advanced corrosion in jackets and conductors, fatigue cracking in welded joints, obsolescence of control systems, and declining well integrity. Also, insurers and regulators are tightening acceptance criteria for late-life operations, making asset life extensions financially unattractive. Once production drops below economic thresholds, decommissioning becomes the only viable compliance pathway, directly linking asset maturity to accelerated removal of offshore assets.

MARKET RESTRAINTS

High Cost Associated with Offshore Decommissioning to Restrain the Market Growth

A major restraint for offshore decommissioning is the high capital intensity combined with persistent cost uncertainty, which continues to delay project sanctioning despite regulatory pressure. Decommissioning expenditures are heavily front-loaded, requiring substantial upfront capital for well plugging and abandonment, heavy-lift vessel mobilization, subsea clearance, and onshore dismantling. For operators managing multiple late-life assets, these costs compete directly with sustaining capital expenditures (capex) and balance-sheet priorities, often leading to phased or deferred execution rather than complete removal.

In addition, subsurface conditions, undocumented well modifications, unknown cement quality, and gaps in legacy infrastructure data frequently result in scope creep during execution, particularly for older fields developed before modern documentation standards were established. In offshore environments with harsh weather windows, vessel downtime and schedule overruns can rapidly escalate budgets beyond initial estimates.

MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

Scale Consolidation and Specialized Decommissioning Programs are Driving the Growth Opportunities

Offshore decommissioning presents significant opportunities driven by project aggregation, specialization, and industrialization of removal activities rather than one-off asset retirement. As decommissioning volumes rise sharply in mature basins, operators are increasingly bundling multiple platforms, wells, and subsea assets into multi-field or basin-wide decommissioning programs. This creates opportunities for contractors to secure long-term framework agreements, enabling fleet optimization, repeatable execution, and margin stability through scale efficiencies.

Another key opportunity lies in late-life asset transfer and decommissioning-only operators. Financial investors and specialist firms are acquiring end-of-life offshore assets specifically to execute decommissioning at lower cost through lean operating models and optimized contracting strategies. This shift opens the market for advisory, engineering, and execution partners with deep decommissioning expertise rather than traditional exploration and production (E&P) capabilities.

MARKET CHALLENGES

Execution Complexity, Environmental Impact, and Legacy Data Limitations Present Significant Challenges

One of the most critical challenges in offshore decommissioning is execution complexity arising from legacy infrastructure and incomplete historical data. Many offshore fields scheduled for decommissioning were developed decades ago, before the advent of standardized digital asset management and modern integrity documentation. As-built drawings, well schematics, and modification records are often incomplete or inconsistent, creating uncertainty during well plugging and abandonment (P&A) and structural removal planning. This lack of reliable data increases the risk of encountering unknown well conditions, undocumented tie-ins, or degraded materials during execution.

Segmentation Analysis

By Service Type

Well Decommissioning Leads the Market Owing to its Cost-Intensive and Volume-Driven Activity

Based on the service type, the market is classified into project management, post-CoP running costs, well decommissioning, topsides removals, substructure removal, subsea infrastructure, and others.

In 2025, the well decommissioning segment dominated the offshore decommissioning market share. Well decommissioning dominates the offshore decommissioning service mix because it is both cost-intensive and volume-driven, accounting for the largest share of total project expenditure and activity. Globally, well plugging and abandonment (P&A) typically represents 45–60% of total offshore decommissioning costs, depending on basin maturity and well complexity. In the U.K. North Sea alone, regulators estimate that more than 7,500 offshore wells will require permanent abandonment over the next three decades, making wells the single largest liability class.

The well decommissioning segment is experiencing the highest growth and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.92%.

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By Infrastructure

Wells Segments Leads the Market Owing to the Largest, Most Regulated, and Technically Irreversible End-Of-Life Liability

Based on infrastructure, the market is classified into wells, topsides, and substructures.

In 2025, the wells segment dominated the global market. Every offshore field contains multiple wells, including production, injection, appraisal, and suspended wells, each of which must be permanently plugged and abandoned to meet regulatory standards. Unlike topsides or subsea structures, wells cannot be left partially in place or transferred; abandonment is a non-negotiable legal requirement, making wells structurally dominant in the scope of decommissioning.

A key driver is the sheer volume of legacy wells in mature offshore basins. In the U.K. and Norwegian North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and Southeast Asia, most offshore fields were developed using high well counts to sustain plateau production. Many of these wells were drilled before modern barrier and cementing standards were established, resulting in higher abandonment complexity today.

The topsides infrastructure segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.35%.

By Water Depth

Ultra-Deepwater Dominated the Market Owing to the Aging of First and Second-Generation Ultra-Deepwater Developments

Based on water depth, the market is classified into shallow water, deep water, and ultra-deepwater.

In 2025, the ultra-deepwater segment dominated the global market. Ultra-deepwater dominates offshore decommissioning by water depth because decommissioning activity is increasingly concentrated where capital intensity, regulatory exposure, and well complexity intersect at the highest level. The ultra-deepwater projects rely heavily on subsea architectures with long tiebacks, high well counts, and minimal surface infrastructure, leaving wells as the primary decommissioning liability once host facilities are retired.

The shallow water segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.77%.

Offshore Decommissioning Market Regional Outlook

By region, the market is categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World.

North America

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North America is projected to record a CAGR of 7.06% in the coming years, the second-highest among all regions, and reach a valuation of USD 2.30 billion by 2025. Offshore decommissioning is particularly prominent in North America, primarily driven by the scale, age, and regulatory structure of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The GoM is one of the world’s most mature offshore basins, with offshore development dating back to the 1940s. As a result, the region contains over 14,000 inactive offshore wells and more than 2,000 decommissioned platforms, creating a continuous pipeline of abandonment work. Many shallow-water platforms installed in the 1970s–1990s have exceeded economic life, while deepwater fields sanctioned in the early 2000s are now entering late-life phases.

U.S. Offshore Decommissioning Market

Based on North America’s substantial contribution and the U.S. dominance within the region, the U.S. market can be analytically approximated at around USD 2.26 billion in 2025, accounting for roughly 26.49% of the global market size.

Europe

Europe held the dominant share in 2025, valued at USD 4.23 billion, and also maintained the leading position in 2026, with USD 4.52 billion.

Offshore decommissioning is highly active in Europe, primarily due to the maturity and regulatory intensity of the North Sea basin, which spans the U.K., Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. A significant portion of Europe’s offshore oil and gas infrastructure was installed between the 1970s and 1990s and is now operating well beyond its original design lifespan. More than 600 fixed platforms and over 10,000 offshore wells in the North Sea are scheduled for decommissioning over the next three decades, creating one of the world’s largest and most predictable decommissioning pipelines.

U.K. Offshore Decommissioning Market

The U.K. offshore decommissioning market in 2025 is estimated to be around USD 1.66 billion, and is projected to reach USD 1.79 billion in 2026, representing approximately 19.51% of the global offshore decommissioning revenues.  

Asia Pacific

Asia Pacific is estimated to reach USD 1.48 billion in 2025 and secure the position of the third-largest region in the market. In the region, Australia and Malaysia are both estimated to reach USD 0.77 billion and USD 0.28 billion, respectively, in 2025.

Offshore decommissioning is gaining strong momentum in the Asia Pacific region due to the simultaneous aging of early offshore developments and tightening national regulatory oversight, particularly in Southeast Asia and Australia. Many offshore fields in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and offshore China were developed between the late 1970s and 1990s using fixed platforms in shallow to mid-water depths. These assets are now approaching or exceeding economic life, with declining production and rising integrity issues forcing operators to initiate abandonment programs.

Australia Offshore Decommissioning Market

The Australian offshore decommissioning market in 2025 is estimated at around USD 0.77 billion, accounting for roughly 9.01% of global offshore decommissioning revenues.

Australia's offshore decommissioning is accelerating as aging assets in the Bass Strait and Northwest Shelf face stricter financial assurance rules and increased liability enforcement, compelling operators to transition from prolonged life extension to full-scale well abandonment and infrastructure removal.

Malaysia Offshore Decommissioning Market

Malaysia’s offshore decommissioning market is projected to be significant worldwide, with 2025 revenues estimated at around USD 0.28 billion, representing approximately 3.34% of the global offshore decommissioning market.

Indonesia Offshore Decommissioning Market

The Indonesian offshore decommissioning market in 2025 is estimated to be around USD 0.15 billion, accounting for approximately 1.74% of global revenues.

Rest of the World

The rest of the World is expected to witness moderate growth in this market space during the forecast period. The Rest of the World market is set to reach a valuation of USD 0.51 billion in 2025.

Offshore decommissioning in the Rest of the World is emerging unevenly across Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, driven by the aging of first-generation offshore assets and the gradual tightening of regulations, but constrained by limited local execution capacity and delayed enforcement of abandonment.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Key Industry Players

Vendors are actively expanding their offshore decommissioning market share via partnerships, regulatory approvals, business expansion, and technological advancements.

The global offshore decommissioning market has a fragmented market structure, comprising prominent players such as Allseas Group SA, Heerema Marine Contractors, and Boskalis Westminster NV, among others. Companies operating in offshore decommissioning are adopting targeted growth strategies focused on strengthening technical capabilities, expanding regulatory approvals, and managing aging offshore assets.

• For instance, in September 2025, TAQA U.K. awarded Allseas the Brae Alpha decommissioning contract in the U.K. Central North Sea. Allseas will undertake the engineering, preparation, removal, and disposal (EPRD) of the 33,000-tonne topsides, 13,000-tonne jacket, and 34 conductors using its heavy-lift vessel Pioneering Spirit, with execution planned from 2028 to 2032. The project targets at least 95 % material reuse/recycling and builds on Allseas’ extensive U.K. decommissioning portfolio.

Other key players in the global market include DEME Offshore, Saipem SpA, Subsea 7 SA, TechnipFMC PLC, and others. These companies are expected to prioritize new partnerships and contracts to increase their global market share during the forecast period.

LIST OF KEY OFFSHORE DECOMMISSIONING COMPANIES PROFILED

• Allseas Group SA (Switzerland)
• Heerema Marine Contractors (Netherlands)
• Boskalis Westminster NV (Netherlands)
• DEME Offshore (Belgium)
• Saipem SpA (Italy)
• Subsea 7 SA (U.K.)
• TechnipFMC PLC (U.S)
• Aker Solutions ASA (Norway)
• AF Gruppen ASA (Norway)
• DeepOcean Group Holding BV (Netherlands)

KEY INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS

• In January 2026, AF Offshore Decom (a subsidiary of AF Gruppen) was awarded a contract by Ithaca Energy to carry out the engineering, receipt, dismantling, and recycling of the FPF-1 floating production platform in the U.K. sector of the North Sea. The floating facility weighs approximately 23,000 metric tonnes and is scheduled to be received at AF Environmental Base Vats in 2026. The contract value is estimated at NOK 225–275 million, reinforcing AF Offshore Decom’s growing footprint in complex offshore decommissioning projects involving significant floating assets.
• In October 2025, Heerema Marine Contractors was awarded a decommissioning contract by BP for the Engineering, Preparation, and Removal (EPR) of the Andrew platform’s topside and jacket in the U.K. North Sea. The scope includes removal, transport, and offloading of critical modules and the four-leg steel jacket, following a 2024 removal of the Andrew Drilling Equipment Set (DES). High safety, sustainability, and execution standards are emphasized.
• In December 2025, Subsea7 secured a sizeable contract from Ithaca Energy to deliver off-station decommissioning services for the Alba Floating Storage Unit (FSU) and Greater Stella field FPF-1 facility in the U.K. North Sea. Scope includes subsea pipeline flushing, diver support vessel services, and seabed clearance. Project management and engineering will commence immediately from Aberdeen, with offshore removal activities scheduled to begin in Q2 2026.
• In February 2025, AF Gruppen’s decommissioning arm, AF Offshore Decom, secured a key contract from Scaldis Salvage for engineering and offshore preparation of three bridge-linked platforms on the U.K. Continental Shelf. The project, valued at NOK 100–125 million, will involve survey, engineering, and preparation work ahead of topside removal in Q2 2026, highlighting AF Gruppen’s expanding footprint in North Sea decommissioning execution.
• In March 2025, TechnipFMC reiterated its role in subsea infrastructure recovery technologies, which are critical to offshore decommissioning, particularly in deepwater well P&A solutions and remote intervention tooling. Although specific decommissioning project awards have not been disclosed, the company’s focus on advanced intervention systems and digital monitoring is positioning it as a preferred supplier in major decommissioning scopes globally.

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