A long-serving North Sea production hub is moving towards shutdown and decommissioning, opening another chapter in the industrial transition facing Aberdeen as ageing oil infrastructure reaches the end of its working life.
The Kittiwake platform, which has produced and processed oil in the central North Sea since 1990, is being prepared for the end of production and eventual decommissioning.
EnQuest has extended the contract of CB&I Asset Solutions to continue managing the installation as duty holder through cessation of production and into the decommissioning phase.
The agreement confirms that Kittiwake is moving beyond routine late-life production management and towards permanent closure, although EnQuest has not published a final cessation date or a detailed timetable for dismantling the platform and its associated infrastructure.
Located in Block 21/18 of the UK Continental Shelf, Kittiwake has operated for 36 years and forms the centre of the Greater Kittiwake Area, a network of mature oil fields and subsea developments east of Aberdeen.
The original Kittiwake field began production in 1990. As its output declined, the platform was retained as a processing hub for nearby fields, allowing smaller discoveries to use existing pipelines and facilities rather than requiring new standalone installations.
The Greater Kittiwake Area comprises the Kittiwake, Mallard, Gadwall, Goosander and Grouse fields. The Scolty and Crathes developments were also tied back to the platform, extending its useful operating life.
EnQuest owns a 50 per cent operated interest in the Greater Kittiwake Area. Dana Petroleum holds the remaining interest in the principal fields, while historic owners retain responsibilities connected with parts of the eventual decommissioning programme.
Production has continued to decline as the reservoirs have matured.
Average output from the Greater Kittiwake Area fell to 1,825 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2025, compared with 2,009 barrels per day in 2024 and 2,412 in 2023. EnQuest attributed the performance partly to natural decline, while reporting production efficiency of 75 per cent during 2025.
At that level, Kittiwake remains operational but contributes only a small part of EnQuest’s wider production portfolio. The economics of keeping an ageing offshore platform running become increasingly difficult as output falls while maintenance, staffing, safety and integrity costs continue.
CB&I Asset Solutions will remain responsible for the safe day-to-day management of the installation during that transition.
An offshore duty holder is responsible for controlling major accident risks and ensuring that an installation’s safety systems, operating procedures and workforce arrangements comply with regulatory requirements. That responsibility continues as production is reduced, systems are shut down and the platform is made ready for decommissioning.
The contractor’s team has worked on Kittiwake since 2003 under a succession of owners and operators, including Venture Production, Centrica and EnQuest.
CB&I says the platform has operated for more than 20 years without a lost-time incident. The company attributes that record to the continuity of the offshore crew and its supporting team in Aberdeen.
John Pearson, chief operating officer of CB&I Asset Solutions, said the company had acted as outsourced duty holder for almost 23 years.
“Whilst bittersweet to anticipate the end of life of the asset, we are honoured to support EnQuest during this final phase,” he said.
EnQuest asset manager John Telford said the contractor had demonstrated strong operational performance and detailed knowledge of the platform over more than two decades.
The workforce will now be responsible for a phase in which offshore risk can remain substantial even after oil production stops.
Cessation of production does not mean that an installation can simply be abandoned or immediately demolished. Wells must be isolated and permanently plugged, pipelines flushed or disconnected, hydrocarbons and hazardous materials removed, and machinery and structural systems maintained until removal or an approved alternative treatment is completed.
Formal decommissioning programmes must be submitted to and approved by the UK Government. These documents normally set out what will be removed, what may remain in place, the proposed timetable, environmental assessments, waste handling and arrangements for monitoring the site after work is completed.
A full decommissioning programme covering the Kittiwake platform and the remaining Greater Kittiwake Area infrastructure has yet to appear on the government’s register of approved offshore programmes.
EnQuest’s role in the closure was expanded in August 2024, when Shell transferred its remaining decommissioning management responsibility for the Kittiwake platform and Mallard field to EnQuest.
Shell had retained that role after selling its interests in the area. EnQuest was subsequently appointed to manage the full Greater Kittiwake Area decommissioning scope on behalf of the joint venture.
The financial responsibility for decommissioning can remain divided among current and former owners under agreements and statutory notices established over the life of an oil field.
Historic Kittiwake decommissioning documents identify Shell, Dana and the operator of the time as parties responsible for parts of the infrastructure. EnQuest acquired its 50 per cent interest in the Greater Kittiwake Area from Centrica in 2014.
The total cost of closing the area has not been made public.
Kittiwake will, however, become part of an offshore decommissioning programme of exceptional scale.
The North Sea Transition Authority estimates that approximately £44 billion remains to be spent decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure across the UK Continental Shelf. About £27 billion is expected to be spent between 2023 and 2032, while plugging and abandoning wells is forecast to account for close to half of the total cost.
That expenditure is often described as an opportunity for Aberdeen and the Scottish supply chain. The work requires offshore engineers, vessel operators, inspection teams, environmental specialists, well-service companies, ports, dismantling yards and waste-management businesses.
The opportunity is not automatic.
Decommissioning work can be awarded internationally, and recovered structures may be taken to facilities outside Scotland. Engineering and project-management activity can also be undertaken elsewhere even when the installation itself is managed from Aberdeen.
Neither EnQuest nor CB&I has identified where the platform will ultimately be dismantled, which ports will support the work or how many jobs will be sustained through the project.
Those decisions will determine how much of Kittiwake’s remaining economic value is retained in Scotland.
Decommissioning also differs fundamentally from production. An operating field can support recurring employment, supply contracts and tax receipts over many years. Decommissioning creates intense periods of specialised work, but the activity ends once the wells are plugged and the infrastructure has been removed or made permanently safe.
The public finances are also involved.
Offshore companies can offset qualifying decommissioning expenditure against taxes paid on North Sea profits. HM Revenue and Customs reported a provision of £5.8 billion for expected petroleum revenue tax and offshore corporation tax repayments to companies through to 2067 because of decommissioning losses. That figure covers the UK sector as a whole rather than Kittiwake alone.
The cost and efficiency of individual projects therefore affect both company liabilities and future tax repayments.
Kittiwake’s final phase is also unfolding after a significant change in the ownership of the contractor responsible for the platform.
The Asset Solutions business was previously part of Petrofac. CB&I completed its acquisition of the division on 9 April 2026, adding offshore operations, maintenance, wells and decommissioning services to its existing engineering and storage business.
The Kittiwake extension demonstrates continuity for the former Petrofac team, but it also places another part of the Aberdeen offshore-services industry under the control of a US company owned by a consortium of financial investors led by Mason Capital Management.
For Aberdeen, the essential question is no longer whether North Sea decommissioning will grow. The scale of ageing infrastructure makes that inevitable.
The question is whether the city and the wider Scottish economy will retain the engineering expertise, physical work, contracts and industrial capacity created by the closure of assets that were managed from Scotland throughout much of their productive lives.
Kittiwake has survived changing owners, declining reservoirs, new subsea connections and the corporate collapse that preceded the sale of Petrofac’s Asset Solutions business.
Its final years will now show whether continuity of experience can deliver a safe and controlled closure — and whether the industrial value of that work remains close to the communities and workforce that supported the platform for more than three decades.
Sources
CB&I — CB&I To Complete Kittiwake Journey With Life Of Field Contract Award
https://www.cbi.com/cbi-to-complete-kittiwake-journey-with-life-of-field-contract-award/
EnQuest — Results For The Year Ended 31 December 2025 And 2026 Outlook
https://www.enquest.com/fileadmin/content/press_release_pdfs/2026/EnQuest_ARA25_RNS_vF.pdf
EnQuest — Results For The Year Ended 31 December 2024 And 2025 Outlook
https://www.enquest.com/fileadmin/content/press_release_pdfs/2025/EnQuest_ARA24_RNS_vF1.pdf
EnQuest — EnQuest Expands Decommissioning Operator Role In The Greater Kittiwake Area
https://www.enquest.com/media/press-releases/article/enquest-expands-decommissioning-operator-role-in-the-greater-kittiwake-area
EnQuest — UK Upstream Operations
https://www.enquest.com/global-operations/uk-upstream
UK Government — Kittiwake SAL Export System Decommissioning Programme
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62601e28d3bf7f6004339dca/kittiwake-sal-export-dp__2_.pdf
UK Government — Kittiwake Loading Buoy Decommissioning Programme
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62602099e90e0729fb842856/kittiwake-buoy-dp.pdf
UK Government — Offshore Oil And Gas Decommissioning Programmes
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/oil-and-gas-decommissioning-of-offshore-installations-and-pipelines
North Sea Transition Authority — New Decommissioning Table Highlights Named Operators’ Performance
https://www.nstauthority.co.uk/news-publications/new-decom-table-highlights-named-operators-performance/
North Sea Transition Authority — EnQuest Heather Fined For Collective Decommissioning Failures
https://www.nstauthority.co.uk/news-publications/enquest-heather-fined-for-collective-decommissioning-failures/
North Sea Transition Authority — Decommissioning And Repurposing
https://www.nstauthority.co.uk/regulatory-information/decommissioning/
HM Revenue And Customs — Annual Report And Accounts 2024 To 2025
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025-our-accounts-and-annexes
CB&I — CB&I Completes Acquisition Of Petrofac Asset Solutions Business
https://www.cbi.com/cbi-completes-acquisition-of-petrofac-asset-solutions-business/
