The global offshore decommissioning market is on the verge of a massive growth supercycle. According to a newly released report by Fortune Business Insights, the sector is projected to nearly double in value, surging from $9.07 billion in 2026 to an unprecedented $16.73 billion by 2034, expanding at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.96%.
The data, set to be featured in the upcoming decommissioning-focused issue of the OGV Energy publication, reveals that this boom is driven not purely by the broader energy transition narrative, but by the unavoidable reality of aging infrastructure, severe asset degradation, and increasingly aggressive regulatory enforcement.
Europe (The North Sea) Remains the Epicenter For the UK and European supply chain, the report confirms that the North Sea remains the undisputed global capital of decommissioning. Europe dominated the global market in 2025, commanding a staggering 49.65% share.
Assets installed in the late 1970s and 1980s originally designed for a 25-year lifespan—have now been pushed to their absolute engineering limits. With rising integrity risks, advanced corrosion, and escalating maintenance costs, operators find that continued life-extension is no longer economically justifiable or legally permissible.
Regulators are simultaneously closing loopholes. The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) recently made headlines by publicly identifying operators falling behind on their plugging and abandonment (P&A) obligations, signaling a new era of strict enforcement where operators must provide full financial assurance for their decommissioning liabilities.
The Shift to “Mega-Contracts” The Fortune Business Insights data highlights a fundamental shift in how decommissioning is being executed. The industry is moving rapidly away from fragmented, multi-vendor projects and toward Integrated Single-Contract (EPC-style) models.
Operators are now increasingly awarding end-to-end decommissioning contracts to single lead contractors or consortiums to lock in cost certainty, transfer execution risk, and simplify regulatory compliance. Companies with heavy-lift capabilities, subsea services, and certified recycling yards—such as Allseas Group, Heerema, and AF Gruppen—are gaining a massive competitive advantage.
Recent major awards reflect this trend, including TAQA U.K. awarding Allseas the massive Brae Alpha EPRD (Engineering, Preparation, Removal, and Disposal) contract, and Ithaca Energy selecting AF Offshore Decom for the FPF-1 floating production platform recycling.
The P&A Challenge: 7,500 Wells Waiting Breaking down the market by service type, Well Decommissioning continues to dominate. Plugging and Abandonment (P&A) remains the most cost-intensive and volume-driven activity, accounting for 45% to 60% of total project expenditures globally.
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 it the single largest liability class—and the single largest commercial opportunity—for the subsurface supply chain.
Industry Comment: “This data confirms what the supply chain has been feeling on the ground,” noted the editorial team at Global Energy Network (GEN). “We are moving out of the ‘planning’ phase and into the ‘execution’ phase of global decommissioning. The operators who try to piecemeal these projects will face severe schedule overruns, while the supply chain companies that can offer integrated, tech-led removal solutions are looking at a decade of unprecedented, guaranteed pipeline.”
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