CB&I Asset Solutions awarded EnQuest contract to manage Kittiwake platform through decommissioning in UK North Sea
AI-madeCB&I Asset Solutions just landed a life-of-field contract from EnQuest to keep managing the Kittiwake platform in the UK North Sea as Duty Holder — stretching a partnership that already runs nearly 23 years into the platform’s final chapter. The new deal expands CB&I’s role beyond late-life asset management to include cessation of production and full decommissioning.
CB&I extends Kittiwake role through final decommissioning phase
This contract marks a rare milestone: an operational partnership that’s genuinely lasted. CB&I Asset Solutions first took on the Duty Holder role at Kittiwake in 2003, working alongside Centrica, then Venture, and eventually EnQuest after it acquired the asset in 2014. Through every ownership change, CB&I’s team stayed put — an unusual constant in an industry where new operators typically bring in new management.
Kittiwake sits at the center of the Greater Kittiwake Area, acting as a production hub for several subsea tie-backs. That hub role makes decommissioning considerably more complicated than it would be for a standalone platform — multiple connected assets need coordinating, and having a team that already knows the infrastructure inside out is a real advantage when heading into that kind of complexity.
The outsourced Duty Holder model that CB&I helped establish in 1997 is now a recognized framework for handling late-life complexity of exactly this kind.
The new contract expands what CB&I is actually responsible for. The earlier arrangement focused on late-life asset management. Now, the life-of-field contract runs all the way through full decommissioning. CB&I is seeing this platform to the very end.
Why EnQuest chose to extend the existing partnership
EnQuest didn’t go to market for a decommissioning specialist. They kept the team they had — and that’s a deliberate call. Decommissioning is technically demanding and carries real safety risk, especially on aging infrastructure. Familiarity with an asset’s history, its quirks, its crew, cuts down on uncertainty at exactly the moment when uncertainty is most expensive.
CB&I’s Asset Solutions team has a specific claim to that familiarity. The business pioneered the outsourced Duty Holder model back in 1997, making it one of the earliest operators in this niche. That model — where an independent contractor takes on full Duty Holder responsibilities rather than the asset owner running operations directly — is now well-established across the North Sea, particularly for late-life platforms.
John Telford, Kittiwake Asset Manager at EnQuest, pointed straight to the team’s track record when explaining the decision. He cited CB&I’s “strong operational performance, an unwavering commitment to safety and a deep understanding of the asset,” and flagged the “one team” approach as central to why the partnership works. That speaks to how integrated CB&I’s offshore crew has become with EnQuest’s own management structure — cultural alignment that isn’t easy to replicate, and that EnQuest clearly treated as a risk management asset in its own right.
Safety record and operational performance underpin the award
Here’s the number that stands out: more than 20 years without a lost time incident. In offshore oil and gas, where the environment is inherently hazardous, sustaining that record over two decades isn’t luck. It reflects real operational discipline.
That record carries practical consequences beyond the obvious human benefit. A clean LTI history signals to operators that a contractor manages risk systematically rather than reactively — and it tends to correlate with lower unplanned downtime, more predictable maintenance, fewer regulatory headaches. All of that matters when you’re trying to extract remaining value from a late-life asset before decommissioning costs start stacking up.
CB&I’s onshore team in Aberdeen has been a key part of holding that standard. Offshore operations don’t run on offshore crews alone; shore-based engineering, logistics, and technical support play a continuous role. Aberdeen’s position at the center of the UK North Sea makes it well-placed to provide that backbone.
John Pearson, Chief Operating Officer of CB&I Asset Solutions, described the award as “bittersweet” — acknowledging the end of an asset’s life while expressing pride in being chosen to manage that final chapter. It’s an honest framing. Decommissioning work is both an ending and a professional validation, often at the same time.
Kittiwake’s place in the UK North Sea decommissioning landscape
Kittiwake isn’t an isolated case. It’s one of a growing number of UK North Sea platforms reaching end-of-life, a direct reflection of how mature the basin has become. Many fields developed in the 1970s and 1980s are now in their final production phases, and the industry is increasingly focused on how to manage that transition responsibly and cost-effectively.
Decommissioning has become a significant sector in its own right. The volume of infrastructure that needs to be removed or decommissioned over the coming decades represents a genuine logistical challenge — and a real commercial opportunity for contractors with the right experience and track record to back it up.
The outsourced Duty Holder model that CB&I helped establish in 1997 is now a recognized framework for handling late-life complexity of exactly this kind. For EnQuest, the Kittiwake decommissioning will likely serve as a reference case — demonstrating how a well-managed transition from production to decommissioning can be done safely and efficiently. For CB&I, completing the full lifecycle of a platform strengthens its position in a market that’s only going to keep growing.
Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.
