Decommissioning Offshore Installations: international, regional and domestic legal regimes in the light of emergent commercial, political, environmental and fiscal concerns

This paper reviews international and regional obligations in relation to the
decommissioning of offshore oil and gas installations with a view to considering the strength of the arguments now being aired in favour of their relaxation. The
conclusions drawn indicate that the situation is more complex than policy makers
have perhaps assumed, but that political realities make substantial change difficult to achieve. The extent to which environmental protection will trump cost, fiscal and energy security concerns remains to be seen. However, one paradoxical possibility is that the current regional arrangements in the North-East Atlantic region may need to be tempered precisely because of environmental considerations. Although focusing on regional developments under the OSPAR Convention, and making reference to the UK as an example of a mature hydrocarbon province, the paper will be of interest in other Regional Seas areas confronting similar concerns.