Sustainable approach to the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas rigs : a legal analysis

Abstract

This dissertation focuses mainly on the environmental aspects of sustainable decommissioning from a legal perspective. It aims to examine the extent to which the legal framework on decommissioning integrates sustainability and more especially environmental sustainability on three levels: international, European Union and national level, in the U.S. and in Nigeria. Therefore, this dissertation will analyze the extent to which the protection of the environment is taken into account in the decision–making process concerning offshore decommissioning. For this purpose, different data sources were used: international and regional conventions, EU law, Nigerian and U.S. national laws and host government contracts; law cases; and law doctrine and research. The main difficulties encountered were due to the fact there is no oil and gas offshore decommissioning regulation at the EU level. Therefore, there is little literature available that directly addresses this at the EU level. Moreover, according to the legal context, the laws applicable to offshore decommissioning may be unclear and every so often contradictory. The first chapter will analyze the offshore decommissioning and environmental protection under international law. Due to the lack of explicit global agreement on offshore decommissioning, the chapter will focus on the UNCLOS, the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (London Convention) and the 1996 Protocol to the London Convention 1972 (London Protocol), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD as well as regional sea conventions which embed provisions on dumping of redundant oil and gas facilities at sea and the protection of the environment. The chapter aims to demonstrate the ground provided to sustainable offshore decommissioning at the international level and the limits of these regulations focusing on an environmental point of view. Guidance documents, which are established through the above-mentioned conventions, shall also be analyzed in this chapter since they provide assistance to States in spite of their non-binding legal nature. The second chapter will examine the integration of sustainable decommissioning in European Union (EU) law. This examination shall start from the assertion that EU law lacks a specific comprehensive framework for offshore decommissioning. This is despite an attempt to create one after the Brent Spar crises. Given that the Brent Spar incident has created a movement of interests towards offshore decommissioning in Europe, its consequences at the EU level will be examined. Having analyzed this event, the consequences of a lack of specific EU legal framework for offshore decommissioning will be demonstrated. Nevertheless, this chapter provides an overview of EU laws applicable to offshore decommissioning focusing on the environmental and sustainable aspects. It also analyses the liability and insurance aspects of offshore decommissioning given that liability and financial guaranties contribute to promote a sustainable approach to decommissioning. Due to the large range of laws, only some directives (i.e. the Oil and Gas Safety Directive,23 the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Habitat Directive, the Waste Framework Directive and the Environmental Liability Directive) would be analyzed. The third chapter is a comparative analysis of the laws applicable to offshore decommissioning in Nigeria and in the U.S.. Both are federal States; this chapter shall focus on the federal law. This chapter takes into account that comparatively, the U.S. has a more mature legal framework on this issue. Therefore, this chapter aims to recommend changes to be made to the Nigerian system based on U.S. model on decommission that ensures environmentally sustainable offshore decommissioning. This chapter examine the laws and policy of these States as well as aspects of the petroleum contracting system related to decommissioning. This chapter presents the implementation of the rigs-to-reefs program in the U.S. given that, compared to Europe, the conversion of platforms into artificial reefs is an option which represents around 10% of the decommissioning. This option is of particular interest as it avoids the destruction of habitats which have developed in the area as a result of the installations. Therefore, such program could represent a valuable option. This comparative chapter is of interest especially with regards to the recommendation made to improve the Nigerian framework on decommissioning and to other States which may deal with decommissioning in the future.