Many of Australia’s offshore oil and gas projects have finished. Wells need to be plugged; steel structures and pipelines removed. There’s A$60 billion worth of work to be done in coming decades.
The coal seam gas industry and its regulators still have work to do in persuading local communities that old wells can be decommissioned without future problems, according to new CSIRO research.
Shell’s proposals to decommission its four Brent platforms are a test case for North Sea industry. But here’s why decommissioning is not what it’s cracked up to be.