Decommissioning Of Offshore Installations In Selected Jurisdictions

Life is in cycle that moves from birth to death. As humans pass through this cycle, so do oil and gas installations and pipelines. The latter starts with the application for licence to the relevant regulatory bodies for oil exploitation and production, seismic surveys, the actual oil production and finally to decommissioning. However, decommissioning has posed several challenges to Nigeria and other oil producing countries both on international, regional and national levels as a result of its adverse impacts on the environment. Therefore, this work will peruse the international, regional and national decommissioning laws applicable in Nigeria in order to discover if Nigeria has sufficient/appropriate legislation and regulations in place to prepare for an uncomplicated future offshore decommissioning of its offshore installations and pipelines; and if she does not, whether she can acquire some knowledge from UK and US established systems, being jurisdictions that have strong legal/regulatory frameworks and experiences in offshore activities and decommissioning.