The UK & Uganda's Decommissioning Legal Regimes On Oil & Gas

Oil and gas operations involve several stages; including exploration, development, production and decommissioning. In contrast to the first three stages, the process relating to decommissioning can appear at first sight to be considerably less glamorous. Yet the technical challenges involved are increasingly regarded as comparable to those associated with constructions and installations. The legal treatment of the decommissioning process in terms of environmental protection, or on-going liabilities is now understood as a crucial part of a mature province. The United Kingdom has had a very long history of extracting oil and gas as well as a great experience in the legal treatment of the decommissioning of offshore installations, considering the conventions it has ratified and the Brent Spar experience which transformed its decommissioning legal regime entirely. Uganda on the other hand has no experience in the legal treatment of decommissioning. It has ratified the 1958 Geneva Convention on decommissioning. Both its domestic law on petroleum and oil and gas policy contain serious lacunae.