Over 200 oil and gas fields in the UK Continental Shelf will be decommissioned in the next decade, at an anticipated cost of over £20 bn (OGA Cost Estimate Report 2019). The UK has the opportunity to become a world leader in the safe, cost effective and environmentally sound decommissioning of our offshore assets.
The Decommissioning Regulatory Hub (DecomRegHub) is a partnership of regulatory agencies with a shared interest in oil and gas decommissioning. Our goal is to build a hub to help the decommissioning sector understand their regulatory obligations, from planning for decommissioning through safe dismantling of infrastructure and disposal of waste.
The DecomRegHub's initial focus will be on decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure in the UK Continental Shelf. The scope of DecomRegHub's work is defined as "the collective activities involved in withdrawing oil and gas infrastructure from operation at the end of its economic life, including the safe and legal processing of materials returned to shore, as far up the waste hierarchy as possible".
In order to do this, we have developed a Regulatory Forum and a Digital Hub to:
The DecomRegHub design phase ran from November 2018 to March 2020. It was funded by a grant from the £10m Regulators Pioneer Fund launched by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and administered by Innovate UK. The Regulators Pioneer Fund aims to promote cutting-edge regulatory practices to help make the UK the world’s most innovative economy, whilst protecting citizens and the environment.
This website represents the first phase of the Digital Hub, to be further developed in consultation with industry and public sector stakeholders. Our Regulatory Forum is now up and running, and considering a number of cross-regulatory issues identified in our user research phase. Visit our Regulatory Forum page to find out more about the work of the forum.
Please explore our site or take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions.
SEPA is consulting on an amendment to Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulations permit conditions for the receipt of radioactive waste and contaminated items, including NORM.
