Public Lecture Invitation: International trends in offshore decommissioning – do the laws protect the environment?

Centre for Mining, Energy and Natural Resources Law

The Centre invites you to a lecture on offshore decommissioning. The main speakers will be Professor John Chandler from the University of Western Australia and Professor John Paterson from the University of Aberdeen.

As the offshore oil and gas industry globally becomes increasingly concerned about the cost of decommissioning redundant infrastructure, the question of what international and Australian law allow in terms of removal or leaving in place has received renewed attention. An increasing amount of scientific research points to the desirability of leaving redundant infrastructure in place precisely because it has become part of a functioning ecosystem. This lecture will explore how the law deals with the competing views of environmental protection, and what lessons may be drawn from experience in different regions.

Professor John Paterson is a Professor in Law at the University of Aberdeen. He has written extensively on energy issues. He is the joint author of Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice and Emerging Trends, now in its third edition (Dundee University Press 2018). He has also written and researched in the area of occupational health and safety in oil and gas (Behind the Mask: Regulating Health and Safety in Britain’s Offshore Oil and Gas Industry, Aldershot 2000) and governance (Governance in the European Union, Luxembourg 2001, of which he was co-editor).