Description

Decommissioning oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf raises potential legal, regulatory and fiscal challenges – as well as potential lessons for other jurisdictions. Does removing an installation return the seabed to its pristine state or destroy an emergent ecosystem? Do public expectations of complete removal change when at least half the cost is borne by the taxpayer? What happens if an operator wants to decommission infrastructure required by others for nearby economically marginal developments? These and other questions will be considered.

About The Speaker

Professor John Paterson trained as a solicitor in the Office of the Solicitor to the Secretary of State for Scotland before pursuing an academic career. After studying at the EUI, Florence, Italy, he was a Research Assistant at the Centre de Philosophie du Droit, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, where he worked principally on the Governance Project with the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission. He has worked in the field of energy law for many years, with a particular focus on regulatory issues in the offshore oil and gas sector. He has been involved in a wide range of international multidisciplinary projects in research, teaching, training and consultancy in the energy field. He is part of the University of Aberdeen’s team involved in the new National Decommissioning Centre of Excellence being developed in partnership with the Oil and Gas Technology Centre.

Who Should Attend

Lawyers and others with an interest in energy and environmental issues, from a broad range of perspectives.