The Government takes the protection and resilience of subsea and offshore infrastructure seriously and departments work together to protect it from malicious and other hazards such as accidental damage. The Cabinet Office is responsible for coordinating interdepartmental efforts. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is the lead department for the energy sector, including subsea energy CrNI. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is the lead department for telecommunications policy, including telecommunications subsea cables. The Ministry of Defence is responsible for defending UK interests within the UK Marine Area (UK Territorial Waters and Exclusive Economic Zones) and forms part of HMG’s efforts to counter state threats.

The UK regulators, the Oil and Gas Authority and the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning have a role in the licensing of future offshore oil and gas developments, but whether to proceed with them is a commercial decision for the operators concerned. The risk of ‘stranded assets’ will be among the many risks operators consider when making investment decisions.

According to the Oil and Gas Authority’s ‘UKCS Decommissioning Cost Estimate 2021’ report (copy attached), the total cost of decommissioning UK Continental Shelf offshore oil and gas infrastructure has reduced to £46bn[1] equating to a projected saving of nearly £14bn (23%) since the 2017 cost reduction target[2] was first established.

With extant oil and gas licences which have not yet been granted planning approval, we do not know which will be developed, so it is not possible to say how much they will cost to decommission, although the Oil and Gas Authority’s UK Continental Shelf full portfolio estimate referenced in the report attached includes £2bn for planned but as yet unsanctioned/not-built projects.

[1] Costs shown in 2016 prices, for expenditure in 2017 and after

[2] Basis of 2017 estimate, 2016 Annual OGA Stewardship survey