Rigged: How the North Sea oil and gas industry is undermining future generations
This paper explains how each child in the UK could be handed a toxic bill of up to £3,000 if the government allows North Sea oil and gas companies to escape their decommissioning obligations.
The bill for the expensive legacy of decommissioning 3,000 pipelines covering 8,000 kilometres, 5,000 wells, 250 fixed installations and 250 subsea production systems, could exceed £80 billion, more than double current, preferred government estimates.
The authors argue that the government is allowing companies to break the principles of the Energy Act 2004 by off-loading their North Sea holdings onto smaller contractors and retain just one quarter of the costs of decommissioning while benefitting from generous tax breaks.