REGULATORS have cautioned oil and gas firms to increase their efforts in decommissioning activities in the North Sea.
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) is urging businesses to address their oil and gas heritage and said it was “getting tough” on firms failing to comply with their regulatory duties.
Frequent postponements in the process of well plugging and abandonment -where wells are plugged with concrete to protect groundwater resources and prevent surface pollution and methane emission – are driving up the projected costs for decommissioning activities on the UK Continental Shelf, the NSTA has stated.
The details have been presented in the NSTA’s most recent update on decommissioning costs and performance, as reported by the BBC.
