Oil Rigs as Artificial Reefs
Rhonda Moniz
January 5, 2012
Offshore Oil platforms at some point reach an end in their production lives and are generally decommissioned. This is a costly operation costing the operators between 4 and 10 million dollars. The Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) issued new decommissioning regulations in 2010. The regulation (NTL 2010-G05) requires wells that have not been used for the last five years to be to be permanently abandoned, temporarily abandoned, or zonally isolated within 3 years after Oct. 15, 2010. If wells are zonally isolated, operators have 2 additional years to permanently or temporarily abandon the wellhead. Plus, platforms and supporting infrastructure that has been idle for five or more years must be removed within 5 years as of the Oct.