Oil companies are there to make money. And minimise costs (including reputational costs). Decomissioning strategy is really on the regulator, and in a democracy the regulator should act in the interests of the people. This article doesn’t help at all because it’s clear that the author doesn’t understand that in many cases the total environmental cost of removing infrastructure can be higher than the environmental cost of leaving it there. The employees of NOPSEMA who understand the technology are very well aware of this and trying to make decisions despite the howls of ignorance from the community. Crikey readers deserve better.

There are definitely cases where leaving infrastructure in place causes less environmental impact than trying to pull it out. Crikey readers deserve better

Crikey readers deserve better. There are real issues in decomissoning, important tradeoffs to be made, and the more the public is informed about these the better. This kind of article is not informative or useful.

Or they can be converted into offshore detention centres?

Because they make nice resting spots for cute seal pups and sea birds. Unless the wells aren’t capped securely, in which case it’s back to art exhibitions.

Exactly.

Not pedantic at all. If someone could tell me exactly how many platforms are there, and exactly what the specific threat is, I’d pay some attention. Obviously every well needs to be securely plugged, but other than that? There may be thousands of wells, but how many wells per platform? Ships are cleaned up and sunk as dive locations, so why not sink the rigs? Not saying do that, wanting to know why not. Not just some dog whistling.

The charm of your comment is that it could, and should, happen next year: the outrage is that it won’t.

As if these totally reputable oil exploration companies would put profit before the environment or the safety of the workers on those oil rigs (or anywhere else for that matter)? As we all know, we now live in a neo-liberal economy and that means market forces are of paramount consideration. These forces work to ensure that we have the most efficient and compliant companies doing all the important work. The company bosses know that if there is any irregularity, let alone malfeasance going on, then they will not only lose contracts to competitors but also lose face with the public. So, we see that market forces keep everyone on the ‘straight and narrow’ and they work in the interests of the environment and the country as a whole.

Meanwhile, back here on Earth ……!!!

If you want to deal effectively with the issues raised in this article, then at worst you need to heavily regulate this industry and at best, nationalize it (and that is what you do in the event that they go on strike in protest against regulation).