The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has launched a report produced alongside the Macquarie University’s Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Innovation and Transformation calling for a major shakeup in government policy and regulation for the dismantling, processing, recycling and disposal of offshore oil and gas infrastructure.
The report focuses on the decommissioning processes of offshore infrastructure and the necessary next steps once the structure are removed.
MUA’s Assistant National Secretary, Adrian Evans, said, “Australian maritime workers built and maintained our offshore oil and gas industry throughout the latter decades of the 20th Century, and with our eyes set firmly on the need to decarbonise our economy and diversify our renewable energy supplies the MUA is advocating for a sustainable and clean withdrawal from offshore oil and gas that includes the comprehensive removal and recycling of the massive volume of disused offshore equipment.”
The MUA and the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Innovation and Transformation have examined Australia’s international and legal obligations and domestic laws relating to the decommissioning and disposal of the offshore infrastructures and have identified gaps in the legal framework, analysed best practice in mature jurisdictions and provided a series of recommendations for the development of the Australian government’s policy.
Mich-Elle Myers, MUA Assistant National Secretary, commented, “Offshore energy projects have provided generations of members with rewarding and fulfilling work building and maintaining the infrastructure that powers our economy. That’s not going to change with the shift to offshore renewable projects, and as older oil and gas projects wind down and come offline we have a collective obligation to remove and dispose of these installations thoroughly and sustainably.”
