Research On The Legal Regulation Of Decommissioning Of Offshore Oil And Gas Drilling Platforms In China

With the continuous expansion of demand for oil and gas resources,the development of offshore oil and gas resources in various countries in the world is also increasingly rapid.The continuous improvement of mining technology and the increasing number of offshore oil and gas rigs have made more and more drilling platforms reach the design life,and how to better manage platform decommissioning problems has also become one of the important considerations for people to prevent marine pollution and protect the marine environment.In the decommissioning problems management of drilling platforms in our country,there is a lack of unified legislation and unclear relevant provisions,which restrict the realization of the legislative effect of marine environmental protection to a certain extent.On the basis of combing the relevant provisions on the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas drilling platforms in our country,this paper conducts an in-depth study on the legal regulation of the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas drilling platforms in other countries,and combines the actual situation in our country to explore and improve the basic orientation of the legal regulation of the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas drilling platforms in our country,so as to provide a favorable reference for the construction of a more complete legal system for the development of offshore oil and gas resources and marine environmental protection.The first part is the conceptual definition and type analysis of offshore oil and gas rig decommissioning problems.Offshore oil and gas drilling platforms mainly refer to offshore structures used for offshore oil and gas exploration and development,loaded with basic braking,communications,navigation,emergency rescue,personnel life and other facilities.According to what kind of components it is composed of and whether it can be moved,it can be roughly divided into five categories: fixed drilling platform,sit-on drilling platform,jack-up drilling Rig,semi-submersible drilling platform and mobile drilling platform.Overall,the drilling platform has the following five characteristics: one is high value,the second is flexible,the third is high risk,the fourth is industry characteristics,and the fifth is regional characteristics.In the definition of the legal attributes of the drilling platform,there are three views: "the nature of real estate","the nature of ships" and "the nature of independence".Decommissioning offshore platform mainly refers to a series of activities such as the preparation of decommissioning plans,the acquisition of decommissioning permits and the implementation of decommissioning operations carried out by the owners or users of various types of offshore oil and gas resources when they reach the life expectancy or are converted to other functions for use,mainly including three types: in situ decommissioning,off-site decommissioning and other uses.The second part is the current situation and existing problems of legal regulation on decommissioning of offshore oil and gas drilling platforms in our country.At present,our legal regulation of the abandonment of offshore drilling platforms covers multiple levels of effectiveness such as the basic law,departmental regulations and industry regulations.There are provisions involving the decommissioning method of the drilling platform,the regulatory body,the approval process,the provision of the decommissioning fee,and the marine environmental damage liability system,but the overall situation of decentralized legislation is presented.We regards the abandonment of the drilling platform as an administrative license and adopts the approval method.In addition,the legal regulation focuses on the basic requirements of marine environmental protection.The current situation of unified legislation has led to the existence of disputes between "ship theory" and "non-ship theory" in the definition of platform attributes,the content requirements of documents in the decommissioning approval are general and the licensing standards are vague,the management authority overlaps due to the definition of platform attributes and different decommissioning methods,the principle of attribution in the liability system is not clear,and the calculation method of loss compensation is not clear.The third part is the extraterritorial investigation and reference of offshore oil and gas rig abandonment.The United Kingdom,the United States,Australia and Canada have all regulated the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas drilling platforms,and the provisions on the definition of platform attributes,the decommissioning authority,the decommissioning approval standards,and the marine environmental damage liability system are relatively mature,laying a good foundation for their marine environmental protection.The fourth part is to improve the legal regulation of the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas rigs in our country.First,clarify the attributes of the platform,give the platform an independent status,and clearly apply the abandonment system;second,clarify the management authority,clarify the power structure,and improve the supervision method;third,strict licensing standards,standardize the content requirements of the application and approval documents,and improve the licensing approval procedures;fourth,improve the responsibility system,establish a scientific principle of attribution,reasonably delineate the scope of compensation,and improve the form of punishment liability.