Midnight at the oasis: does restoration change the rigs-to-reefs debate in the North Sea?

In the North Sea, many oil and gas fields will reach the end of their productivity and their associated structures will be decommissioned. OSPAR decision 98/3 prescribes removal of all disused offshore structures as the only acceptable decommissioning option. This policy is the legacy of the 1995 Br...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental policy & planning 2020-03, Vol.22 (2), p.211-225
Main Authors: Ounanian, Kristen, van Tatenhove, Jan P.M., Ramírez-Monsalve, Paulina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial reefs
Conversion
Decommissioning
Discourse analysis
Ecosystems
Environmental changes
environmental discourses
Hands
Marine ecosystems
Marine restoration
North Sea
Oceans
Offshore drilling rigs
Offshore engineering
Offshore structures
Oil and gas fields
OSPAR
Petroleum
Productivity
Restoration
rigs-to-reefs
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Summary:In the North Sea, many oil and gas fields will reach the end of their productivity and their associated structures will be decommissioned. OSPAR decision 98/3 prescribes removal of all disused offshore structures as the only acceptable decommissioning option. This policy is the legacy of the 1995 Brent Spar incident, which resulted in the current dominant discourse of 'Hands off the Oceans,' ruling out the conversion of oil and gas rigs into artificial reefs (Rigs-to-Reefs (RtR)). The shift from a conservation to a restoration paradigm could open up the RtR debate. In this paper, a discourse analysis is carried out to discern whether and how ideas about RtR and ecosystem restoration are articulated to challenge the dominant 'Hands off the Oceans' discourse and thereby bring about change in North Sea decommissioning policy. A discourse analytic framework is applied to elucidate whether an 'RtR as Restoration' discourse can be distinguished and how competing claims are presented in the various storylines. Our analysis shows an 'RtR as Restoration' discourse, consisting of four different storylines. Given the fragmented nature of this discourse, the 'RtR as Restoration' discourse will not overcome the dominant 'Hands off the Oceans' discourse.
ISSN:1523-908X
1522-7200
DOI:10.1080/1523908X.2019.1697657