ABSTRACT
Understandably, when exploration and development commenced in the UKCS little attention was given to the question of the decommissioning of facilities. The priorities were to expedite the early exploitation of gas and oil and Government policies were geared to the attainment of this objective. The subject acquired serious attention within Government in the later 1970s when a small platform in the West Sole field was decommissioned by BP in the autumn of 1978, involving full removal of the facilities. There were no great problems in this case and the company obtained a certificate of seabed clearance without fuss.
