Salvage, Oil & Gas and Marine Science:
Complementary Disciplines or Strange Bed Fellows

20 October 2009 London Open Meeting

Chair Moya Crawford, Deep Tek Ltd

Sponsored by International Salvage Union (ISU) and Shipowners

Overview

We would concur that offshore installations, like wrecks, are de facto artificial reefs and sustain a far higher proportion of marine life than their surroundings.

So reads a précis of a salvor's evidence to the House of Common's Energy Committee on the 'Decommissioning of Oil and Gas Fields' in 1991, highlighting mutual experience and touching on a number of issues that still remain highly controversial today. What has changed in the interim, however, is the sheer volume of legislation effecting both the salvage and oil and gas sector, enacted through a combination of state, European and international law; a considerable proportion of which conflicts in logic and sets different criteria depending on the underwater task.

Managing the use of the marine environment is an exacting undertaking, in which the consumption of energy and the safety of human life have to be taken into consideration alongside the impact on the surface, water column and sea floor, if a 'holistic' view is to be taken. The purpose of the open meeting was to identify challenges that can be beneficially pursued by collaboration and discussion between what are currently two quite separate fraternities – the marine salvage and oil and gas industries – with the potential solutions being informed by leading edge marine science.

The specific themes and topics identified will be taken forward by the SUT's newly created Salvage and Decommissioning Committee.

Flyer