Domestic and foreign subsea oil and gas pipeline abandonment and disposal standards

Abandonment and disposal is an important link in the entire life-cycle management of subsea oil and gas pipelines, there is no special standard for abandonment and disposal of the subsea oil and gas pipelines at present. Therefore, it is necessary to study and sort out the standards for the abandonment and disposal of offshore oil and gas facilities and the related legal norms, standards and guidelines for the abandonment and disposal of subsea pipelines at home and abroad. It is indicated that the related international organizations and coastal countries all have their own legal norms and operational guidelines of subsea pipeline abandonment and disposal, but so far, no unified standard is available. In China, relevant abandonment and disposal legal norms and standards are too vague without specific requirements on subsea pipelines to deal with the complex problems of offshore pipeline abandonment and disposal. Then, the legal norms and standards of subsea structure abandonment and disposal stipulated by domestic and foreign governments and petroleum companies were comparatively analyzed to find shortcomings of China's current legal norms and standards. And finally, suggestions on the formulation of domestic subsea oil and gas pipeline abandonment and disposal legal norms and standards were proposed from the aspects of regional legislation, responsibility subject and concrete implementation schemes.