Environmental group the WWF has said oil firms should not be allowed to “dodge their obligations” to dispose of old platforms in the North Sea.
It comes after the former energy secretary Sir Ed Davey and a former director of Friends of the Earth, Jonathan Porritt, wrote an op-ed in The Times calling for a flexible approach to decommissioning.
They suggested leaving old platforms in the North Sea could save billions of taxpayer pounds as well as prevent environmental damage.
Around £24billion is expected to come from taxpayers’ money to fund decommissioning in the coming decades.
Rules were changed around 20 years ago obliging energy companies to leave no trace of their operations.
The move was taken after public outcry over Shell’s plans to dump the Brent Spar storage buoy in the sea in 1995.
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: “Having made hundreds of millions of pounds in profit over the years, oil and gas companies should not be allowed to dodge their obligations to clean up
their mess and protect the marine environment. Give the fossil fuel industry an inch on this and they’ll take a mile.
“The OSPAR agreement already allows, in certain circumstances such as protecting worker safety or preventing serious risk to the environment, for companies to request permission to leave some stuff behind on the seabed. This is something we support.
“It should be remembered that it’s only because of these OSPAR rules that every rig placed in the North Sea for the past two decades has had to be built in a way that allows it to be removed. Any moves to unwind OSPAR’s rules on this issue would not be in the interests of protecting the marine environment or maintaining the ‘polluter pays’ principle.
“The idea that the oil and gas industry would gladly spend all the money they’d save, from not having to clean-up their hazardous legacy, into other environmental projects instead is pie in the sky.”
Former Liberal Democrat minister Sir Ed Davey said while he was in government he had not reviewed the rules as he was not aware of the environmental impact.
But he said he now believes the “clean sea-bed principle is bad for the environment and bad for the taxpayer.”
He said: “Why waste money and damage the environment? It’s crazy.”
The former politician also claimed oil firms were too afraid to bring forward the issue.
Oil major Shell is currently in the spotlight with decommissioning as it gets ready for its plans for the Brent field.
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