Research On Law And Policy Of Offshore Rigs-to-Reefs Program On The Aspect Of Marine Ranching Construction

Rigs-to-Reefs is one of the dismissing plans and a systematic project reusing decommissioned offshore platforms for artificial reefs construction.At present,the construction of national-level marine ranches has been incorporated into our country's ecological civilization construction and marine power strategy,but it is also having the problem of insufficient investment and narrow channels for rising funds.China's offshore oil and gas industry has started for more than 40 years.Huge amount of money will be required to removal decommissioned offshore platforms in the next few years.To reduce the cost of artificial reef construction and platform decommissioning simultaneously,this study proposes to incorporate rigs-to-reefs program into the national-level marine ranches plan.First,the technical schemes of rigs-to-reefs,types of reefs and their ecological and economic benefits and potential environmental impact risks will be briefly described.Taking the US and Europe as examples,the policies and mature operation mechanism of the US,the dumping system in Europe will be researched.Finally,the existing international law,legislation and management mechanism of the US,and China law and regulations in force will be took reference for the construction and design of China's rigs-to-reefs policies.Basic ideas and important instructions,such as programing and transfering the paid decommissioning fees as funding,licensing system,review procedure,management and supervision system etc.,will be put forward in this study.