Page 438 - Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production Second Edition

Decommissioning 425

surface area above the abandoned field future land use may be prevented, in
particular in coastal or low land environments.
The land under the facilities may also have to be reconditioned if pollutants have
been allowed to escape during operation. The return of industrial sites to green field
conditions has proved very expensive for many companies in the USA, and a number
of law suits are currently outstanding, brought by local authorities and environmental
groups.
It is no longer acceptable in most countries to treat decommissioning as an issue
that can be ignored until the end of a project. Increasingly operators are being
required to return industrial sites to their original condition after use. Many
operators now perform a base line survey before they build on an area so that the
impact of operations can be quantified, and in some cases so that they are not held
responsible for the pollution of previous site owners.