Decommissioning Floating Production, Processing, Storage and Offloading Oil and Gas Units in International Law And comparative Law

Decommissioning Floating Production, Processing, Storage and Offloading of Oil and Gas units as new phenomena, follow the technical rules related to the legal regime of the marine and oil and gas industries. The legal regime applicable to these units in International and domestic systems is a challenging one, because these units are subject to various local laws and international conventions that peruse different objectives. In some countries they are subject to the legal regime of marine structures, while in some others they follow the legal regime of ships. At present, considering the discrepancies in the approaches of states and the ambiguity as to the legal status of these units on the one hand, and in the absence of a comprehensive international convention or international customs on the other hand, the unification of the rules relating to these units seems unlikely in the near future. Nevertheless, in the current situation it seems appropriate if one can apply the legal status of marine structures and installations to the floating production, processing, storage and offloading units with due regard to the technical complexity, objective of the instruction, and type of function.