Rigs-to-Reefs

A diver inspects coral growing on an oil platform leg, Gulf of Mexico (US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)
Fish at an oil platform, Gulf of Mexico (US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)
Rigs-to-reef locations in the Gulf of Mexico (Dauterive, 2000)

Rigs-to-Reefs (RTR) is the practice of converting decommissioned offshore oil and petroleum rigs into artificial reefs.[1] Such biotic reefs have been created from oil rigs in the United States, Brunei and Malaysia.[2] In the United States, where the practice started and is most common, Rigs-to-Reefs is a nationwide program developed by the former Minerals Management Service (MMS),[3] now Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The program has been generally popular with fishers, the oil industry, and government regulators in the Gulf of Mexico, where offshore platforms develop into coral reefs, and as of September 2012, 420 former oil platforms, about 10 percent of decommissioned platforms, have been converted to permanent reefs.[4]

Opposition in California has prevented a rigs-to-reefs program on the West Coast of the US.[5] Similarly, environmental opposition has prevented implementation of Rigs-to-Reefs in the North Sea.

  1. ^ Pereira, Eduardo G.; Omotuyi, Opeyemi; Koenck, Aaron; Obani, Pedi; Gopaulsingh, Meagan; Mohammed, Shaniah (18 August 2023). "Decommissioning Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms: Is the Rigs-To-Reefs Program a More Sustainable Alternative?". Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy (The). 14 (1): 1–26. doi:10.4314/jsdlp.v14i1.2s. ISSN 2467-8392.
  2. ^ Brian Twomey, Artificial Reefs, CCOP/EPPM Workshop on End of Concession & Decommissioning, 12–14 June 2012. (PDF)
  3. ^ "Rigs-to-Reefs Information: What is Rigs-to-Reefs and how does it relate to the mission of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement?". Archived from the original on 3 June 2010. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  4. ^ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Gulf decommissioning and Rigs-to-Reefs, FAQs Archived 2013-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, 2012.
  5. ^ Joanna D. E. Athanassopoulos, James Stanwood Dalton, and Adam P. Fischer, Off Shore Oil Platform Decommissioning, M.S. Thesis, June 1999, University of California Santa Barbara. (PDF)