In particular it makes provisions for the licensing and the safe and orderly abandonment of installations and submarine pipelines.

The cost of totally removing all existing offshore installations on the UK continental shelf was estimated, in 1984, to be £6 billion (1984 prices).

The government gave the Secretary of State enabling powers to make regulations concerning detailed standards for abandonment.

The UK offshore licensing regime needed to be extended to the territorial waters of Northern Ireland.

[5] Part III section 28 (construction of refineries) was repealed on 15 February 1999 by the Petroleum Act 1998.