A growing number of oil and gas platforms and facilities are coming to the end of their productive lives. Decommissioning is part of the normal life cycle of every oil and gas installation. When an installation reaches the end of its life and the economically recoverable oil and gas reserves have been extracted from the reservoir the installations need to be ‘retired’ and then decommissioned by being dismantled, recycled and disposed of. Shell’s decommissioning activities include restoration of the surroundings at offshore platforms and their associated facilities in line with applicable legislation, while taking account of Shell’s environmental standards to recycle as much of our assets as possible. At Shell, we aim to ensure that when our assets reach the point of cessation of production, they are decommissioned in a way that is safe, and technically, environmentally, socially and economically responsible.