We know that decommissioning costs are an increasing concern, both in terms of health and safety and environmental risk. Decommissioning can cover many things. It can include removing infrastructure, plugging and abandoning wells, and undertaking site remediation and restoration. The activities required to decommission a particular operation vary hugely from field to field. The costs also vary according to field to field—there is no one size fits all when it comes to the decommissioning requirement for our oil- and gasfields, but these costs can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. These costs fall firmly within the responsibility of the permit or licence holder. However, if a permit or licence holder cannot afford to carry out this work, then the Crown may be left as the only party that can fund the decommissioning. When it comes to decommissioning an oilfield, this is not a choice about whether or not it is done; it is something that simply has to be done. 