Decommissioning Oil Rigs: Ecological Dilemmas

What should we do with our old oil rigs? Can the relics of the fossil fuel age be good for wildlife? Helen Czerski and Tom Heap investigate the future for the steel and concrete that's fuelled the modern age.

Helen visits a highly specialist scrapyard on Teeside which dismantles oil rigs bought ashore at the end of their lives. Tom and Helen discuss whether the rules on what happens to old oil and gas installations in the North Sea should be relaxed to allow some to be turned into artificial reefs. They hear from Professor Matt Frost from Plymouth Marine Laboratory and INSITE, an international project investigating the future for undersea structures; Dr Alethea Madgett a marine ecologist who's researching how old rigs can be used in nature restoration; and Ricky Thomson from the industry body Offshore Energies UK.

Producer: Sarah Swadling Assistant Producers: Christina Sinclair and Toby Field

Rare Earth is a BBC Audio Wales and West production in conjunction with the Open University