Editing Oil platform (section)

===Ecological effects===
[[File:Gulf Coast Platforms.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|right|[[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|NOAA]] map of the 3,858 oil and gas platforms extant in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006.]]
In British waters, the cost of removing all platform rig structures entirely was estimated in 2013 at £30&nbsp;billion.<ref>http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/decommissioning-in-the-north-sea {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020145352/http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/decommissioning-in-the-north-sea |date=2014-10-20 }}.</ref>

Aquatic organisms invariably attach themselves to the undersea portions of oil platforms, turning them into artificial reefs. In the Gulf of Mexico and offshore California, the waters around oil platforms are popular destinations for sports and commercial fishermen, because of the greater numbers of fish near the platforms. The [[United States]] and [[Brunei]] have active [[Rigs-to-Reefs]] programs, in which former oil platforms are left in the sea, either in place or towed to new locations, as permanent artificial reefs. In the US [[Gulf of Mexico]], as of September 2012, 420 former oil platforms, about 10 percent of decommissioned platforms, have been converted to permanent reefs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat_conservation/documents/pdfs/efh/gulf_decommissioning_and_rigs_to_reefs_faqs_final.pdf|via=sero.nmfs.noaa.gov|title=Decommissioning and Rigs-to-Reefs in the Gulf of Mexico: FAQs |url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109224846/http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat_conservation/documents/pdfs/efh/gulf_decommissioning_and_rigs_to_reefs_faqs_final.pdf |archive-date=2013-11-09}}</ref>

On the US Pacific coast, [[marine biologist]] Milton Love has proposed that oil platforms off California be retained as [[artificial reef]]s, instead of being dismantled (at great cost), because he has found them to be havens for many of the species of fish which are otherwise declining in the region, in the course of 11 years of research.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Urbina|first=Ian|date=15 August 2015|title=Vacation in Rome? Or on That Oil Rig?|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/sunday-review/vacation-in-rome-or-on-that-oil-rig.html|access-date=|archive-date=5 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205020749/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/sunday-review/vacation-in-rome-or-on-that-oil-rig.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |vauthors=Page M, Dugan J, Love M, Lenihan H |title=Ecological Performance and Trophic Links: Comparisons Among Platforms And Natural Reefs For Selected Fish And Their Prey |url=http://www.coastalresearchcenter.ucsb.edu/cmi/ecoperformance.html |publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara |access-date=2008-06-27 |archive-date=2008-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509163446/http://www.coastalresearchcenter.ucsb.edu/cmi/ecoperformance.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Love is funded mainly by government agencies, but also in small part by the [[California Artificial Reef Enhancement Program]]. [[Professional diving#Scientific diving|Divers]] have been used to assess the [[fish]] populations surrounding the platforms.<ref>{{cite book |vauthors=Cox SA, Beaver CR, Dokken QR, Rooker JR |chapter=Diver-based under water survey techniques used to assess fish populations and fouling community development on offshore oil and gas platform structures |veditors=Lang MA, Baldwin CC |title=The Diving for Science, "Methods and Techniques of Underwater Research" |series=Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences 16th Annual Scientific Diving Symposium, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC |publisher=American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) |year=1996 |chapter-url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4689 |access-date=2008-06-27 |via=Rubicon Foundation |archive-date=2009-08-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822015936/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4689 |url-status=live }} {{cite web|url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/4689/AAUS_1996_14.pdf?sequence=1|title=Full text|access-date=2019-09-09|archive-date=2016-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819164101/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/4689/AAUS_1996_14.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=usurped}}</ref>