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Offshore Renewable Energy Bill

Decommissioning of ORE infrastructure - Decommissioning obligation - Who has decommissioning obligation

70: Commercial permit holders have decommissioning obligation for ORE generation infrastructure

You could also call this:

"People with permits for offshore renewable energy must clean up after themselves when they're done."

Illustration for Offshore Renewable Energy Bill

If you get a commercial permit for offshore renewable energy, you have to clean up any infrastructure you use when you are finished with it. You have to pay for this cleanup too, and you have to do it for all the infrastructure you used, no matter when you used it.

You still have to clean up the infrastructure even if your permit is no longer current or you do not have it anymore.

There is a way you might not have to clean up the infrastructure, and that is explained in section 72.

If your permit or consent runs out, or is cancelled, revoked, or given back, you still have to clean up the infrastructure you used.

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This page was last updated on 29 June 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS992221.

69: Outline of this Part, or

"What to do when stopping use of offshore renewable energy infrastructure"

71: Owners have decommissioning obligation for ORE transmission infrastructure, or

"Owners must dismantle and dispose of old offshore renewable energy equipment"

Part 3Decommissioning of ORE infrastructure
Decommissioning obligation: Who has decommissioning obligation

70Commercial permit holders have decommissioning obligation for ORE generation infrastructure

A person who holds a commercial permit must carry out, and meet the costs of, the decommissioning of all ORE generation infrastructure that is attributable to ORE generation infrastructure activities under the permit (regardless of when the activities to which the infrastructure is attributable took place under the permit).
A person who has ceased to hold a commercial permit, or whose commercial permit has ceased to be current, continues to have a decommissioning obligation in respect of all ORE generation infrastructure that was in place at the time of cessation.
This section is subject to section 72 (which provides for release from a decommissioning obligation in some circumstances).
A person’s decommissioning obligation is not affected by the expiry, revocation, cancellation, or surrender of their permit or marine consent or resource consent (that is, they must still meet the obligation).