The Brent Spar was an oil storage buoy built and owned by Royal Dutch Shell (Shell Oil) in 1976. The spar (or large cylindrical storage buoy), 147 meters tall, was used in the North Sea to temporarily store crude oil. A new pipeline made the spar unnecessary and over time Shell Oil chose to dispose of the spar by sinking it in deep water off the west coast of Great Britain. During the mid-1990s this proposal became a major environmental issue in Europe.

Disposal Options

Sinking was the cheapest (approximately $18 million) and safest option for the workers who would be performing the task. Other options, however, existed. At a greater expense, the spar could have been refurbished to perform other functions. At two to four times the cost of sinking it, the spar could have been cleaned and dismantled, with the steel then recycled. Dismantling operations, however...