Plans have been announced to create a new multi-million-pound decommissioning centre near Aberdeen.

The centre will be industry led, focusing on current challenges such as facilities clean-up and removal and well plugging and abandonment.

It will also explore opportunities to optimise future design for recycling and reuse, including the use of new materials.

With huge parts of the infrastructure of the North sea nearly 50-years-old, its one the biggest challenges facing the industry.

The removal of Shell's Brent Delta platform has been the biggest decommissioning project in the North sea to date.

Over the next decade 100 platforms and thousand of miles of pipeline will have to be scrapped with costs estimated to hit almost £60bn by 2050.

The new centre of research, to be based at the Oceanlab facility in Newburgh, will put Scotland at the forefront of new technology.

The collaboration between the The Oil and Gas Technology Centre and the University of Aberdeen hopes to help the industry reduce the estimated costs of decommissioning by 35%.

It's hoped this new centre can help deliver a safe, cost effective and environmentally friendly solution.