Environment Report 2017

ENVIRONMENT REPORT 2017

4.3 Production Chemicals In 2016, the amount of production chemicals discharged per operator ranged from 0 to 3,800 tonnes. This does not directly correlate to production levels as differing well conditions dictate the amount of chemicals used. The mean amount of chemicals discharged to sea per operator increased in 2016 to 885 tonnes due to some technically challenging fields. A total of 3,095 tonnes of oil equivalent were produced per tonne of production chemical discharged to sea in 2016, an increase on 2,875 tonnes of oil equivalent in 2015 and reflecting improved performance in the use of production chemicals offshore.

Figure 24: Production Chemicals Discharged to Sea per Operator, 2016

4,000

PLONOR SUB Warning Other*

3,500

)sennoT( slacimehC noitcudorP degrahcsiD

3,000

2016 Operator Mean 2015 Operator Mean

2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0

A C E G I

K M O Q S U W Y AA AC AE AG AI

*Other includes those chemicals reported in EEMS that are not classified as PLONOR or SUB, but all chemicals have a permit to be discharged

Source: EEMS July 2017

4.4 Total Offshore Atmospheric Emissions

The total atmospheric emissions for facilities across the UKCS for each operator are shown in Figure 25 opposite, broken down by type of emission. The majority of emissions are CO 2 and so other emissions have been broken down further in Figure 26, keeping the same relative position for each operator.

On average, 72,500 tonnes of total atmospheric emissions were produced per operator on the UKCS in 2016, slightly higher than the average of 67,200 tonnes in 2015.

Although this benchmarking does not take into account the age, size and number of installations each operator has, in general, those with higher emissions are larger operators with greater production levels and predominantly oil platforms in the central and northern North Sea. Those operators that appear to have zero emissions are non-operators and low production operators and the values are low enough to not be visible on the axis scale used.

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