Environment Report 2015

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Figure 26: Accidental Chemical and Oil Release Mass
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
1,600
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Accidental Chemical and Oil Releases (Tonnes)
Oil Oil > 50 tonnes Chemical Chemical > 200 tonnes
Source: DECC July 2015
5.3 Accidental Oil Releases in Context
In 2014, there were 304 accidental oil releases, from which just under 20 tonnes of oil were released to the marine
environment. To put this into context, in the same year, approximately 2,000 tonnes of oil were discharged to
sea in produced water, under permit, on the UKCS. This means that accidental oil releases represented less than
one per cent of the total oil that entered themarine environment. Furthermore, 74million tonnes 46 of oil equivalent
were produced in 2014, meaning that accidental oil releases represented 0.00003 per cent of total oil production.
Although the number of releases has risen by an additional 15 since 2013, there was a 71 per cent reduction
(from 68 tonnes to 20 tonnes) in the amount of oil released. There has been a general decline in the average
reported accidental oil release size from 2010 (0.56 tonnes) to 2014 (0.07 tonnes).
The IOGP47, meanwhile, reports a worldwide total of 6,666 accidental oil releases in 2013, 66 per cent
(4,396 incidents) of which were less than one boe. One boe is approximately equivalent to 0.14 tonnes of oil.
Comparatively, in 2013, just over 93 per cent (269 incidents) of accidental oil releases on the UKCS were equal to,
or less than, 0.14 tonnes. The equivalent values for 2014 are 92 per cent and 280 incidents.
There were 2,270 accidental releases greater than one boe in 2013 in the global IOGP dataset. Seven per cent
(159 releases) were from offshore installations, resulting in 0.31 tonnes accidentally released per million tonne of
offshore production. In equivalent context, the UKCS reported approximately 0.74 tonnes accidentally released
per million tonne of hydrocarbon production in 2013, and 0.23 tonnes in 2014.
46 This data come from the DECC Energy Trends bulletin at
47 The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) Environmental Performance Indicators – 2013 Data is
available to download at
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