Environment Report 2015

ENVIRONMENT REPORT 2015

a. The Hydrocarbons BREF The EC Environment Directorate-General (DG ENVI) has proposed the development of a Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference document or BREF on hydrocarbon exploration and extraction. The overall objective is to support the Commission in identifying the Best Available Techniques for risk and impact management for the hydrocarbons exploration and extraction sector. This is intended to assist licensing and permitting by Competent Authorities of Member States. Oil & Gas UK continues to engage with the EC, industry and government to ensure that the BREF does not have any unintended consequences for the environmental and safety regimes already in place on the UKCS. b. The Implementation of the EU Offshore Safety Directive On 28 June 2013, the EC published the Directive 2013/30/EU on the safety of European offshore oil and gas operations. The objective is to set minimum requirements to reduce as far as possible the occurrence of major accidents related to operations and to limit their consequences. The Directive was transposed into UK law on 19 July 2015. The Directive has placed additional requirements on oil and gas companies to include further details in their Oil Pollution Emergency Plans (OPEP) on oil spill response equipment, oil spill response effectiveness, alignment with national plans and monitoring. The Directive also requires consideration of the potential environmental consequence of a major accident event to be included in the offshore Safety Case and additional demonstration of financial, technical, safety and environmental management capability at the time of licence application. Oil & Gas UK has been actively working with its members in the past year to understand the new requirements and provide supporting materials to help operators meet their obligations, aimed at adopting a standardised approach and minimising any additional administrative burden. Examples in 2015 include Guidelines on Oil Spill Response Effectiveness in UK Waters 51 and technical notes on financial responsibility for production assets and environmental critical elements. c. The Large Combustion Plant BREF The Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU) is implemented through the Offshore Combustion Installations (Pollution Prevention and Control) Regulations 2013 and is applicable to combustion installations of 50 Mega Watts thermal (MWth) or over. The Directive requires the development of BREF documents. The Large Combustion Plant BREF has been largely drafted in 2015 and sets BAT Associated Emission Limits (AELs) for NO x and CO and suggests that Dry Low NO x (DLN) 52 is the BAT for offshore turbines. Application of the original BREF recommendations in UK permits would have required refit or renewal of a significant number of turbines on the UKCS, with the potential for forcing early cessation of production for some platforms and impacting the industry’s ability to maximise economic recovery on the UKCS.

51 The Guidelines on Oil Spill Response Effectiveness in UK Waters are available to download at http://oilandgasuk.co.uk/product/the-oil-spill-response-effectiveness-in-uk-waters/ 52 A technical note on DLNs is available to download at http://bit.ly/1MwT4jI

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