?Repsol fined ￡160,000 for flaring and venting breach?
An oil and gas operating company has been given the highest fine the NSTA has issued to date for emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere without permission.??
Repsol has been fined ￡160,000 by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) for flaring and venting more than 73 tonnes of gas.??
The fine recognises that Repsol’s failure undermines public trust and confidence in the industry and raises questions about the company’s attention to, and investment in, regulatory compliance.???
The NSTA has repeatedly told the UK oil and gas industry that meeting regulatory obligations is vital for sustaining the industry’s social licence to operate and has the potential to undermine public confidence.??
The industry has responded well to the call to reduce emissions and has near halved North Sea flaring in four years as part of ongoing work which has seen greenhouse gas emissions in total cut by 23% between 2018 and 2022.??
Industry has been challenged to look at ways in which it can continue to reduce its emissions in a formal consultation on the OGA Plan which looks into four areas of its business – investment and efficiency, platform electrification and low carbon power, inventory and flaring and venting.??
?Repsol, which operates the Fulmar facility, east of Dundee in the Central North Sea, has received short-term flare and vent consents since January 2019 to cover necessary actions associated with post cessation of production activities on Fulmar, Auk North, and Halley.???
Since July 2020, the short-term consents have noted the fact that the main users of the Fulmar platform are now third parties, and the Fulmar facility is providing oil and gas processing facilities for third parties.??
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On 1 July 2022, the NSTA informed Repsol that there were no valid consents in place for Auk North, Halley, and Fulmar. The NSTA told the company that continuing to flare or vent after consent expired on 30 June 2022 would be a failure to comply with regulatory requirements.???
Jane de Lozey, NSTA Director of Regulation, said:??
“Reducing emissions and meeting regulatory requirements is absolutely essential if industry is going to maintain its social licence to operate.??
“Repsol has engaged with the NSTA to learn from its failings on this occasion and taken steps to ensure it does not happen again.??
“We will continue to ensure that operators comply with regulations in the North Sea and will not hesitate to take action on the occasions that they do not. The NSTA is always ready to work with operators to ensure they remain in compliance, or bring them back into compliance.”??
The penalty is decided by reference to the NSTA’s Financial Penalty Guidance which states that a penalty should be:???
Environmental Consultant at Fugro and RMarSci of IMarEST
10 个月160k seems to low for an oil and gas giant. It's 2200￡ per tonne which is peanuts for them. On the other hand, environmental consultants and oil and gas operators in the North Sea are doing our best to capture everything in the ES and comply with OPRED requests. How does the NSTA know that 73 tonnes were emitted? How do they monitor flaring/venting events and their extent? In my experience operators of oil and gas infrasstructure in the North Sea need to be more educated about the permitting requirements for any operation offshore, as sometimes they prepare their MAT/SATs themselves, rather than requesting help/guidance from environmental consultants, hence ending up in this situation which damages their company's reputation to the public.
Retired at Retired
10 个月It’s just nonsense isn’t!! Did you sanction Repsol’s CEO, Board, Production Manager and the rest who should have been looking at the Flaring and Venting Figures?
Reserves Auditor: CO2 Storage: Geothermal: Infrastructure Reuse
10 个月Regulatory Compliance Manager (Projects)
10 个月Well Stephen Sinclair this just made my job a little more difficult ??