6 june 2023
The future of the north sea’s undeveloped oil and gas field is unclear as a decision to drill is being postponed.
Ithaca energy owns 20pc in rosebank oilfield, and Equinor owns the other 80pc.
The proposal needs to be approved by the OPRED and the NSTA, and then by the government who is expected to approve it.
2 june 2023
oil stocks sank amid fears over the future of north sea projects amid reports that a future labour government would block new north sea oil projects. There is also uncertainty over whether OPEC+ plans to slash supply by nearly 1.2m barrels a day.
Source:
https://www.ftm.eu/articles/north-sea-clean-up-of-rotten-infrastructure-costs-billions-but-no-one-wants-to-pay?
Hundreds of offshore oil and gas platforms have reached the end of their lifespan. An international investigative team led by Follow the Money is the first to inventory the oil and gas infrastructure in the North Sea, finding out which are still in operation and which should have been removed a long time ago and by whom.
It turns out that although operators are, in principle, obliged to remove all platforms and pipelines and plug the wells after shutting down, this is not happening by a long shot.
Ministries of all surrounding North Sea countries issue exploration and production licences for gas and oil. These licences are granted to state or commercial companies, often also to a consortium of several companies, which together share the costs and revenues, but also jointly pay for decommissioning.
An operator is the primary executor of all operations in a licence area and chiefly responsible, including, for example, reporting and monitoring.
Why are the – sometimes abandoned for years – platforms not dismantled and removed?
FTM are working together with several partners, including NRK (Norway), De Tijd (Belgium) and international non-profit investigative platform DeSmog (United Kingdom), to investigate this issue.
Source: DeSmog:
Cleaning Up After the North Sea Oil Industry Will Cost Billions – But Nobody Wants to Pay
Delays by companies and governments risk turning the basin into a fossil fuel graveyard.
The oil industry’s failure to clean up after itself poses enormous environmental risks. Hundreds of drilling rigs; thousands of oil and gas wells; and tens of thousands of kilometers of pipelines occupy vast stretches of this unique habitat. This sprawling legacy leaches oil, chemicals, plastics and other contaminants as the relentless action of waves and currents inexorably wears human traces away.