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A Parliamentary committee votes through an amendment removing a provision that could have shut down dozens of North Sea rigs.
Oil and gas rig operators in the UK’s North Sea dodged a bullet on Wednesday, after a European Parliament committee voted to correct a Commission proposal that the industry argued could have shut down dozens of rigs and cost energy companies millions.
The UK industry and Scottish MEPs noticed the Commission’s proposal for emissions restrictions on mid-sized combustion plants did not exclude North Sea platforms — as a similar measure for larger combustion plants does. The plants generate power for the rigs using the gas they produce.
“I think it was an oversight, I actually think the Commission wasn’t paying a lot of attention. Medium-sized combustion plants are not responsible for a lot of emissions,” said Ian Duncan, a Conservative MEP from Scotland, after the Wednesday vote. “But we’ve gotten to the right place now, so I’m pleased about that.
The Parliament’s Environmental, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) voted 60-8 to approve the amendment after a joint lobbying effort by the industry and the UK government.
“Industry itself recognized quite quickly that if it was compelled to change the combustion plants on its offshore platforms, it would be a monetary cost in terms of the technology but also in terms of the shut down,” Duncan said. The UK government got on board soon after.
The amendment first came up for consideration in mid-April before the Parliament’s Industry and Energy Committee, but narrowly failed to pass because it wasn’t backed by three UK Labour MEPs. They changed their minds before Wednesday’s vote.
Still, not leaving it to chance, Catherine Stihler, a Labour MEP from Scotland, flew to Brussels specifically to vote on the issue, according to Duncan, who sat next to her on the plane.The full Parliament is expected to easily approve the amendment, which also exempts other types of plants; otherwise the Medium Sized Combustion Plant Directive sets limits on emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dust.
Without the exemption, rig operators would have had to decide whether to pay €10-20 million per turbine to install new technology or to put the platforms into early retirement.
“This work has to be done offshore, on installations which were not designed for these types of changes, where space and weight control are major constraints,” said Alessandro Torello, a spokesman for the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers. He estimated that without the amendment some 40 percent of the 103 platforms affected would probably have been decommissioned.
In that worst case scenario, the recovery of oil and gas reserves from the UK continental shelf would likely decline by 45-60 percent between now and 2030, potentially costing thousands of jobs. The area currently supplies 8-10 percent of the EU’s oil and gas.
However, allowing rigs to avoid the directive could have negative consequences, warned the European Environmental Bureau.
“Air pollution knows no borders, it travels big distances, and the whole point of an EU directive is that everyone has to do their bit,” said Sébastien Pant, a spokesman for the organization.
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