UK: Discharges to sea rose ‘slightly’ in 2015, but pollution on a downward trend overall

UK’s oil and gas industry offshore discharges to sea grew „slightly,“ in 2015, but overall, the discharges to sea and emissions to the air have been on a downward trend for the last 15 years, a report by Oil & Gas UK, the industry’s trade body has revealed.

The reason for the rise in pollution in 2015 lies in the fact that the oil production had been in decline for years, up until last year, when it recorded its first increase in oil and gas production.

Consequently, this led to „a slight rise“ in 2015 in the mass of production chemicals discharged and produced water volumes, as well as in emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.

However, Oil and Gas UK says, the proportion of the rise was not as great as the production upturn itself, “demonstrating industry’s commitment to environmental management, as well as its efforts to minimize emissions.“

Discharges of produced water – water that is brought to the surface with hydrocarbons during production – have fallen overall by 37 per cent since 2000, with the average oil in water concentration last year less than half of the recommended limit set by the OSPAR Commission.

The average oil in water concentration in produced water in 2015 was less than half of the recommended limit set by the OSPAR Commission , Oil and Gas UK said.

Also, the trade body said that with 82 million tonnes of oil equivalent produced in 2015, accidental oil releases represented less than 0.00002% of total oil production.

Carbon dioxide emissions from offshore oil and gas production contributed around 3 per cent of the UK’s total CO2 emissions in 2015 – the same level as the previous year.

Mick Borwell, Health, Safety and Environment Policy Director with Oil & Gas UK, said: “The Environment Report comes at a challenging time for the UK oil and gas which is working extremely hard to navigate through the downturn, while maintaining environment and safety standards.

“Despite the UK Continental Shelf being a mature basin with technically challenging production, the overall trend for the last 15 years is downwards for discharges, emissions and accidental releases. Put simply, we are using the same amount of chemicals and emitting less CO2 in the production of more oil and gas.