North Sea rigs must run on green energy or shut down

NORTH Sea energy companies could be forced to close oil and gas fields or be prevented from opening platforms unless they slash emissions.

More than 280 platforms extracting oil and gas from UK waters produce 3pc of the country’s emissions, the equivalent of about 17m tons of CO2 a year.

However, UK oil and gas fields also account for half of the country’s energy needs. Despite this, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), which regulates the offshore sector, has told oil and producers that they must convert platforms to run on green electricity or low-carbon fuels.

This means all new developments before 2030 must be designed to run on electricity, while all those after that must be fully electrified from the start.

Critics say the demands will deliver a fatal blow to many of the older platforms operating around British shores.

Some date back to the 1970s or 1980s and would be expensive to decarbonise.

For many, it would mean running power cables from the shore or building a wind farm close to each platform.

Stuart Payne, NSTA chief executive, said that closing some low-producing, high-polluting installations earlier could be necessary to enable higher-producing and cleaner new assets to come online. He said: “Energy production, reducing emissions and accelerating the energy transition are at the heart of everything we do.”

A key element of the NSTA plan is to put an end to flaring, where offshore operators burn off or vent methane gas

It follows revelations in The Telegraph last December that UK offshore operators flared a total of 651m cubic metres of methane gas in 2022, according to NSTA data.

Flaring is regarded as unacceptable because it releases CO2 and unburned methane. Both are greenhouse gases but methane is about 80 times more potent than CO2. UK policy aims to phase out the practice.

French-owned Totalenergies burned 81m cubic metres of gas in 2022, while Abu Dhabi-based Taqa burned 67m.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (Cnooc), which operates the giant Buzzard oil field and three others, flared another 65m cubic metres.

The NSTA said all flaring must end by 2030: “While progress has been made, with industry flaring volumes having decreased by around 50pc since 2018, and some flaring is unavoidable for safety and operational reasons, the NSTA has been clear that more must be done to prevent the wasteful flaring of gas and expects the reductions to continue.”

The NSTA said it would “apply the plan in a reasonable manner”.