The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Shell defends decision to leave Brent ‘legs’ behind
● Company committed to responsible decommissioning of assets
Aboss at Shell insisted yesterday that leaving the huge concrete legs of the Brent platforms at sea was the “right thing to do”.
Chief financial officer Jessica Uhl said she “appreciated the sensitivities” around the issue, but hoped the “strong fundamentals” of Shell’s decommissioning programme would “come through”.
Last month, Greenpeace protested against Shell’s plans to leave the legs of three of the platforms in-situ, accusing the firm of using the North Sea as a dump.
The British-Dutch firm submitted its decommissioning programme in 2017, but has yet to receive formal approval from the UK Government, which has the final say.
The UK is a signatory of the Ospar Convention for protecting Europe’s marine environment. It requires companies to leave a clean seabed at the end of a field’s production life.
But permission to leave infrastructure in place may be granted if companies can show removal would be more harmful to the environment.
Shell believes the concrete legs of the Brent field are prime candidates for derogation – an exemption – as they were not designed with removal in mind.
The UK Government intends to grant a derogation permit, but has been in consultation with other Ospar members, some of whom are worried about the contents of the storage cells in the legs seeping into the sea. Oil within the cells is not free flowing in water but attached to sediment within the concrete cases.
At the conclusion of a meeting held last month, Ospar said the UK would engage in further talks before making a final call.
Defending Shell’s plans, Ms Uhl said: “We’ve been deeply involved and engaged over the last decade to help define the right way to manage the decommissioning of these assets.
“We remain committed to what we believe is the right way of managing the decommissioning and are supportive of the UK Government’s efforts.”