Posted on November 25, 2011 by Phillip Lee

I have received letters from constituents concerned about protecting the Marine environment.  The tragedy of the North Sea Oil leaks from August 13^th underlines the need for the highest standards of safety management and tough environmental standards. Since the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, further action has been taken to provide reassurance that the UK’s stringent regime remains robust. The North Sea Oil spill is yet just another example that we have to increase inspection of drilling rigs and monitoring of offshore compliances. I personally, as a Member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee made arrangements to talk to senior managers of Shell about the North Sea Leaks this week to ensure the progress to restore our environment run according to plan.

The UK economy and by extension the local Bracknell economy will be dependent on oil and gas for many years, as we make the transition to a lower carbon energy world. Therefore, we must ensure to provide the most robust safety and regulatory regimes in the world, with economic benefits. The UK offshore oil and gas industry is important to the economy. The industry directly supports around 350,000 jobs and also provides around £8 billion annually to the Treasury in taxation. Notwithstanding the strengths of the existing system, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Health and Safety Executive, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency have established a process to review the UK’s oil and gas offshore regulatory regime against the findings of the US investigations. The review will report later this year, once the US Maritime Board investigation report has been published and the details analysed.

Nevertheless, the extraction of oil is almost certain to become a riskier and more expensive operation. The move to a low-carbon economy is an essential part of reducing such risk. A ‘business as usual’ approach will not set the UK on the path to a low carbon future. I am proud that Ministers are taking on the challenge, as part of their pledge to make this the greenest Government ever.  Part of this process will be however to revise our environmental policies and therefore further changes will be announced in January which will include an increase in yearly environmental inspections to 150, in comparison to 60 yearly inspections.

In order to avoid oil spills in the future, we will have to thoroughly investigate all releases classified as significant and major to establish the root cause, assess compliance with legislation and ensure that the operator takes any necessary remedial action. Therefore I am looking forward to this week’s Energy and Climate Committee meetings to raise this issue and discuss how to avoid in the future such environmental disasters.  Today Shell could finally seal the Leak after a weeklong flow and disastrous consequences on our environment. I will continue to monitor Shell’s response.

(Published in the Wokingham Times, September 2011)