MEPs welcome EU 'U-turn' on deep sea oil drilling

MEPs have welcomed reports that the European commission is backing down in its demands for a moratorium on deep sea oil drilling.

EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger is expected to announce proposals for a voluntary rather than compulsory halt to deep sea drilling, and with the decision left to individual EU member states.

Oettinger had originally indicated that he would propose a full and compulsory moratorium but he has backed down and said that any ban would be voluntary at the behest of national governments but that the 'precautionary principle' should be applied to 'complex' new projects.

Parliament last week rejected calls for a moratorium with MEPs voting 323 to 285 against a deepwater drilling freeze.

Responding to the reports, SNP leader Ian Hudghton said, "I'm pleased that common sense seems to have prevailed. Commissioner Oettinger is wise to heed last week's vote in parliament where we clearly rejected calls for a deep sea drilling moratorium.

"We made clear during those discussions that Scotland's oil industry has a first rate safety record and operates to the highest standards. It would have been foolish to put jobs at risk in a knee-jerk reaction to the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

"We reject any suggestion that the EU should gain powers over oil and gas resources and will continue working to ensure Scotland has full control over its natural resources."

Conservative MEP for Scotland, Struan Stevenson agreed, saying, "Commissioner Oettinger must not propose a knee-jerk response to the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

"The standards and equipment used in our oil industry are different from those used in the Gulf of Mexico. The UK has a two-decade old history of safety.

"In the same week as Washington lifted the moratorium on their offshore drilling, it would send a terrible signal to the global oil industry if we imposed one now. Millions - if not billions - of euros of orders in state-of-the-art technology could have dried up.

"Of course we must not be complacent and we should take this opportunity to see how we can further improve the safety of offshore drilling operations at national, European and global level. However, we cannot just shut down one of Scotland's biggest industries because of an - albeit devastating - failure on the other side of the Atlantic."

Conservative energy spokesman Giles Chichester MEP said, "There is no need for a moratorium on drilling in EU waters, and there would have to be firm evidence to the contrary before any consideration be given to requesting one.

"This should be an opportunity to review our own procedures and standards of safety and liability but European offshore drilling does have a better track record than in the Gulf of Mexico and that needs to be taken into consideration too.

"The commission must not see this disaster as an opportunity for a power-grab. There is an argument for greater cooperation at a European level but national governments must be free to determine their own energy mix and, in the UK, oil has an important part to play in the short term.

Further comment came from Malcolm Webb, Oil and Gas UK’s chief executive, who said, “It is deeply worrying that in addition, the commission now proposes to implement centralised and prescriptive safety regulation. In our opinion, this would undermine the advanced and highly sophisticated regulatory regimes currently working so well, for example in the United Kingdom, Norway and the Netherlands, each of these being global exemplars of which Europe should be proud.

“In the UK, we have strong and competent regulators in both the offshore Safety Division of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) who preside over a robust and fit for purpose regulatory regime. Under this dynamic regime, around 7,000 wells have been successfully drilled over the last twenty years of operations in the UK.

“The commission says that safety is non-negotiable. We fully agree. Safety is the most important issue for all persons working in the UK oil and gas industry and we never take it lightly. Our lives and livelihoods depend on it. This is why we must respectfully but openly disagree with the commission’s proposed implementation of a federal, prescriptive approach to safety across the EU.

"It would run directly counter to the UK approach, which ensures that the risks associated with drilling programmes are considered and reduced to as low as is reasonably practicable on a case by case basis. Any erosion of that system would jeopardise and not improve safety."

He added, “If the commission has serious concerns about poor practices and procedures in certain parts of the EU, it should declare it and focus its attention on improving standards in those specific areas. In that, we are sure it could rely on the support of the UK oil and gas industry.”

Meanwhile, Greenpeace says new deep sea oil operations should be banned “as the only sure way of preventing a Deepwater Horizon-like spill in Europe.”

It says that research, to be published next week, will show that deep sea drilling, tar sands and other dirty and dangerous extraction methods would not be needed if the EU set better fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles.

Greenpeace EU transport policy advisor Franziska Achterberg said, “The safest way to guard against a deepwater disaster in Europe is not to go there in the first place. This kind of drilling is almost certain to create a Deepwater Horizon-like spill for Europe no matter how tight the rules. Regulators will always be playing catch-up as the industry chases after ever dirtier and more dangerous fuel reserves to keep up with demand. Deep water drilling should be banned. We simply don't need it if we boost fuel efficiency.

"Disappointingly, on the day after the US ended its deep sea drilling moratorium, commissioner Oettinger has now distanced himself from his call earlier call for a moratorium and suspension of some of Europe's riskier projects."