Oil and gas rigs in the UK continental shelf (UKCS) are by far the most polluting in the North Sea oil basin, according to new data released by independent energy research company Rystad Energy, with enough unwanted gas being burned off every year to heat one million homes.
Photo by: Zukiman Mohamad/Pexels
According to the data, UK emissions from oil and gas production in the North Sea reached 13.1 million tonnes of CO2 in 2019. Emissions from extraction accounted for 10.1 million tonnes, with flaring - the burning of excess gases - making up the other 3 million.
By comparison, in the same year, CO2 emissions from Norwegian oil and gas production reached 10.4 million tonnes and Danish emissions were 1.4 million tonnes.
The 10.1 million tonnes produced by extraction in the UK, were released partly due to the fact that the Oil and Gas Authority - the industry regulator - continues to allow oil producers to run their rigs on fossil fuels, says Rystad.
Crunching the numbers, it appears that the UK emits 21kg of CO2 for every barrel of North Sea oil it produces, compared with Norway's 8kg where oil producers run rigs on renewable energy.
The findings could hold serious implications for the UK's carbon targets, especially if oil extraction and production does rebound in the 2030s by the 25% forecasted by Rystad.
The data chimes with a warning from the World Bank in 2012, that global gas flaring contributes as much to climate crises as a major world economy, such as Italy.
UKCS emissions
Olga Savenkova, an analyst at Rystad Energy said: “There is significant room for improvement when it comes to reducing carbon intensity on the UKCS. We already see that priorities are shifting toward greener solutions from both sides of the decision-making process, and many operators and investors are now including an additional carbon cost in their capital allocation decisions.”
Rystad holds the Norwegian continental shelf as a great example, with eight oil and gas fields partly or fully electrified and another eight with sanctioned electrification projects. It is predicted that 60% of production on the Norwegian continental shelf will come from electrified offshore platforms by 2025.
Hedvig Ljungerud, the OGA’s director of strategy, said that the regulator was “looking to take a robust stance on flaring”, which is undertaken with the consent of the OGA. This comes just a few weeks after it called for the industry to run its oil platforms on energy from nearby wind turbines.
The OGA was first set up in 2015 in the wake of the oil market crash with the mission to "maximise" oil and gas production from the UK's aging North Sea industry, however, it is now under pressure to cut emissions after the UK set a legally binding goal to cut emission to almost zero by 2050.
“We believe there are clear opportunities for industry to go further to advance cleaner production,” said Ljungerud.
Back to Homepage
Back to Energy & Utilities