Britain’s oil and gas regulator is under fire from environmental groups for use lawyers to try to prevent publication of five key documents relating to the environmental impact of Shell’s activities in the North Sea. From a report: At a hearing in December, a legal representative for the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) is expected to object to the publication of documents containing details of the risk of pollution from the decommissioning of the Brent oil field , operated by Shell on behalf of Shell. over 40 years old. He says he opposes publication “for procedural reasons”. Shell has requested a waiver from international rules that require all infrastructure to be removed from the field and the UK government is deciding whether it will allow the oil company to leave the 170 meter high oil rig legs in place for the three known platforms. like Bravo, Charlie and Delta.
A total of 64 concrete storage cells are contained within the leg structures, 42 of which have already been used for oil storage and separation. Most of the cells are the size of seven Olympic swimming pools and collectively still contain around 72,000 tonnes of contaminated sediment and 638,000 cubic meters of oily water. Environmental groups believe the documents held by the NSTA would reveal new information about long-term environmental hazards that would be relevant to other North Sea oil developments, including Equinor’s plans to develop Rosebank, the largest unexploited deposit in the United Kingdom.
