Offshore Licensing (Hansard, 1 February 1993)

§ Mr. Dafis
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what account was taken of(a) the Her Majesty's inspector of pollution licensing procedure laid down in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and (b) the EC directive on the public availability of environmental information by his Department when deciding to maintain the confidentiality of licensing applications for oil and gas exploration in (a) the Bristol channel and (b) Cardigan bay.

§ Mr. Eggar
(a) The licensing procedure laid down in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 does not relate to the award of oil and gas licences.
(b) Applications for exploration and production licences are made under The Petroleum (Production) (Seaward Areas) Regulations 1988 and contain commercially confidential information, a ground for refusing disclosure under Article 3 of the directive.

§ Mr. Dafis
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make it his policy to require environmental impact assessments for all offshore licensing block applications in the 14th round which are within 25 miles of offshore islands within United Kingdom waters.

§ Mr. Eggar
The consultation procedure which preceded the announcement of blocks available for licensing in the 14th Round enabled environmental bodies to identify all blocks which require environmental assessment at the exploration stage, including any within 25 miles of offshore islands within United Kingdom waters. Companies proposing to operate in such blocks would need to provide an environmental impact statement for assessment before approval could be given to develop any oil or gas discovery.

§ Mr. Dafis
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has for the conduct of environmental impact assessments for allocated blocks for offshore licensing within the 14th round; and what opportunity experts on coastal and offshore environmental matters and the general public will have to scrutinise such assessments prior to the granting of licences.

§ Mr. Eggar
Companies are subject to the environmental impact assessment procedure before approval can be given to develop any offshore oil or gas discovery, where this is required in the special conditions attached to their licence.
Companies awarded licences in the 14th round will be required to liaise with the environmental and fisheries bodies consulted prior to the block's release for licensing, and with certain other local and national organisations where appropriate, as well as with the Department of 55W Trade and Industry, with regard to the nature and conduct of any environmental assessment required under the special conditions attached to individual blocks. Such assessments may be required before seismic surveying or before exploration drilling, depending on the sensitivities of the block identified during the consultation process.
Such conditions are, however, attached to licences when they are granted. The completed assessment will be circulated to the liaison bodies and may be revised in the light of their comments. It would then be used to inform the licensee's activities in the block on matters such as seasonal restrictions on exploration, choice of drilling location, mud formulation to be used, etc.
At present there is no requirement for wider publication of this information, although some existing licensees have made such material more widely available. under the Access to Environmental Information Act 1992, the general public will be able to seek access to such information where is has been required under legislation.

§ Mr. Dafis
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what considerations underlay the decision to limit the requirement for environmental impact assessment under the 14th round of offshore licensing block allocations to blocks within 25 miles of the coast and blocks within designated environmentally sensitive areas.

§ Mr. Eggar
During the consultation procedure carried out before any blocks were released for licensing in the 14th offshore round, the views of a number of relevant bodies were sought with regard to environmental conditions to be attached to all the areas nominated by the industry as being of interest. Those consulted included the Department of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and their regional equivalents, together with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and a number of other non-statutory bodies representing, for example, fisheries interests.
The views of these organisations were the basis of the list of indicative conditions for the 14th round blocks circulated to the industry, a copy of which has recently been placed in the Library of the House. In sensitive areas, these require the licensee to liaise with the advisory bodies; in the most sensitive areas, those bodies may require the licensee to carry out an environmental assessment before exploration commences.
Since the llth round, areas within 25 miles of the coast have been recognised as those where fisheries, wildlife and tourism interests are likely to be most intensive and hence in greatest need of protection through such special conditions. The consultation procedure which precedes the announcement of any licensing round enables the bodies listed to draw attention to any areas outside this zone which may require similar conditions to be attached, as well as to any areas within the zone which are particularly vulnerable.