Energy voice10 Apr 2022 12:01
As part of its new energy security strategy, Westminster said it will establish “Gas and Oil New Project Regulatory Accelerators” to provide “dedicated, named project support” and bring “rapid development” of these schemes.
The strategy said this could “take years off the development of the most complex new opportunities”.
The UK Government said the move relates to a new way of working, not a new regulatory body, and projects will see relevant regulators meet together with the developers from the start, to help coordinate the way forward and ensure that the various roles and responsibilities are clear.
As things stand, the environmental regulator OPRED seeks to approve projects within just eight weeks of a public consultation closing, raising questions over the government’s claim.
The strategy also confirms that a new licensing round will be held in Autumn, which will include the new checkpoint system.
Tessa Khan, director of the campaign group Uplift, said any accelerator policy which would rollback the “already weak” climate regulations “would be environmentally & economically damaging”.
She added that, given OPRED’s position, “commercial considerations” are the main barrier to projects, such as availability of oil and gas rigs.
However, Deirdre Michie, chief executive of the Offshore Energies UK trade body, said: “The announcement of a new licensing round and the proposal to cut the time needed to get those approvals, by the introduction of regulatory accelerators, will help our industry carry on providing the UK with the energy it needs.”
The policy document states the UK must fully utilise its “great North Sea reserve”, citing an estimated untapped resource of nearly 8 billion barrels.
Reduce gas demand by 40% by 2030
The overall strategy has drawn criticism, particularly on a lack of action on reducing demand and improving energy efficiency.
However, the government said the measures will reduce reliance on gas consumption “by more than 40% by 2030”, even as the UK could still use a quarter of the gas it does now by 2050.
Andy Samuel, chief executive of industry regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), said he is “pleased to see” the focus on cutting demand, adding that the UK should continue to meet its own declining needs while “scaling up renewables as quickly as possible”.
Professor Paul de Leeuw, director of the Energy Transition Institute at Robert Gordon University, said the strategy recognises the need to “streamline regulatory and consenting processes” which is “certainly a big step in the right direction to shape a ‘new-look UKCS’”.
He added: “With the UK’s own domestic gas production declining and with LNG imports typically having around three times the carbon emission intensity compared to gas produced in the UK, the strategy also supports the role of oil and gas as a bridge to a lower carbon world.”
The strategy also sets out plans for a new public body called the Future
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