The UK’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the country’s oil and gas regulator, is crafting stricter guidelines for producers to abate their emissions, as reported by Bloomberg on March 27. The guidelines stipulate that new oil and gas fields slated to begin production after January 2030 must be fully electrified or use alternative low-carbon power to achieve nearly equivalent emissions reductions. Producers have to meet these emission reduction requirements to receive regulatory approvals for oil and gas production in the North Sea. Furthermore, they may not be permitted to revise their development plans or get access to additional hydrocarbons from the projects if they choose not to electrify existing assets that NSTA deems reasonable for electrification. The NSTA has made it clear that “for production to continue in the North Sea, it must also become cleaner. “

The UK sees the North Sea as a vital part of its strategyto achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 while maintaining energy security. Last year, the NSTA granted 21 carbon storage licenses in the UK’s first-ever carbon licensing round, securing additional storage capacity equivalent to nearly 10% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. In the same year, the regulator also approved GBP4bn of North Sea developments capable of producing 370 million barrels of oil and gas. To facilitate the low-carbon transition of the expanding oil and gas sector, the UK government and the industry signed the North Sea Transition Deal in 2021. The deal required the industry to halve emissions from its operations by 2030on 2018 levels and spend GBP16bn on carbon storage, hydrogen, and platform electrification projects.

Sources:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-27/uk-regulator-to-crack-down-on-emissions-from-oil-and-gas-fields

https://www.offshore-energy.biz/uk-sees-north-sea-as-vital-cog-in-its-decarbonization-and-net-zero-journey/

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/north-sea-transition-deal