UK: Frustration over delays on clean coal

Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) has joined calls for the government to stop dragging its feet over a technology that a number of industry experts say could significantly affect climate change and extend the productive life of the North Sea.

A number of large energy companies, including BP, Shell and E.on, are putting major investment into carbon capture and storage projects around the world but in the UK plans are on hold as the government has yet to announce how it will regulate the sector. Carbon capture involves pumping carbon dioxide (CO2) into oil fields, where its impact on global warming is negated. At present other gases are pumped into oil fields to help extract reserves.
Pat Neve, managing director of oil and gas consultancy Senergy, who has worked with BP on its proposed hydrogen-fuelled power plant at Peterhead, believes CO2 capture could enhance recovery rates from North Sea oil fields.

He said: “The Peterhead project, if it goes ahead, has the potential to delay the decommissioning of the ageing Miller oil field by around 20 years. The technique could also improve recovery rates from suitable oil fields by between 7% and 15%.”

In the past few weeks a growing number of companies, including power utility Scottish and Southern Energy, engineers Doosan Babcock and opposition politicians such as shadow chancellor George Osborne and SNP leader Alex Salmond have urged the government to make a speedy decision.

Their call came as UKOOA challenged the government to address signs, set out in a report last week, that UK offshore oil and gas was losing competitiveness.

Sunday Herald