On Thursday 23 May, the European Commission published its annual report on the safety of offshore oil and gas operations for 2022, recording a total of 37 incidents in 2022, compared with 26 in 2021.
Of these incidents, 75.67% involved unintentional releases of gas and/or oil, 18.91% belonged to the category of safety and environmental critical element failure and 5.40% to the category of loss of wells.
A total of 485 inspections were carried out by national authorities, compared with 248 in 2021.
No major accidents were reported in 2022. There were no fatalities either, but 44 injuries and four serious injuries were recorded at the 311 offshore oil and gas installations in the EU in 2022. It should be noted that the Netherlands decommissioned three facilities during the period under review.
Around 80% of the EU’s domestic oil and gas is produced in the North Sea and Atlantic, with the Netherlands and Denmark being the biggest contributors in this region.
In addition, the Commission reports that overall oil and gas production has fallen from 18,187 kilotonnes of oil equivalent (ktoe) in 2021 to 16,264 ktoe in 2022 (an 11% loss of production).
The report states that, as a result of the geopolitical situation in 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, facilities that had been scheduled for decommissioning resumed operations to guarantee security of supply in the EU. According to the Commission, this may explain why the number of incidents has increased.
“Member States’ authorities have taken measures for addressing the causes of and remedy the incidents that occurred. If needed, investigations and potentially enforcement actions will be put in place”, the institution specifies.
The Commission notes that, thanks to the mandatory inspections and the measures taken, there has been no significant negative impact on the fishing industry.
Finally, it is committed to continuing to work closely with the European Union Offshore Authorities Group (EUOAG) to carry out all operations safely and to assist the national authorities represented in the group.
To see the report, go to https://aeur.eu/f/cd4 (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)