In an information note published on Wednesday 11 June, which will be the subject of a ‘miscellaneous’ item at the Energy Council on 16 June, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia present their recommendations, calling on the European Commission to include the methane regulation in the ‘omnibus’ simplification process.
At the same time, the latest version of the conclusions of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU on energy security, due to be adopted at the Energy Council (see EUROPE 13657/10), also mentions the potential simplification of this regulation adopted in May 2024 to ensure the monitoring and reduction of methane emissions in the energy sector (see EUROPE 13453/26).
In the note, the seven signatory countries consider, among other things, that the regulation, by imposing uniform obligations across different operating environments, creates difficulties in high-risk or technically complex environments, whether for offshore installations or onshore sites.
In particular, they highlight the difficulties posed by the mandatory modernisation of gas flaring and evacuation infrastructures within 18 months, especially for ageing production sites, and the LDAR (leak detection and repair) obligations for offshore operations.
They regret the administrative constraints and consider that there are redundancies in the requirements, since the regulation requires operators to carry out annual measurements of methane emissions at plant level, in addition to LDAR inspections of components.
In addition, the signatories target the current threshold in Article 25 for the mandatory installation of continuous measurement equipment in coal mines, which they deem to be “disproportionately low”, and propose raising this threshold to 2 tonnes of methane per year.
Emissions from imported energy sources. Given the current geopolitical context, in particular the EU’s desire to import more American liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to diversify its gas imports, the signatories point out that “several external partners” have expressed difficulties in ensuring compliance with the provisions of the regulation, particularly with regard to equivalence and contractual obligations.
In particular, they believe that the application of sanctions, methane performance profiles and potential derogations for small quantities and small importers should also be “examined in light of the new geopolitical context”, while ensuring a level playing field with EU producers.
They also regret the absence of a threshold for small quantities of imported fossil goods, and therefore call for a minimum threshold of imported goods to be declared in order to avoid excessive administrative burdens.
To see the note, go to https://aeur.eu/f/hab (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)