Given its quest to come to grips with consent breaches on well decommissioning and excessive flaring and venting on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), Great Britain’s regulator, North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), has imposed a penalty of £350,000 (around $469,000) on CNR International and NEO.
While CNR International’s £250,000 (about $335,000) penalty is for exceeding venting limits twice in the year on the same fields, NEO has been fined £100,000 (approximately $134,000) for attempting to fully abandon a well without the required consent to undertake the work.
CNR initially exceeded the annual vent consent for its Ninian assets in March 2023, but only became aware of the breach in November 2023, once the NSTA brought it to their attention. By then, CNR had gone 2,539 tonnes over the limit.
The regulator explains that the company failed to ensure staff were familiar with guidance published in 2021 and had poor systems and processes in place to monitor its venting volumes, contributing to the breach.
After CNR was granted a new consent on 23 November 2023 to see it through to the end of the year, it exceeded the new limit within three weeks. On the other hand, NEO attempted to decommission the Leverett well to ‘AB3’ status, the final abandonment phase, in March 2024.
However, the regulator elaborates that the firm failed to apply for consent before undertaking this work as it misunderstood the relevant requirements, which is said to raise questions about the company’s processes.
As a result, the abandonment work was not executed successfully and had to be redone. CNR and NEO both complied fully with the NSTA’s investigations. The new set of penalties comes after Chrysaor, now part of Harbour Energy, was hit with a fine of £150,000 ($200,269.5) for vent breaches.
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According to the NSTA, sanctions underline the importance of complying with regulations to show the industry is well run and takes its responsibilities seriously, demonstrating that all licensees are on a level playing field.
The UK regulator’s data indicates that flaring and venting made up 19% of UKCS production emissions in 2024. With this in mind, the NSTA keeps a tight rein on operators’ venting and flaring, setting upper limits for fields through its annual issuing of consents.
The watchdog has consistently cracked down on breaches of flaring and venting consents by collectively fining operators £1.2 million (over $1.6 million) for such infringements since the start of 2021 to hold the industry to account on emissions.
Jane de Lozey , NSTA’s Director of Regulation, commented: “When operators accept a licence, they are agreeing to adhere to the same rules as everybody else. In both these cases, a lack of familiarity with their obligations contributed to shortcomings, which is disappointing.
“Investors and the public rightly expect that this industry is held to high standards and there is no excuse for operators not complying with their regulatory responsibilities.”