UK Cambo field passes the carbon test: OGUK
The stringent environmental measures that the Cambo oil and gas field owners put in place to lower its carbon emissions will make it a valuable contribution to UK energy supply, jobs, the economy and the environment, UK upstream trade body OGUK said June 25.
The field, in the difficult Atlantic margins, contains some 800mn barrels of oil equivalent in place. It will require some new infrastructure such as a floating production, storage and offloading vessel. But it will also use some that is already there.
Upstream regulator Oil & Gas Authority says it will consider the field development plan for approval later this year, and the operator says it could be operational by 2o25 – several years behind schedule and almost 25 years since Amerada Hess discovered it.
The field, operated and 70% owned by private equity-owned Siccar Point, has been in the news lately as the UK is hosting the COP 26 talks later this year in Glasgow, Scotland. With all the carbon emissions that its development and production imply, its approval would appear to contradict the government's target of a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
OGUK spokespeople however contradicted this view, saying the extensive electrification and other measures envisaged would bring the carbon intensity – kilograms of carbon per barrel of oil produced – below the UK field average. They added that the country would continue to rely on oil and gas for about a fifth of its energy needs even by 2050, and it would be better if the UK could produce its own rather than rely even more on imports.
It would also keep the offshore industry busy until the development of carbon capture and storage, blue hydrogen production and offshore wind was at a scale to replace the jobs now demanded by oil and gas.
OGUK also said that the government strongly supported domestic oil and gas production, as its Transition Deal showed. And for the sceptics, its Climate Compatibility Checkpoint – which the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Innovation (BEIS) is working on – would allow it to withhold licences it deemed likely to jeopardise the target date. This new measure will be applied to new fields.
The checkpoint will use the latest evidence, looking at domestic demand for oil and gas, the sector’s projected production levels, the increasing prevalence of clean technologies such as offshore wind and carbon capture, and the sector’s continued progress against its ambitious emissions reduction targets. Only then will licences be awarded.
"If the evidence suggests that a future licensing round would undermine the UK’s climate goals or delivery of Net Zero, it will not go ahead. The UK government will design and implement the checkpoint by the end of 2021 through extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders," says BEIS.