Environment Report 2014

4.2.2 Detailed Analysis from 2011 to 2013

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Oil Releases In 2013, 289 accidental oil releases were reported, from which just under 70 tonnes of oil were released to the marine environment. To put this into context, in the same year, 2,176 tonnes of permitted oil in produced water were discharged onto the UKCS, meaning that accidental oil releases represented three per cent of the total oil that entered the marine environment (including both permitted discharges and accidental spills). In 2013, 38.46 million tonnes of oil were produced meaning that accidental oil releases represented 0.0002 per cent of total oil production. Although the number of releases has risen slightly since 2012 by an additional 43, there was a 21 per cent reduction in the volume of oil released. This suggests that there has been a fall in the size of accidental oil releases. From 2011 to 2013, almost 197 tonnes of oil were released from 733 accidental incidents. The majority (65 per cent) of the volume of oil released on the UKCS during that period resulted from a small number of releases that were greater than ten tonnes. However, 17 per cent of the volume released was from a high number (719) of small volume releases. Of these, 302 releases were less than 0.001 tonne (one kilogramme). To put this into context, most of the accidental oil releases on the UKCS from 2011 to 2013 are the same weight or less (in many cases) than a bag of sugar or a litre of milk; because of their size, these releases will rapidly dilute in the North Sea.

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3

4

5

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Figure 16: Accidental Oil Releases by Numbers and Volumes on the UK Continental Shelf from 2011 to 2013

140

350

7

120

300

100

250

8

80

200

60

150

Number

40

100

Volume (Tonnes)

20

50

0

0

< .001 .001 to .01

.01 to .1 .1 to 1 1 to 10

> 10

Volume (t)

0.1 302

1.0 199

6.6 145

25 73

35 11

129

Number

3

Source: DECC April 2014

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