Environment Report 2018

ENVIRONMENT REPORT 2018

3.7 Waste According to the EU Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) 9 , waste means “any substance or object that the holder discards or intends or is required to discard”. As with the creation of any product, oil and gas production generates waste that must be disposed of. Waste originates at various points in the life cycle and can be found in different states — solid and liquid, hazardous and non-hazardous materials. Wastes classified as hazardous only present a risk to the environment if they are improperly managed. Modern disposal and recycling techniques, such as engineered landfill, incineration and recovery of waste oils, result in better environmental performance. Waste is segregated and stored appropriately on offshore installations before transportation to shore, where it is transferred to a licensed waste contractor for processing. As disposal to landfill is costly and is not sustainable in the long term, operators therefore segregate wastes to reduce the quantity of material going to landfill and to maximise reuse and recycling. The total amount, as well as the form, of waste generated varies from year to year depending on the levels of exploration, production, maintenance and decommissioning. The total amount fell to just under 152,200 tonnes in 2017, reversing the general upward trend of the last decade. This is a significant 10 per cent decrease on 2016, despite overall production increases, primarily as a result of reduced operational waste. This will be encouraging for operators who, in their drive to improve operational efficiencies, have sought to re-use and recycle more equipment instead of buying new and disposing of useable parts.

There was a 41 per cent decrease in decommissioning waste from 2016. While decommissioning remains a small contributor to the total mass of waste, activity is expected to increase in the coming years. 10

Figure 18: Waste Generated by Offshore Activity

250,000

Drilling

Operational

Decommissioning

200,000

150,000

100,000 Waste (Tonnes)

50,000

0

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Source: EEMS October 2018

9 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/framework/ 10 Oil & Gas UK’s Decommissioning Insight 2018 is available to download at www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/decommissioninginsight

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