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The British government is fighting a new offer of environmentalists to cancel the northern oil and gas licenses in the last test of work attempts to balance zero net objectives and commercial complaints concerning regulations.
On Wednesday, at the High Court, the Oceana campaign group challenged the process by which the licenses were granted last May to allow companies, notably Totalengies, Ineos and Perenco, to explore oil and gas.
The decisions were made under the previous conservative government, but the work, which swept power in July, defends the licenses.
The government consults the future of energy from the North Sea, especially on how to provide work manifesto commitments not to issue licenses to explore new areas without revoking existing licenses.
Judge TIM MULD KC said in court on Wednesday that the case deals with the “enormous political controversy” climate issues, he would only focus on the “legal process” behind licensed decisions.
Hugo Tagholm, Executive Director of Oceana, said he hoped that the case would help push the government of Sir Keir Starmer to abandon his support for existing licenses.
Oceana claims that the government's approval of the risk assessments of oil and gas exploration which supported the license series from last year at the North Sea was illegal, as these did not fully consider the potential climate and the environmental impact on protected sea areas.
The shielding of the marine environments of oil spills and warming and acidification of the ocean which go hand in hand with climate change should not be considered as “part of a cultural war” or “green against growth”, said Tagholm.
He added: “This protects nature to protect future prosperity, the future industry.”
The case focuses on dozens of licenses issued by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) last May where extraction could affect protected sea areas. An assessment of each license was carried out by the Offshore Oil Regulator for the Environment and Decomination (OPRÉ).
Oceana’s complaint is based on a Supreme Court decision last June in a case known as Finch, which said that regulators should examine how oil and gas combustion could accelerate climate change when they write environmental impact assessments for drilling sites.
The campaign group argues that the FINCH standard should also apply to the evaluations written before the licenses are assigned in marine protected areas in the United Kingdom.
Oceana alleges that the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero did not take into account the advice of the statutory expert which he is supposed to consult when preparing the assessments.
The case of Oceana is based on a “misunderstanding” of the license process and a “poor application” of the Finch standard, lawyers described in a summary of the position of Desnz, seen by the Financial Times. Indeed, exploration licenses do not necessarily lead to oil and gas production, greenhouse gas emissions or localized warming, he said.
It was lawful to postpone more detailed climatic and environmental assessments at a later stage, he added, and called for the rejection of the case.
A letter from the joint committee for the conservation of nature, sent last May and seen by the FT, warned that it could not exclude the risk that exploration affects the marine environment, in particular because the burning of oil and gas would contribute to climate change.
DESNZ and NSTA said they could not comment on the current legal proceedings. A person close to the NSTA said that licenses had only been awarded once OPRED had evaluated “any potential negative effect” on protected areas.
Perenco said: “As a responsible operator, we respect all relevant environmental regulations.” Ineos and Totalenges did not respond to requests for comments.
The position of the work in the case of OCEANA contrasts with its decision last year not to contest the efforts of environmental groups to block the development of the Rose Bank and the oil fields of the bush in the North Sea.
The first civil court of Scotland judged this year that the consent of projects had been illegally granted under the conservatives.
Starmer, who has increasingly sought to present his government as a pro-company, reported that the workforce will probably once again give approval in response to new applications for these areas.
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