FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The proposal by Esso to dump the jacket of the Odin rig into the North Sea off Bergen was against the company's own environmental advice, which claimed that the steel could be recycled on land, creating 200 jobs for Norwegians, plus a substantial economic gain.
"The Norwegian Government is acting very sensibly in favour of sustainable environmental practice," said Greenpeace Norway's Katrin Glatz Brubakk. "We now need to see the Government pass legislation ensuring that all oil and gas installations are decommissioned on land," said Brubakk.
"There is also no reason why Norway and the UK Governments cannot join the vast majority of nations that have already signed onto the Oslo Paris Commission's ban on the dumping of all offshore installations at sea [1]," she said.
Had the dumping gone ahead, it would have set a precedent for the dumping of up to 416 installations in the North Sea's Norwegian and UK offshore oil sectors, said Brubakk. She noted that the onshore disposal of the Odin rig was the third such decision since Shell reversed its plan to dump its Brent Spar last year. Elf's North East Frigg in Norway and the installations in the Emerald field off Scotland will both be brought ashore.
The environmental and economic gains of investing in such a policy would be far more beneficial than the current "case by case" policy adopted by both countries.
Esso also proposed to leave a further 6000 tonnes of steel pipeline in situ on the sea floor. The Norwegian Department of Trade and Industry has not yet decided on the future of the pipeline, giving a four year delay to that decision. Greenpeace said that there was no reason why the pipeline should not be dismantled on land also when the Frigg field is decommissioned.
The dumping of the Odin's steel structure would have been the equivalent of the Norwegian Government allowing Esso to dump 7,000 cars into the ocean, she said.
Greenpeace International's Executive Director Thilo Bode yesterday sent a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, calling on her to recognise the environmental unsustainability of such a move. Greenpeace Norway also placed an advertisement in Norwegian papers today urging the Government to reject Esso's application.
Esso had proposed to turn the rig's structure into an "artificial reef", but this idea had been vigorously opposed by the Norwegian fishermen. "This was an attempt by Esso to look green while turning the North Sea into a scrapyard," said Brubakk.
Contact: Katrin Glatz Brubakk, Geir Wang Andersen ++47 22 205 101
or Cindy Baxter Greenpeace Communications ++44 171 833 0600
[1] The Oslo Paris Commission last June adopted a ban on the dumping of offshore oil and gas installations in the North East Atlantic, "....due to the fact that the disposal at sea of decommissioned offshore installations cannot be considered to be a sustainable practice which takes into account the precautionary approach..."
Norway and the UK have both lodged objections to this ban, arguing that the installations should be looked at on a case by case basis.
Read background document or visit Greenpeace Norway Web Site on Odin (in Norwegian)