UK North Sea emissions down three years in a row

Last year’s estimated 3% reduction contributed to a 23% drop in greenhouse gas emissions between 2018 and 2022, according to the latest Emissions Monitoring Report from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA).

This industry remains well on track to meet targets to cut emissions 10% by 2025 and 25% by 2027, as agreed in the North Sea Transition Deal (NSTD) with the UK government in March 2021.

However, bold measures will be required to hit the key target of halving emissions by 2030 – the absolute minimum the NSTA expects from industry, which must strive to surpass this goal.

The NSTA warned last year that unless industry took positive steps, a likely rise in oil and gas production in 2022 would cause emissions to remain flat or temporarily rise.

However, industry investment in technologies which minimise flaring and fuel-efficiency initiatives meant emissions continued to fall, despite higher production than in 2021.

For example, an operator replaced components in a gas export compressor, lowering fuel consumption by 18 tonnes per day and saving 20 000 tpy of CO2e of emissions .

Emissions decreased on 78% of offshore facilities between 2018 and 2022, in some cases through permanent shutdowns, but for 59% of those, through active emissions reduction initiatives.

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