Clause 16
Energy Bill
2:45 pm
Malcolm Wicks (Minister of State (Energy), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Croydon North, Labour)
Let me see whether I can return to him later with the answer, as I do not have it in my head.
The Government, as the Committee knows, have announced their commitment to the development of CCS by supporting one of the world’s first commercial scale demonstration projects. We had a useful evidence session on that very subject. This chapter of the Bill is intended to provide the regulatory framework for storing CO2 under the sea bed. The next 20 clauses that we shall be debating relate to this important part of the Bill, which will enable this important technology to go forward here in the UK.
The Committee will notice some similarities with the provisions of offshore storage of natural gas and the unloading of LNG. We have these provisions as a different part of the Bill because CO2 storage is a separate issue from offshore natural gas storage or the unloading of LNG. Moreover, there are some differences between the regimes and some additional clauses that reflect the specific issues relating to CO2 storage. These provisions are necessary because existing legislation is not suited to licensing an underground storage of CO2.
The provisions in this chapter are intended to address these shortcomings. They provide a comprehensive and adaptable legal basis for regulating the storage of CO2 in the offshore area. The offshore areas thought to have particularly promising geology for the storage of CO2 are the depleted oil and gas reservoirs of the North sea. This clause prohibits the storage of CO2 and related activities beneath the UK sea bed potentially out to 200 nautical miles, unless it is carried out under a licence and in accordance with the provisions of that licence. In addition to the storage of CO2, the prohibition also extends to the exploration of a site to assess its suitability for storage, the conversion of a site to make it suitable for such storage and the building of relevant installations.