Clause 18
Energy Bill
11:30 am
Malcolm Wicks (Minister of State (Energy), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Croydon North, Labour)
We have much experience to draw on and will do in the coming few years—from the decommissioning of our oil and gas rigs in the North sea and the wider UK continental shelf where we have very clear procedures on what we mean by decommissioning. We discuss that regularly with the industry. We were saying last week that the company will have the prime responsibility, not the only responsibility, for monitoring the operation while it is live and before it is finally sealed off and capped, but we also said that our own departmental inspectors, whose experience is in oil and gas, will have a major responsibility, but with all the extra technical assistance that will be required. When the carbon dioxide storage is concluded—when it is finally sealed or capped—the state will, in one way or another, have the ultimate responsibility for long-term monitoring.
The hon. Lady will appreciate that the details will need to be finalised at the appropriate time. At the moment the UK has no direct experience of this kind of storage of CO2, but we are able to draw on the experience of the Norwegians in the Sleipner gas field, where CO2 storage has now occurred for 10 or so years. I have done my best to answer all the questions, but I will write to the hon. Gentleman about the fund.