Shellfish
The investigation found oil and gas production licences encroaching on 46 protected nature reserves in the UK.
They include a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Surrey Hills, and wetlands such as Morecambe Bay and Poole Harbour, both recognised under the international Ramsar Convention.
After the oil spill at Poole Harbour, shellfish producers were told to halt sales for fear of contamination, and people were urged to stop swimming there.
Sam Ryde, engagement officer at Birds of Poole Harbour, a conservation charity, said the incident was devastating. “Being in a protected area, we were told this sort of thing could never happen.”
French-British oil company Perenco, which operates the pipeline that leaked, said its investigations found that corrosion was the cause of the leak and it has taken steps to ensure a similar incident could not happen again. It added that shellfish sales were halted as a precaution and testing showed no actual contamination.
Wildlife
Yet the UK continued to approve new oil and gas exploration on nature reserves, particularly in the North Sea, where pollution is already at alarming levels.
More than 85,000kg of oil and chemicals were spilled there last year, according to government data compiled by Oceana, including 78 spills in protected areas. One incident saw the petrochemicals company Ineos spill almost a tonne of methanol from a gas platform directly into the waters of a protected area.
“If you poured that off the end of a pier, you’d like to think that you’d be arrested,” said Naomi Tilley, oil and gas lead at the environmental campaign group Oceana. “It’s environmental vandalism.”
In May 2024, the Conservative government granted 29 new North Sea licences, many of which overlapped with marine protected areas that are home to porpoises, grey seals and puffins.
These licences were challenged in the high court and ultimately ruled lawful. But the judge said any potential damage to wildlife must be assessed at every step and with increasing specificity as the process goes on.
Rigorous
Campaigners say that is relevant to the decision on Rosebank. While the government banned any new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea in November last year, decisions remain over fields that have exploration licenses but no permit to extract, such as Rosebank.
“The government can put a stop to any further oil and gas developments, including Rosebank,” said Tilley. “It must do the right thing for the sake of our seas, wildlife and coastal communities.”
A spokesperson for the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the government body that grants oil and gas licenses, said “vulnerable and protected habitats and species are considered throughout the licensing and permitting process”.
The stated that licences are only awarded when the NSTA has received permission from the environmental regulator for offshore oil that environmental requirements have been met. They said granting a license does not automatically permit certain environmentally risky activities such as well drilling, which requires further assessments.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said they did not recognise the findings of the investigation. They said: “The UK has strong environmental protections, with rigorous environmental assessments as part of our comprehensive regulatory framework for offshore oil and gas.”
Morally
The investigation compared 315,000 sites listed in the World Database of Protected Areas with geospatial data for 15,000 oil and gas licences in 120 countries, shared by industry provider Mapstand.
All the overlaps refer to current licenses, some of which were granted before the areas were given protected status.
Shell operates in the North Sea through Adura, which it co-owns with Norway’s Equinor. Adura told the Bureau: “Adura is proud to operate to the highest environmental and safety standards in the UK Continental Shelf, itself one of the most regulated basins in the world.” The company declined to comment on the wider findings of the investigation.
Perenco said it is legal to operate in protected areas in compliance with national regulations, shifting responsibility back to the governments which granted the oil and gas permits.
For Tilley at Oceana, the implications are clear: “Whilst oil and gas companies operating in marine protected areas is within the law, it will never be morally right.”
This Article
This article was first published by the The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which joined media partners in 18 countries across Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East to conduct the Fueling Ecocide project, coordinated by the Environmental Investigative Forum and European Investigative Collaborations.