Categories
The UK’s first offshore oil and gas rig could be “a catalyst” for climate change, a leading climate scientist has warned.
The UK’s offshore oil sector, including the Bristol Bay LNG project, is being developed to provide fuel for future offshore wind and solar farms.
In April, it was revealed that BP had been granted a permit to start work on the £7bn LNG port at Newport, which is due to be completed in 2021.
BP has also received approval to develop a new terminal at Portsmouth, which will be completed by 2022.
In the past, BP has claimed it has a licence to drill for oil in the North Sea, despite there being no oil in its waters.
The UK has also been granted permission to drill offshore for oil and natural gas, which could provide another source of fuel for offshore wind farms.BP has now been granted another permission to begin work on its new LNG terminal at Newport.
Dr. David Bell, an independent climate scientist and professor at the University of East Anglia, told The Independent the rig’s construction could cause “potential climate change”.
He said: “The idea is that we would be pumping these gas-rich offshore areas from these ships, and this is going to cause climate change.”
Dr Bell added: “[The] fact that we are building a pipeline from this offshore oil to this LNG plant and from there it’s going to affect climate change is going the other way, too.”
The LNG pipeline is designed to allow the UK to import energy from countries that do not have access to the global market.
As well as generating energy, the pipeline is also designed to ship gas from offshore fields to LNG terminals that would then export gas to the UK.
The Bristol Bay project is a joint venture between BP and UK energy company SSE, which has already had several oil spills in the region.BP’s Bristol Bay gas exploration is being built on an offshore platform.
Earlier this year, a gas leak from the site of the UK offshore oil platform led to the closure of the entire platform.
