Oil exploration safety reports kept under wraps

The government is contractually bound by a confidentiality agreement with Phoenicia Energy and Melita Exploration not to publish any documents related to the safety aspects of oil exploration in Maltese waters.

This was the reason given by transport minister Joe Mizzi in a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Anthony Bezzina asking the government to publish two studies, namely the ‘Report of Major Hazards’ and the ‘Emergency Response Plans’.

For the first time ever, government has obliged oil drillers Mediterranean Oil and Gas Ltd (MOG) to conduct an environmental risk assessment, an oil spill contingency plan, and a report on major hazards before drilling an exploratory well 130km off the Maltese coast.
Drilling for oil on the Ħagar Qim well to the south of Malta at a depth of 2,500m will be carried out by Phoenicia Energy and Melita Exploration. Phoenicia is a Genel subsidiary that holds 75% in the production sharing contract area, while Melita is the MOG subsidiary which holds the remaining 25% equity.

But a request by MaltaToday for the publication of these safety and risj studies was turned down in January.
On that occasion a spokesperson for Mizzi confirmed that seismic and geological risks of the drilling operation were assessed in a report on major hazards prepared by Phoenicia Energy.

Italian geologist Carlo Cassaniti has warned of the catastrophic dangers posed by offshore drilling in the seabed around Malta in the absence of studies assessing the “volcanic and seismic” instability of the seabed in the Sicilian Channel.

“The entire Sicilian Channel is characterised by an elevated seismic danger due to the presence of submarine volcanoes and important tectonic structures,” Cassaniti had warned in an interview in September 2013.

Cassaniti insisted on the publication of a comprehensive risk map of the seabed before any oil exploration activities are conducted.
When queried by MaltaToday, Tony Hayward, chief executive of Genel, one of the companies drilling for oil off Malta’s coast, insisted that these risks are always assessed.

“Before drilling extensive analysis is undertaken, and risks are comprehensively analysed. Drilling would not take place if there were serious concerns over seismic activity,” the former BP chief executive had said.

Tony Hayward BP chief at the time of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.

According to the Maltese government, the environmental assessment for MOG’s oil exploration was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Offshore Protocol of the Barcelona Convention. In 2012, Genel acquired the 75% participating interest in MOG’s licence interests in Area 4 in offshore Malta.

This will be the first time that such an assessment is held before oil exploration activities take place. “An environmental assessment is not mandatory for an exploratory well but government asked the company to conduct this assessment prior to commencing drilling operations,” a ministry spokesperson told MaltaToday.

Since the exploratory well will be drilled well outside territorial waters, it does not fall within the jurisdiction of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), which is bound by law to publish any study and submit impact studies to public consultation.
Unlike environment assessment reports on terrestrial development, the risk assessment report on the exploratory well will not be made public.

At present there is no specific legislative framework to regulate oil drilling apart from the Continental Shelf Act and the production sharing contract between the government and MOG.

An EU Directive on offshore safety will come into force as from July 2015.

The risk assessments were carried out by a company licensed to carry out the drilling activity will carry out the risk assessment. But government had engaged unnamed experts to review the reports submitted by the oil company and to recommend their acceptance or otherwise.