As BP comes to Mediterranean, Brussels plans new safety rules for oil drilling

Updated 1:40pm with European Green Party statement.

The news was announced this afternoon by European Commissioner for energy Gunther Oettinger.

Oettinger made reference to BP’s exploration in the Libyan shelf, just south of Malta and which has attracted the attention of the European Green Party that will push the Commission for a moratorium on deep sea oil drilling.

The oil company BP, whose involvement in the Gulf of Mexico disaster produced one of the year’s gravest of environmental crises, will be drilling south of Malta, after signing a deal with Libya.

“We have to realize the quality of water in the Mediterranean is of great interest to us. We are currently in talks with Libya and Egypt to ensure the same standards in Europe apply elsewhere,” Oettinger said.

Oettinger was also asked whether he trusted BP, which was responsible for the disastrous Gulf of Mexico explosion that affected both marine and human environments in the USA.

“In my office I have to trust everyone… BP have earned our trust because they have made certain changes in the last few weeks, by reorganising their company, their management ranks, and moved to correct their profile... I trust BP but it’s not blind trust, it’s subject to certain controls being put into place.”

The Commission wants to inspect member-states’ oil drilling authorities to ensure they carry out objective and independent inspections of oil licences in European waters.

“If we looked at the American situation, the inspectors were more or less brothers in arms, very close to each other. We want to ensure the inspectors can be inspected,” Oettinger said.

“Safety is non negotiable. We have to make sure that a disaster similar to the one in the Gulf of Mexico will never happen in European waters.”

The Commission will recommend specific EU legislation on oil platforms, indicating that a formal proposal could be tabled early next year.

Namely, when granting licences for new drillings, Member States will have to make sure that the oil companies meet key EU requirements. Companies must have a contingency plan and prove that they have the financial means available to them to pay for environmental damage caused in the event of an accident.

Oil platforms will have to be controlled by national authorities. These supervision tasks of national authorities should be evaluated by independent experts.

Technical standards will also ensure that only control equipment meeting the highest safety standards will be allowed. This includes in particular blow out preventers.

Oil companies will also have to clean up and remedy the damage caused to the environment following an accident within a zone of maximal 200 nautical miles from the coast.

European Greens statement
In a statement, the European Green Party said the Commissioner had backtracked on its plans to clearly call for a moratorium. “In these circumstances, the only responsible course of action is to freeze dangerous deep sea drilling activities and we regret that the Commission has backtracked on proposals in earlier drafts clearly calling on member states to suspend licensing until EU rules are revised.”
 
Dutch Green MEP Bas Eickhout added: "The Commission has acknowledged that EU rules on liability are simply not up to the task and we hope it will now move quickly to revise the EU Environmental Liability Directive. Given the devastating consequences of a spill, watertight liability legislation is necessary to ensure the public is not left to pick up the bill for the oil industry.
 
“The Commission has also underlined that, while some member states have better safety regulations than others, European safety rules on offshore exploration are fragmented and often fall far short. Given the consequences of any spill would clearly extend beyond national borders, we urgently need to ensure that European-wide safety rules are a strong as possible.
 
“In short, whether it comes to rules on safety or liability in the event of an accident, EU legislation is piecemeal and simply not up to scratch. We should not make the mistake of waiting for an accident, like the Deepwater Horizon disaster, before acting. Until this is addressed, EU member states should suspend deepwater exploration.”