Oceana Sues to Revoke 31 Offshore E&P Licenses in North Sea
In May, the government of then-UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak issued a total of 31 new offshore oil and gas licenses for exploration in the North Sea. Now that an election has passed and Britain has a new government, advocacy group Oceana UK is filing a lawsuit to invalidate the Sunak administration's E&P licenses, arguing that the decision was unlawful because it did not adequately consider the potential impact of a possible oil spill.
The lawsuit will assert that the environmental assessments made by Sunak's secretary of state were improper, because they allegedly disregarded independent expert advice about the effects of drilling on designated marine protected areas (MPAs), which cover about a third of the lease acreage involved in the license round. A secondary claim will focus on the climate impact of the new licensing activity, including from the indirect emissions generated by end users when the oil and gas from the lease areas is burned. Oceana also believes that the assessment relied on an improper assumption that half of the lease acreage would never be developed.
Though the legal brief is prepared for filing, Oceana and its partners are hoping that they will not have to try the case in court. The newly-elected government of Prime Minister Keir Starner is opposed to future offshore E&P activity, and Oceana's hope is that the administration will concede their claims and voluntarily "bring an end" to the previous administration's licensing decision.
"These licences were issued with a shocking disregard for expert advice, as well as our seas, climate and future," said Naomi Tilley, Campaign Lead at Oceana UK. "With its commitment to end oil and gas licences, the new government has started down a world-leading path, and now it has a crucial opportunity to honor the spirit of that ambition."
Oceana is represented by Leigh Day in the case. The law firm asserted that the Sunak administration's final assessment did not meet legal review standards because it appeared to omit and disregard its own scientific advisors' views without a reason, thereby invalidating the decision to grant the licenses.
Oceana sues to protect Alaska corals
Separately, Oceana's U.S. arm is suing NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service for allowing bottom trawling near known deep-sea coral gardens in the Gulf of Alaska. Oceana alleges that five NMFS trawl management plans - covering some of America's most productive commercial fisheries - violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to protect seabed species. Bottom trawls drag the seafloor along a swath hundreds of feet wide, and the National Academy of Sciences assesses that they are the largest single threat to living seafloor habitats like corals.
According to Oceana, displacing about five percent of the existing trawl effort in the Gulf of Alaska would be enough to protect thousands of sponges and coral gardens on the seabed, while still leaving high-value areas open for trawl operators.
Oceana USA's legal counsel, Earthjustice, noted that NMFS has already closed 95 percent of the central and western Aleutian islands to bottom trawling, along with 90 percent of ocean waters off the U.S. West Coast. The Gulf of Alaska is the last area in the region where bottom trawling remains largely unrestricted.
Top image: Richard Slessor / CC BY SA 2.0
