Strategic Environmental Assessment of Parts of the Central & Southern
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Report to the Department of Trade and Industry Strategic Environmental Assessment of Parts of the Central & Southern North Sea SEA 3 Consultation Document August 2002 This page is intentionally blank 3rd Strategic Environmental Assessment – Central and Southern North Sea CONTENTS Non-Technical Summary v 1 Introduction and Background 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Regulatory context to SEA 1 1.3 History of the DTI SEA process 2 1.4 Licensing context 3 1.5 Scope and purpose of the SEA 3 1.6 Organisation of the consultation document 4 1.7 Supporting studies and documents 5 2 Strategic Environmental Assessment Process 7 2.1 Introduction 7 2.2 Overview of the SEA process 7 2.3 Scoping the SEA 9 2.4 Assessment workshop 10 2.5 Stakeholder dialogue meeting 11 2.6 Studies and surveys 11 2.7 Further consultation process 13 3 Regulatory Context 15 3.1 SEA Directive 15 3.2 Licensing 16 3.3 Control of operations 17 4 Activities 23 4.1 Introduction 23 4.2 Alternatives 23 4.3 Stages of activity 26 5 Physical Chemical Environment 29 5.1 North Sea overview 29 5.2 Geology and substrates 31 5.3 Climate and meteorology 36 5.4 Oceanography and hydrography 37 5.5 Contamination of water and sediments 44 6 Ecology 55 6.1 North Sea overview 55 6.2 Plankton 56 6.3 Benthos 59 August 2002 i Contents 3rd Strategic Environmental Assessment – Central and Southern North Sea 6.4 Cephalopods 69 6.5 Fish and commercially exploited shellfish 70 6.6 Marine reptiles 81 6.7 Seabirds and coastal waterbirds 82 6.8 Marine mammals 96 7 Coastal and Offshore Conservation Sites 111 7.1 Overview 111 7.2 Existing coastal conservation sites 111 7.3 Potential for additional coastal and offshore sites 116 7.4 Marine and coastal archaeological resources and sites 121 7.5 Implications for SEA 124 8 Users of the SEA 3 Marine and Coastal Environment 125 8.1 Introduction 125 8.2 Oil and gas 125 8.3 Fisheries 126 8.4 Shipping 131 8.5 Military activity 132 8.6 Aggregate extraction 132 8.7 Marine disposal sites 133 8.8 Other energy sources 134 8.9 Telecommunication cables 135 8.10 Mariculture 136 8.11 Other coastal resources and users 137 8.12 Implications for SEA 140 9 European Coastal Resources of Potential Relevance to SEA 3 141 9.1 Introduction 141 9.2 Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Low Countries and France 141 9.3 Listing of protected sites 143 10 Consideration of the Effects of Licensing 147 10.1 Introduction 147 10.2 Approach 147 10.3 Consideration of effects 148 10.4 Cumulative and synergistic effects 175 10.5 Transboundary effects 180 10.6 Socio-economic effects 181 11 Conclusions 193 11.1 Conclusions 193 11.2 Information gaps 195 11.3 Recommendations 196 11.4 Overall conclusion 197 Contents ii August 2002 3rd Strategic Environmental Assessment – Central and Southern North Sea 12 References 199 Appendix 1: Glossary and Abbreviations A1 – I Appendix 2: Summary of Expert Assessment Workshop A2 – I Appendix 3: Summary of Stakeholder Meeting A3 – I Appendix 4: Nearshore and Coastal Benthos A4 – I Appendix 5: Species Accounts of Seabirds & Coastal Waterbirds A5 – I August 2002 iii Contents 3rd Strategic Environmental Assessment – Central and Southern North Sea This page is intentionally blank Contents iv August 2002 3rd Strategic Environmental Assessment – Central and Southern North Sea NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY Background The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is conducting a sectoral Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the implications of licensing parts of the central and southern North Sea for oil and gas exploration and production (see Figure 1). Figure 1 - SEA 3 This SEA (SEA 3) is the third in a series planned by the DTI, which will in stages, address the whole of UK waters. The first DTI SEA was conducted in 2000 prior to a 19th Round of offshore licensing and covered areas to the northwest of Scotland. SEA 2 was completed in 2001 and considered the main areas of oil and gas production in the North Sea. SEA 3 (as SEA 2) has been undertaken in line with the recently adopted European SEA Directive (2001/42/EC) with the aim of considering environmental protection and sustainable development objectives in decisions relating to oil and gas licensing in the North Sea. For the purposes of oil and gas licensing, UK waters are divided into quadrants (1° of latitude by 1° of longitude) with each quadrant further divided into 30 blocks. The SEA 3 area includes the remaining parts of the central and southern North Sea and comprises 362 blocks of which 30 are currently wholly or in part under licence, 205 which have been licensed but are now wholly relinquished, and 127 which have not previously been licensed. Several of the blocks included in the blue shaded SEA 3 area are currently under licence. The proposed action considered by this SEA is the offer of Production Licences for blocks in part(s) of the UK sector of the North Sea through a 21st Round of offshore licensing. The alternatives to the proposed licensing are not to offer any blocks, or to license a restricted area, or stagger the timing of activity in the area. SEA 3 was selected as the next in the DTI series because the geology of the area August 2002 v Non-Technical Summary 3rd Strategic Environmental Assessment – Central and Southern North Sea is prospective for gas and various projections show the UK having a growing shortfall in gas supplies. Barring rapid and revolutionary developments in photovoltaics or other renewable energy technologies, this shortfall will need to be filled by new UK production or imports. A required part of an SEA under the SEA Directive is consultation with the public, environmental authorities and other bodies, together with such neighbouring states as may be potentially affected. To facilitate consultation, this assessment document is available in a number of different formats and media. For details see the SEA website (www.habitats-directive.org) or contact the SEA Coordinator (Ms Christine Weare, DTI Oil and Gas Directorate, 86-88 Atholl House, Guild Street, Aberdeen, AB11 6AR). The formal public consultation phase extends for ninety days from the date of publication. The process used to conduct this SEA draws on earlier UK, European and American examples and in addition, the experience gained and lessons learned from the first two DTI SEAs have been used to refine the process. Improvements made have included involving stakeholders in the scoping stage of the SEA and the establishment of a Steering Group drawn from a range of stakeholders, to provide technical and general advice to facilitate the DTI SEA process. The Steering Group and authors of technical reports also participated in a workshop to identify which oil and gas industry activities might potentially result in significant effects. The DTI commissioned a number of desk-top studies covering a range of topics together with field surveys of specific seabed features of potential conservation interest. The reviews and reports have been used in the preparation of this document. A stakeholder dialogue meeting was held in York on 6 August 2002, facilitated by the independent Environment Council on behalf of the DTI. A wide variety of potential stakeholders, drawn from UK and other regulators, government advisers, local authorities, other industry representatives, academics and NGOs were invited to the session. The potential occurrence of hydrocarbon reserves is assessed through seismic survey. However, the location of commercial hydrocarbon reserves can only be confirmed by drilling a well, and for the North Sea the success ratio is about 1 in 5 (that is five wells drilled to discover one field). Consequently, there is uncertainty in predicting the scale and precise location of hydrocarbon related activities which could follow the proposed licensing. In order to conduct the SEA, possible development and activity scenarios have been prepared for consultation purposes by the DTI based on the geology and results of past exploration. These involve up to 15 exploration wells and the development of up to seven new producing fields, most probably subsea wells tied back to adjacent, existing gas fields. Only large finds could justify development by stand alone facilities. This activity would represent a small proportion of total gas exploration and production in the UK, which for existing licensed areas in the North Sea, is projected to involve around 200 to 500 exploration/appraisal wells and up to 90 field developments over the next 10 years. The actual scale of activity is dependant on a variety of factors and in particular, oil/gas prices and tax regime. The most likely location of exploration and production activities is in the blocks which surround the SEA 2 area which contains the bulk of the UK’s existing offshore gas fields. The North Sea Environment Water depths and seafloor The North Sea is a large shallow sea with a surface area of around 750,000km2. Water depths gradually deepen from south to north and the main topographic feature of relevance to SEA 3 is the Dogger Bank, which marks a division between the southern and central North Sea. Tides and currents The main inflow to the North Sea occurs along the western slopes of the Norwegian Trench, with minor inflows from the English Channel and Baltic. These inflows are balanced by outflow mainly Non-Technical Summary vi August 2002 3rd Strategic Environmental Assessment – Central and Southern North Sea along the Norwegian coast. Water circulation in the North Sea is anticlockwise.