Chrysaor, which merged with Premier Oil to form Harbour Energy plc, has been fined £150,000 for vent breaches after exceeding its consent by more than 145 tonnes.
ARMADA
The company also failed to inform industry regulator the North Sea Transition Authority of the breach for seven months.
On fining the company, NSTA today said that that Chrysaor had blamed the breach on “high winds preventing it from relighting the flare on the Armada platform”.
The processing hub, 132 nautical miles East of Aberdeen, serves Hawkins, Fleming, Drake, Maria and Seymour fields and has a capacity of more than 20,000 barrels per day.
“In January 2022 an unplanned shut-in led to one vent event,” added NSTA.
“This was followed in August the same year when there was a further event after a start-up from a shutdown; in October high winds caused the flare to extinguish with the operator being unable to relight the flare for three days.
“And in November, the flare was extinguished due to a depressurisation and there was a delay in relighting due to the weather conditions.
“This venting continued for three days.
“In total, Chrysaor vented 370.046 tonnes at Armada from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022, exceeding its consent by 145.566 tonnes, almost 65%.
“Venting consent was breached in October 2022 and Chrysaor failed to inform the NSTA until May 2023, which indicated that it was unaware of the amount that it had vented.”
NSTA director of regulation Jane de Lozey said that it was vital to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
“The NSTA will continue to support industry in its efforts to reach net zero by 2050.
“In the few cases where companies fail to comply with requirements, the NSTA will not hesitate in applying tough sanctions.”
In determining the fine, the NSTA took into consideration the fact that Chrysaor was unaware it had exceeded for approximately seven months.
This indicated that the company was “not tracking its venting, and had poor systems and processes in place to monitor its venting volumes”.
The NSTA notified companies in December 2024 that it would increase the starting fine from 1 January 2025 for breaches of flaring and venting consents to £500,000.
The investigation into Chrysaor began before the notification.
NSTA noted that the North Sea oil and gas industry reduced emissions by 28% between 2018 and 2023.