Data challenges and opportunities for environmental management of North Sea oil and gas decommissioning in an era of blue growth

Murray, Fiona, Needham, Katherine, Gormley, Kate, Rouse, Sally, Coolen, Joop W. P., Billett, David, Dannheim, Jennifer, Birchenough, Silvana N. R., Hyder, Kieran ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1428-5679, Heard, Richard, Ferris, Joseph S., Holstein, Jan M., Henry, Lea-Anne, McMeel, Oonagh, Calewaert, Jan-Bart and Roberts, J. Murray (2018) Data challenges and opportunities for environmental management of North Sea oil and gas decommissioning in an era of blue growth. Marine Policy, 97. pp. 130-138. ISSN 0308-597X

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Abstract

Maritime industries routinely collect critical environmental data needed for sustainable management of marine ecosystems, supporting both the blue economy and future growth. Collating this information would provide a valuable resource for all stakeholders. For the North Sea, the oil and gas industry has been a dominant presence for over 50 years that has contributed to a wealth of knowledge about the environment. As the industry begins to decommission its offshore structures, this information will be critical for avoiding duplication of effort in data collection and ensuring best environmental management of offshore activities. This paper summarises the outcomes of a Blue Growth Data Challenge Workshop held in 2017 with participants from: the oil and gas industry; the key UK regulatory and management bodies for oil and gas decommissioning; open access data facilitators; and academic and research institutes. Here, environmental data collection and archiving by oil and gas operators in the North Sea are described, alongside how this compares to other offshore industries; what the barriers and opportunities surrounding environmental data sharing are; and how wider data sharing from offshore industries could be achieved. Five primary barriers to data sharing were identified: 1) Incentives, 2) Risk Perception, 3) Working Cultures, 4) Financial Models, and 5) Data Ownership. Active and transparent communication and collaboration between stakeholders including industry, regulatory bodies, data portals and academic institutions will be key to unlocking the data that will be critical to informing responsible decommissioning decisions for offshore oil and gas structures in the North Sea.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding Information: Extensive efforts have been made in recent years to collect and collate marine environmental data at local, national and international levels. The most relevant of these projects for the North Sea is EMODnet: the European Marine Observation and Data Network [5] . EMODnet is a network of organisations funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) as part of the European Commission's Marine Knowledge 2020 strategy to support the implementation of EU's Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP). The overarching aim of the network is to convert Europe's otherwise fragmented marine data landscape into an interoperable data sharing framework, adopting the “collect once, use many times” data philosophy (INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC). This is achieved by pulling together Europe's many data sources [45] , processing and harmonising the data in accordance with international standards, and making the information freely available through online data portals. EMODnet categorises data by scientific discipline (geology, biology, chemistry, physics) and by general thematic categories such as seabed habitats, bathymetry and human activities. These thematic data portals are supplemented by an overarching central portal ( www.emodnet.eu ) which acts as an information hub and gateway to the network's data and information resources. It also provides a number of additional data services to browse, visualise and retrieve data layers from various disciplines and themes simultaneously. The work is achieved by more than 150 organisations including national/regional data centres, hydrographic offices, geological services and thematic data aggregators that collate, process and host data that is then made available through both their own websites and the EMODnet portals. For example, MEDIN (Marine Environmental Data Information Network, http://www.oceannet.org/ ) facilitates and coordinates UK marine environmental data sharing. At present, the data standards employed by MEDIN for UK datasets exceed those set by EMODnet and, for now, it is understood that MEDIN will remain part of the EMODnet network after the UK leaves the EU [34] . Funding Information: The Blue Growth Data Workshop was organised by the University of Edinburgh through the INSITE Data Initiative funded by the INSITE (INfluence of man-made Structures In the Ecosystem, www.insitenorthsea.org) research programme. The authors thank participants from BP, British Geological Survey, Gardline, DeepTek, theDataLab, Hartley Anderson, Marine Scotland Science, Heriot-Watt University, BMT Cordah, Shell, BEIS OPRED and Marathon Oil for their contributions. INSITE follows the 2012 Oil and Gas UK led ?Decommissioning Baseline Study? joint industry project that identified data gaps in our understanding in the influence of man-made structures on the ecology of the North Sea. J. Murray Roberts and Katherine Needham acknowledge further support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 678760 (ATLAS). David Billett was supported by funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES: Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas). Lea-Anne Henry was supported by the INSITE Project ?Appraisal of Network Connectivity between North Sea subsea oil and gas platforms?. Kieran Hyder was supported by INSITE project ?Assessing the ecological connectivity between man-made structures in the North Sea?. Silvana Birchenough was supported by the INSITE project ?Understanding the influence of man-made structures on the ecosystem functions of the North Sea and the European Union's Horizon 2020 Project COLUMBUS (652690) ?Knowledge Transfer for Blue Growth?. This output reflects only the authors? views and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. Funding Information: The Blue Growth Data Workshop was organised by the University of Edinburgh through the INSITE Data Initiative funded by the INSITE (INfluence of man-made Structures In the Ecosystem, www.insitenorthsea.org ) research programme. The authors thank participants from BP, British Geological Survey, Gardline, DeepTek, theDataLab, Hartley Anderson, Marine Scotland Science, Heriot-Watt University, BMT Cordah, Shell, BEIS OPRED and Marathon Oil for their contributions. INSITE follows the 2012 Oil and Gas UK led “Decommissioning Baseline Study” joint industry project that identified data gaps in our understanding in the influence of man-made structures on the ecology of the North Sea. J. Murray Roberts and Katherine Needham acknowledge further support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 678760 (ATLAS). David Billett was supported by funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES: Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas). Lea-Anne Henry was supported by the INSITE Project “Appraisal of Network Connectivity between North Sea subsea oil and gas platforms”. Kieran Hyder was supported by INSITE project “Assessing the ecological connectivity between man-made structures in the North Sea”. Silvana Birchenough was supported by the INSITE project “Understanding the influence of man-made structures on the ecosystem functions of the North Sea and the European Union's Horizon 2020 Project COLUMBUS ( 652690 ) ”Knowledge Transfer for Blue Growth”. This output reflects only the authors’ views and the European Union cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 The Authors
Uncontrolled Keywords:	blue economy,decommissioning,environmental assessment,offshore energy,open access,rov survey,aquatic science,environmental science(all),economics and econometrics,management, monitoring, policy and law,law,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1104
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	25 Nov 2023 03:22
Last Modified:	27 Nov 2023 03:08
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/93806
DOI:	10.1016/j.marpol.2018.05.021

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