On 30 March 2011, the Department of Energy and Climate Change ("DECC") issued its consultation on charging a fee in respect of decommissioning programmes for offshore oil and gas installations and pipelines.
The Petroleum Act 1998 gives the Secretary of State the power to charge a fee when a decommissioning programme is submitted or a request is made for the revision of a programme. Currently, DECC does not charge the oil and gas industry such fees. DECC now intends to charge a fee for providing this function rather than passing the costs onto the taxpayer, which it states would be consistent with the "polluter pays" principle of environmental law. According to DECC, the objective of the proposed fee is to ensure that those who are responsible for offshore oil and gas installations and pipelines pay an appropriate fee, which will enable DECC to recover its costs which it believes would be fair to both industry and the taxpayer.
Proposed Charging Options
DECC has set out four options for calculating the
proposed fee for submitting a decommissioning programme.
1. Type of Facility
This will involve establishing three charging bands depending on the type of facility, with band (a) attracting the highest fee:
(a) Derogation candidates/large platforms (concrete installation/steel installation with a jacket weight greater than 10,000 tonnes).
(b) Other platforms with a jacket weight less than 10,000 tonnes and subsea installations (manifold, well head protection structure(s) etc.).
(c) Pipelines, which would attract the lowest fee.
2. Field Production
This will involve setting three categories based on
the level of production. For example, 0-49 million barrels of
oil equivalent ("mmboe"), attracting a lower fee;
50-149.999 mmboe, associated with a medium fee; and 150 mmboe
upwards, associated with a higher fee.
3. Man Hours Spent
This charging option is based on the amount of DECC resource used
in relation to a particular installation/pipeline. However,
DECC does recognise that this option would place an administrative
burden on licensees and therefore increase the overall cost.
4. Flat Rate Fee
This option is based on looking at historical evidence to estimate
the number of decommissioning programmes that are likely to be
approved for the following year and then dividing the costs of the
Offshore Decommissioning Unit ("ODU") by the estimated
number of programme approvals, or, by estimating the number of
programmes likely to be approved over a set period (e.g. the next 5
years) and then dividing ODU's costs for the next 5 years by
the number of programme approvals for the same period.
As regards the fee for revising a decommissioning
programme, DECC's proposes to charge a small flat rate
fee.
Comment
There is no indication as to what the fees will actually be, but according to the impact assessment, the cost to the ODU to approve/revise decommissioning programmes is £800,000 a year. There is currently one decommissioning programme under consideration. In 2011, one programme was approved. In 2010, three programmes were approved, and in 2009, one programme was approved. Information on DECC's website showing the number of decommissioning programmes that have been approved going back to 1988 indicates that on average, approximately two programmes are being approved each year, and during that time, only one programme was submitted for revisal. Therefore, if DECC's preferred option was to charge a flat rate fee (option 4), then an operator and its partners would be required to pay in the region of £400,000 for submitting a decommissioning programme. It would seem unreasonable to expect one or two applicants to bear the entire costs of the department, although the cost on this basis would presumably fall over the medium term as the number of decommissioning programmes is expected to rise substantially. Whichever approach is taken, DECC should probably seek to balance its budget over the medium rather than the short term.
The closing date for responses to the consultation is 22 June 2011. Please click here for the full consultation document
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 09/06/2011.
