(Bloomberg) — A conservation group is challenging Britain’s government in a London court over 31 North Sea oil and gas exploration licenses that it says could put marine protected areas and climate stability at risk.
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Oceana UK, part of an international conservation organization, said licenses granted by the previous Conservative cabinet in May last year were unlawful as they don’t account for the impact on marine life and the environment.
The Labour government, which has since taken over, has shifted its attention to the North Sea’s clean energy future. Yet while the cabinet is committed to not issuing new field exploration licenses, it doesn’t plan to revoke existing ones.
Oceana argued that courts should follow an example from earlier this year, when a British court quashed approvals for two oil and gas projects known as Rosebank and Jackdaw, led respectively by Equinor ASA and Shell Plc. The ruling forced the fields to re-apply for environmental permits.
The fate of those and other projects has big implications for the UK North Sea, an aging oil and gas province where major new developments are dwindling.
Oceana said the licenses involved in the latest case are inside marine-protected areas, yet that potential oil spills were not considered in their impact assessments. It estimated there were more than two oil or chemical spills every day last year in UK waters.
Units of TotalEnergies SE, Perenco SA and Neptune Energy are among the companies that received the licenses, according to Oceana.
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