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OIL

Out-of-control barge nearly trashes BP rig

An enormous 110m barge came within less than two kilometers of crashing into an oil platform in the Norwegian North Sea on Thursday afternoon, in the second dramatic incident to hit the industry in less than 24 hours.

Published: 31 December 2015 14:48 CET
Out-of-control barge nearly trashes BP rig
Eide Barge 33 is unmanned and normally towed by a tug. Photo: Eide Marine
The 110m-long barge, owned by the company Eide Marine, careered past BP’s Valhall oil platform at just past midday on Thursday, narrowly missing causing a potentially catastrophic oil platform disaster. 
 
“It’ll be a much better New Year’s Eve now than I had feared,” BP spokesman Jan Erik Geirmo told VG newspaper after the near-miss. “It’s been nerve-wracking, so we are relieved.” 
 
BP evacuated the 85-strong skeleton staff it had left on the platform by helicopter on Thursday morning, shutting down all production, after efforts to bring the barge under control failed, leaving it on course to hit the platform. It had already evacuated 150 staff on Wednesday night. 
 
“At 12:24 hours, we got the message that the barge had passed clear of the platform at a distance of about 1 nautical mile,” Anders Bang-Andersen, press office for Norway's southern Joint Rescue Coordination Centre told NTB. “The danger is thus over, for there is no other platforms in the immediate drift trajectory.” 
 
Rigs for ConocoPhillips’ Ekofisk field, just north of Valhall and the next closest to the barge, are not at risk unless a change in weather conditions alters the barge's course, but the company has nonetheless evacuated 145 staff from its Eldfish platform. 
 
“We are monitoring the situation and we have the resources at Ekofisk to do what is necessary if the barge comes close to our platforms,” Tore Falck, ConocoPhillips’ press officer, told VG. 
 
According to Norway’s state broadcaster NRK, Eide Marine currently has three boats close to the barge attempting to bring it under control. 
 
“We are discussing whether to try and get a grip on the tow rope whichh has broken, or whether to use special harpoons that they can shoot through the hull,” Ben Vikøren, from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, told NTB. 
 
On Thursday afternoon, Henning Bruvik, the Captain of COSL Innovator, which was badly damaged when it was hit by a giant wave on Wednesday evening, told NRK that there was little he could have done to prepare for it. 
 
“No one ever really knows when you might be hit. The sea is capricious,” he said. “We have been out in such weather before. No one could have expected such an event, even in the weather we had at that time.” 
 
Jørgen Arnesen, the chief executive of the rig’s owner COSL, estimated that the freak wave which swept over the rig must have been at least 20m high.

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OIL

NGOs take Norway to European Court over Arctic oil exploration

Two NGOs and six young climate activists have decided to take Norway to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to demand the cancellation of oil permits in the Arctic, Greenpeace announced on Tuesday.

Published: 15 June 2021 14:18 CEST
NGOs take Norway to European Court over Arctic oil exploration
Northern Norway. Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash.

It’s the latest turn in a legal tussle between environmental organisations Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth Norway on one side and the Norwegian state on the other.

The organisations are demanding the government cancel 10 oil exploration licenses in the Barents Sea awarded in 2016, arguing it was unconstitutional.

Referring to the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the organisations claim that the oil licenses violated article 112 of Norway’s constitution, guaranteeing everyone the right to a healthy environment.”

The six activists, alongside Greenpeace Nordic and Young Friends of the Earth Norway, hope that the European Court of Human Rights will hear their case and find that Norway’s oil expansion is in breach of human rights,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

In December, Norway’s Supreme Court rejected the claim brought by the organisations, their third successive legal defeat.

READ MORE: Norway sees oil in its future despite IEA’s warnings 

While most of the judges on the court agreed that article 112 could be invoked if the state failed to meet its climate and environmental obligations– they did not think it was applicable in this case.

The court also held that the granting of oil permits was not contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, in part because they did not represent “a real and immediate risk” to life and physical integrity.

“The young activists and the environmental organisations argue that this judgment was flawed, as it discounted the significance of their environmental constitutional rights and did not take into account an accurate assessment of the consequences of climate change for the coming generations,” Greenpeace said.

On Friday, the Norwegian government unveiled a white paper on the country’s energy future, which still includes oil exploration despite a warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The IEA recently warned that all future fossil fuel projects must be scrapped if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Norwegian case is an example of a global trend in which climate activists are increasingly turning to courts to pursue their agenda.

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