Denmark to Launch North Sea Energy Island Tender in Spring 2023. The tender for the construction and operation of the Danish North Sea Energy Island is now expected to be launched in Spring 2023, as a new political agreement has been reached on the tender rules, which include significant requirements in the areas of working […]
North Sea oil and gas licenses ‘overlap’ with marine protected areas, which are home to threatened species. The analysis by Uplift found that more than a third of the locations being offered clash with protected zones, the Independent reported. The government’s response to the consultation on the UK Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment 4 (OESEA4) Environmental Report paved […]
The UK government has confirmed support for a new oil and gas licensing round. The government’s response to the consultation on the UK Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment 4 (OESEA4) Environmental Report has been published. This will pave the way for future licensing or leasing for offshore oil and gas, offshore gas and carbon storage, […]
A pilot project in the North Sea will develop floating solar panels that glide over waves ‘like a carpet’ German energy firm RWE is to invest in a pilot project centred around the deployment of floating solar technology in the North Sea. RWE describes “integration of offshore floating solar into an offshore wind farm” as […]
A new paper – entitled Offshore wind farms contribute to epibenthic biodiversity in the North Sea – has been published in the Journal of Sea Research and has received media coverage. According to the lead author, marine ecologist Dr Remment ter Hofstede, and his colleagues, “the North Sea was once abundantly covered with hard substrates […]
As reported in ENDS [paywall] and the Independent, a new report by the Plastic Soup Foundation states that millions of waste plastic “nurdles” from UK sewage plants on the east coast are polluting the North Sea and reaching the Dutch coast. Sewage plants in Britain use black “bio beads”, also known as nurdles, to filter water, but spillages […]
As reported in the Guardian, advisers say refusing new licences would signal green ambition, but final decision must be for ministers. The prospects for an expansion of oil and gas drilling in the North Sea have cleared a major hurdle, as the Committee on Climate Change said “stringent tests” must be applied to any new exploration licences […]
During expeditions to oil and gas reservoirs in the central North Sea in 2012 and 2013, scientists of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany) discovered that methane bubbles emerged from the seabed around abandoned wells. The gas originates from shallow gas pockets, which lie less than 1000 meters deep below the seafloor […]