Wednesday 1 September 1999

Drill Cuttings Initiative Announces R&D Contract Awards and Creation of Scientific Review Group

The UK Offshore Operators Associations (UKOOA) Drill Cuttings Initiative has announced the award of 15 research and development (R&D) contracts as part of a £1 million spend in the first phase of its investigations into options for dealing with accumulations of drill cuttings beneath oil and gas installations in the North Sea.

The R&D programme will be monitored and the final reports reviewed by a newly created independent scientific review group established to ensure the transparency and integrity of research findings on behalf of stakeholders. The group is chaired by Professor John Shepherd, the former director of the Southampton Oceanography Centre and currently director of the Earth System Modelling Initiative. Its members, drawn from a field of eminent academics, reviewed the shortlist of proposals submitted under competitive tender, and contributed to the final selection of the R&D companies.

The industry initiative, launched in June 1998, combines scientific research and development with public consultation to identify the best environmental practice and best available techniques for dealing with drill cuttings that have accumulated on the sea bed the legacy of early offshore oil and gas activity.

Eric Faulds, Chairman of the UKOOA Drill Cuttings Initiative, said: Possible options include complete removal, in situ treatment or leaving the accumulations undisturbed. The environmental impacts of these options, as well as the technologies required, are the subject of this current programme of study

The R&D programme is being coordinated by Det Norske Veritas Technical Consultancy in Aberdeen which was appointed in May 1999 as independent project managers. The first phase is scheduled for completion by the end of the year when the reports will be submitted to the scientific review group for assessment. The results will be discussed with stakeholders at a seminar early next year and a list of preferred options drawn up. The second phase involves the testing of these potential solutions, with offshore trials likely to take place from the Spring 2000.

More information can be found here.

Note to editors

The UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) is the representative organisation for the UK offshore oil and gas industry. Its 31 member companies are licensed by Government to explore for and produce oil and gas in UK waters.

The members of the Scientific Review Group, chaired by Professor John Shepherd, are:

Professor William Dover, University College London

Dr Brian McCartney, University of Liverpool

Professor Bruce Sellwood, University of Reading

Dr Hans Temmink, Agricultural University Wageningen

The R&D programme was drawn up using feedback from a stakeholder seminar on the subject of drill cuttings accumulations held in November 1998. Participants included environmentalists, academics, fishermen, UK Government and EU regulators as well as representatives from the oil industry. The scope was subsequently presented in March to research institutions and engineering companies who were invited to submit initial proposals identifying areas of particular expertise. The UKOOA Drill Cuttings Initiative Task Force then selected groups to be invited to make formal bids for each study area. Organisations with complementary expertise were encouraged to join forces so those groups demonstrating as broad an experience as possible could be considered for the work.

For more information, please call 020 7802 2400.