In an effort to avoid undermining Europe’s economic recovery, the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) today encouraged the European Parliament to prevent undesirable consequences from new European Union environmental impact legislation.

OGP’s call comes as the Parliament prepares to vote on a revision of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive. The Association highlighted its concerns about the text under discussion during an event it sponsored at the Parliament

“In its current version, the legislation risks halting new projects because of the requirement to undertake long, complex and costly environmental studies at an unnecessarily early stage, before a full understanding of the opportunity (including its scale) has been gained,” said Roland Festor, OGP’s EU Affairs Director.

“The proposal would not necessarily bring additional environmental benefits. Instead, it would undermine efforts to develop domestic gas opportunities and erode EU attempts to spur growth, create new jobs, improve security of supply and fight against CO2 emissions,” Mr. Festor explained. “All of this,” he added, “would be contrary to the intent of the proposed legislation, which is to streamline, simplify and improve effectiveness and procedures.”

Instead, the Parliament’s proposed requirements would make assessing the environmental impact of shale gas opportunities, for example, needlessly and unrealistically complicated. This is especially true for the first stages of exploration, when there is no guarantee of any scope for commercial development.

To avoid such consequences, OGP has asked the members of the European Parliament to differentiate in the legislation between requirements for exploration – which often involves a single well at a site – and those for production. In this way, time and resources would be applied where they matter: on full environmental studies once an opportunity’s economic potential and scale have been successfully confirmed and development is to be carried out.

About OGP
OGP’s members include most of the world’s leading publicly-traded, private and state-owned oil & gas companies, oil & gas associations and major upstream service companies. OGP members produce more than half the world’s oil and about one third of its gas.

OGP represents the upstream oil and gas industry before international regulators and legislators. From its headquarters in London, OGP represents the industry in such UN bodies as the International Maritime Organization and the Commission for Sustainable Development. OGP also works with the World Bank and with the International Organization for Standardization. It is also accredited to a range of regional bodies that include OSPAR, the Helsinki Commission and the Barcelona Convention.

OGP Brussels provides an essential conduit for advocacy and debate between the upstream industry and the European Union. This involves regular contact with the European Commission and the European Parliament.

OGP also helps members achieve continuous improvements in safety, health and environmental performance and in the engineering and operation of upstream ventures. OGP’s extensive international membership brings with it a wealth of know-how, data and experience. OGP committees and task forces manage the exchange and dissemination of this knowledge through publications and events around the world.