Guidance notes for the environmental legislation

See the new and revised guidance notes that are currently out to public consultation .

The Offshore Petroleum Production and Pipe-lines (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1999

Revisions to guidance notes

Further experience of administration of the Offshore Petroleum Production and Pipe-lines (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1999 and discussions with operators have indicated that certain changes need to be made to the March 1999 edition of the Guidance Notes. These are set out below and should be instituted immediately.

PON 15A

This form is used to alert the Department of Trade and Industry to the imminent arrival of an environmental statement for a new field, exploration well etc. Completed PON 15As are sent to Graeme Cobb in 1 Victoria Street. Letters of acknowledgement sent by Barrie Comber give the project number and indicate to whom the ensuing PON 16 and four copies of the environmental statement should be sent.

As from now, the PON 15A is scrapped. This means that in future operators will need to submit the PON 16 and the four copies of the environmental statement as follows:

The letter currently sent out by the OG giving details of who the environmental authorities are following receipt of the four copies of the environmental statement will now include the project number.

The PON 15B, PON 15C and PON 15D remain unchanged - both in title and in content.

Use of the PON 16

A completed PON 16 should accompany any PON 15B, PON 15C or PON 15D submitted to the Department. The PON 16 is the application for consent which by virtue of the wording of the Directive should be submitted at the same time as the submission of the "appropriate particulars" (i.e. the PON 15B, PON 15C or PON 15D). In future the Department will accept the submission of a PON 16 in these circumstances if the wording of the PON 16 is incorporated in the covering letter for the PON 15B, PON 15C or PON 15D.

Forms

The blank PONs in Annex C to the Guidance Notes contained some minor errors which have now been corrected in the new version of Annex C to be found in the Guidance Notes on the Oil and Gas Directorate website. The only significant changes are deletion of the PON 15A and to "Residual Current" in the PON 15B and the addition of "Anticipated date of commencement of works" to the PON 15C and PON 15D. (The dates given should be accurate as far as possible at the time the PON 15C or PON 15D is completed).

Guidance notes

The first paragraph on page 2 of the March 1999 Edition of the Guidance Notes is incorrect and should be ignored. Further consideration of this point (one PON 15B covering more than one well) has led to the conclusion that a PON 15B has to be submitted for each well on the grounds that the accuracy of the environmental information in the PON 15B cannot be guaranteed for the third or sixth well (or however many wells the PON 15B covers).

Guidance Notes on the Offshore Installations (Emergency Pollution Control) Regulations 2002

If anyone wishes to make any further comments on any of these documents these will be gratefully received. Please send any such comments to Allan Taylor whose e -mail address is allan.taylor@dti.gsi.gov.uk.

Alternatively comments can be sent in writing to Mr Taylor at

Department of Trade and Industry
Environment & Decommissioning
Atholl House
86 -88 Guild Street
ABERDEEN AB11 6AR

Back | Title | Table of Contents
Appendix 1 | Appendix 2 | Appendix 3 | Appendix 4 | Appendix 5 | Appendix 6 | Appendix 7 | Appendix 8 | Appendix 9
Appendix 10 | Appendix 11 | Appendix 12 | Appendix 13 | Appendix 14 | Appendix 15 | Appendix 16 | Appendix 17
Index Map | Plate 1 | Plate 2W | Plate 2E | Plate 3W | Plate 3E | Plate 4W | Plate 4E | Plate 5 | Plate 6
Plate 7 | Plate 8W | Plate 8E | Plate 9W | Plate 9E | Plate 10W | Plate 10E | Plate 11 | Plate 12 | Legend