Spud Can Stabilisation

• Petroleum Act, 1998

Deposits for the purpose of jack-up stabilisation are now considered to be part of the maintenance of an offshore installation and are now regulated under the Petroleum Act 1998 (see Pending Legislation).

• Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 (FEPA)

Consent under the Petroleum Act 1998.

Consent is now being issued (see Pending Legislation) as part of a Direction for drilling a well or as a separate Direction issued solely for the deposit of stabilisation materials in cases where is not other need for a Direction, or a Direction for drilling a well has already been issued.

Application for consent should continue to be made by submitting Form FEP 5. The following information is to be provided on the form.

• Details of applicant (name and address);
• Duration of project;
• Location of proposed project (including maps);
• Details of material to be deposited; and
• Details of the applicants consultations with the conservation bodies.

A charge is levied for the processing of the application, the issue of the licence, the monitoring of the licensed operation and enforcement of the conditions applied to the licence. Charges are reviewed annually and the current rates are set out in a separate schedule enclosed with the application forms.

Applications should be submitted approximately 6-8 weeks before the consent is required.

Note: once the application process is fully integrated into the PON15B and PON15F process, it is expected that the application period will reduce to 28 days as with other applications.

The licensing authority may require that the deposited material be removed upon job completion. However, conditions are attached on a case-by-case basis.

None

Not Applicable

No work should commence for which consent is required under the Petroleum Act 1998 as to do so may constitute an offence under the Act.

DEFRA has recently confirmed that they now consider deposits for the purpose of jack-up stabilisation to be part of the maintenance of an offshore installation, and as such, have decided that the deposits should be controlled under the Petroleum Act 1998 rather than under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 (FEPA) as has been the case to date. DEFRA will continue to support the assessment process, but consents will now be issued by DECC.

DECC has introduced an interim assessment and consenting process for jack-up stabilisation deposits. Pending implementation of a new consenting process will include consent for such deposits in the Direction issued for the drilling of a well, or in a separate Direction issued solely for the deposit of the stabilisation materials in cases where there is either no requirement for a Direction for the rig activities or has already issued a Direction for drilling of the well. Operators will be requested to continue to submit applications to the DECC using the FEPA Part II application forms, which are familiar to applications, although the authorisations (which may eventually involve a Works Authorisation in addition to a Direction) will be issued under legislation administered by DECC. Applications will also continue to be copied to the same consultees, so there will not be a dilution of the assessment process.

None