Monitoring Oil Pollution from Oil and Gas Installations in the North Sea

Oil and gas installations are a source of oil inputs to the North Sea. Those inputs can include oil discharge as a result of production processes or from accidental spills. Two bodies play a major role in monitoring oil inputs from those installations. The OSPAR Commission is responsible for monitoring oil and gas installations against various performance standards, collects samples from those installations to determine whether those standards have been met or exceeded, and also monitors accidental spills. The Bonn Agreement Secretariat also plays a role through its aerial surveillance and, more recently, satellite monitoring activities in the North Sea region. Once a spill has been identified and confirmed as being mineral oil rather than other types of oils or even algae or a natural event, the Bonn Agreement seeks to identify the source of that oil. Through a programme of surveillance activities, it also specifically monitors the areas around oil and gas fields. This chapter provides an overview of the activities of the OSPAR Commission and Bonn Secretariat as they relate to oil and gas installations and examines data on inputs of oil to the marine environment to identify trends in oil pollution from those installations.