Downing Street Says » Offshore Drilling

» Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Offshore Drilling

Asked about the announcement the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) had made today, the PMS said that DECC had been looking at the regulatory regime for offshore drilling in this country, in light of what had happened in the Gulf of Mexico. The conditions here were obviously different to those in the Gulf, as the drilling there was much deeper. DECC was comfortable that the regime we had in place was sound, but wanted to make sure it was as robust as it needed to be for the future.

Asked if there had been any mention of the Falklands at Cabinet in regards to offshore drilling, the PMS said no.

Asked if there was a discussion at Cabinet on securing energy supplies, the PMS said no; it had been a brief oral update on the DECC announcement today.

Asked if there had been any contact between Ministers and BP, the PMS said that the last Ministerial meeting took place between the Energy Minister and BP last week.

Asked when the increased inspections would begin and how much it would cost, the PMS said that people should talk to DECC for details.

Asked if the plan was to strengthen the checks on offshore drilling, the PMS said that there was a regulatory regime in place for drilling in the North Sea and a number of inspections that took place on rigs to ensure that the industry was compliant with the regime. The intention was to increase the number of those checks.

Asked why we had to change the regime if it was already robust, the PMS said that in the light of what had happened recently, Ministers at DECC wanted to reassure themselves that our regime was the right one.

Asked if there had been any talks between DECC and industry about this change, the PMS said that there had been discussions between the department and the industry in the last few weeks.

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