For
Immediate Release
Press
Release November 27th 2020:
Ten
Grounds for an immediate Northern Ireland Executive Decision on a
Moratorium on Petroleum Licensing
To
implement the Will of the Assembly
expressed in the unanimously-passed motion of October 13th, 2020
which
“calls
on the Executive to
instigate an immediate moratorium on petroleum licensing for all
exploration
for, drilling for and extraction of hydrocarbons until legislation is
brought
forward that bans all exploration for, drilling for and extraction of
hydrocarbons in Northern Ireland.”
1.Minister
Dodds misled the Assembly on
the day of the Motion saying Tamboran had proposed a revision of their
work
programme that “will remove the need for fracking”
but it was only a
proposal not to frack one test well.
2.Completely
ignoring the petroleum
licensing moratorium motion passed in the Assembly one day earlier, the
Department for the Economy (DfE) still insisted in awarding a research
study
into onshore petroleum exploration, at a cost to the public purse of
GBP 65,810.
3.An
internal DfE report to the Permanent
Secretary itself stated that if the research went ahead - which it has
- then
there must be a consideration of “the need to
formally suspend the
licensing regime to provide space to analyse the evidence from the
research and
develop a coherent, informed policy position”.
4.A
litany of Financial irregularities
has shown that DfE, with no outside scrutiny or sanction, has failed in
its
due-diligence obligations in the validation of the current petroleum
licence
applications. These included the fact that no audited accounts were
supplied by
any of the applicants along with the fact that the DfE could not even
ascertain
who the ultimate beneficial owners of Tamboran were because the Isle of
Man
Financial Services Authority refused to give that information to John
White of
the DfE when he requested it on December 15th, 2017 on the grounds that
DfE was
not a law enforcement agency.
5.Minister
Dodds has claimed she had not
received any recommendation, explicit or otherwise, to grant licences
to EHA
and Tamboran but her department officials have already done so by
validating
the license applications, publishing its opinion and making the public
interest
decision in December 2018 - noted by her predecessor Minister Simon
Hamilton.
6.Minister
Mallon’s recent removal
of permitted development rights (PDR) for gas exploration has
granted the
public a voice but also added certainty for the oil and gas industry.
However,
with the exit of the UK from the EU and extra powers being vested in
DAERA, the
concern now is that a pathway for an onshore oil and gas industry via
regulation is being created, as an unforeseen consequence (to the
advantage of
EHA and Tamboran) until DfI updates its planning policy (SPPS) to have
a
presumption against all hydrocarbon exploration and extraction
development.
7.Minister
Dodds confirmed that the
Research Study would not be making “any recommendations in
relation to the
grant or otherwise” of the current petroleum license
applications by EHA
and Tamboran.
8.Fracking
has been banned in Ireland
since 2017 on public health and environmental grounds. The Northern
Ireland
Executive must take cognisance of the transboundary implications of
granting
petroleum licenses, especially on border communities directly affected
by such
decisions and strive for an alignment of energy policy in mutual areas
of
impact and concern.
9.A
litany of conflict of interest
concerns surrounding the GSNI advisors to DfE, with 2 former GSNI
directors now
working for Tamboran, has been uncovered which now requires oversight
from the
Executive.
10.There
is a growing public consensus
against fracking and drilling with over 5,700 official submissions made
against
the Tamboran and EHA license applications; a local Fermanagh petition
against
the research study gathering 627 signatures, motions from Fermanagh and
Omagh
District Council calling for a ban on oil and gas prospecting in the
DfI
Strategic Planning Policy Statement; almost half of the Dail TDs
signing up to
a pledge against fracking in Northern Ireland and over 80 groups
calling for an
immediate ban on fracking in Northern Ireland.
Detailed
Discussion of The case for an immediate Northern Ireland
Executive Decision on a Moratorium on Petroleum Licensing
“That
this Assembly recognises the
moratoria, in various forms,on fracking in England, Scotland and Wales
and the
ban on fracking in the Republic of Ireland; notes that this motion
builds on
the 2015 strategic planning policy statement presumption against the
exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbon extraction in Northern
Ireland;
acknowledges its responsibility to protect public health and the
environment;
and calls on the Executive to instigate an immediate
moratorium on petroleum
licensing for all exploration for, drilling for and extraction of
hydrocarbons
until legislation is brought forward that bans all exploration for,
drilling
for and extraction of hydrocarbons in Northern Ireland.”
Ten
Grounds of
immediate concern for bringing the issue of Petroleum Licensing
directly to the
Executive:
1.Minister
Dodds told the Assembly on October 13th that “Tamboran
Resources (UK) Ltd, made a request to the Department to revise its
application.
The proposed revision will remove the need for fracking”.
2.On
October 14th, completely ignoring the petroleum licensing moratorium
motion passed in the Assembly one day earlier, the controversial DfE “Research
study into the potential economic, societal and environmental impacts
of
onshore petroleum exploration in Northern Ireland” was awarded to Hatch Associates
Limited in London
(headquartered in Calgary,
Canada) at a cost of GBP 65,810.
3.On November 19th 2019,
the case for instigating a
formal moratorium of petroleum licensing if the research study was
commissioned
(which it now has been) was supported by DfE officials themselves in an
internal submission to the Permanent Secretary as follows:
“While Scotland and Wales were
considering their policy position on petroleum licensing, they called a
moratorium on new licence applications [DN: is this still in place?].
In the
absence of a Minister and having previously considered the public
interest test
requirements under the Executive Formation & Exercise of
Function Act 2018
(EFEFA), the Department concluded that given it is both controversial
and
cross-cutting, any decision on the award of a petroleum licence could
not be
taken by civil servants. This has in effect created a moratorium on
decisions
on new petroleum licence applications in Northern Ireland at this time.
In the
event that a Minister were to be in place before the research and
policy
development work was completed, it would be necessary to take legal
advice on the
need to formally suspend the licensing regime to provide space to
analyse the
evidence from the research and develop a coherent, informed policy
position.”
4.Minister
Dodds also told the Assembly on October 13th that “I have
taken legal advice on the matter and have been advised that the course
of
action proposed in the motion would, most likely, be subject to
challenge.”
However, The Hydrocarbon Licensing
Directive Regulations (Northern
Ireland) 2010 section 4 states that
The Department “may
refuse an application for a licence” as long as it is not done in a
“discriminatory manner”. At the very least, the Minister
should explain
this advice to the Executive and clarify if this advice was given on
the
questionable understanding that the licence applications were validated
correctly in the first place.
A litany of Financial
irregularities
has shown that the Department for Economy, with no outside scrutiny or
sanction, has failed in its due-diligence obligations in the validation
of the
current petroleum licence applications. These included the fact that no
audited
accounts were supplied by any of the applicants along with the fact
that the
DfE could not even ascertain who the ultimate beneficial owners of
Tamboran
were because the Isle
of
Man Financial Services Authority refused to
give that information to John White
of the DfE when he requested it on December 15th, 2017 on the grounds
that DfE
was not a law enforcement agency.
a.The
fact that two Public Interest
Decisions were made in December 2018 on the EHA and Tamboran
applications (as
obliged following the advice
from the Secretary of State published
in November 2018, and under the authority conferred by the Northern
Ireland
(Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Act 2018), is itself an
implicit and explicit acknowledgement that a recommendation to approve
both
licenses was made.
b.The
Public Interest Decision of
December 20th, 2020 for the
EHA application clearly stated that “If
the Department were to
proceed to the normal consultation process, this requires the
Department to
come to a decision in the absence of a Minister i.e. that all things
being
equal it would award a PL.” and that “While
Minister Hamilton
had noted DfE’s intention to award and to move to consult,
this process was
halted under pre-election guidance”. meaning Minister
Hamilton had already
received a recommendation on the current EHA license
application.
c.The
Department already published its opinion
that it is “by no
means the case” that there are “actual”
adverse environmental and
health impacts from fracking in Northern Ireland and that fracking can
be
mitigated “to an acceptable level”
on December 21st
2018, one day after publishing its Public Interest decision on December
20th
2018.
6.There
are perceived conflict of interest
concerns for Minister
Mallon, which may need to be addressed in the context of voting on
petroleum
licensing within the Executive due to the fact that her husband is the
named
EHA public liaison officer in the EHA licensing application submitted
to DfE.
Specific concerns for the Infrastructure Department which must still be
dealt
with if DfI does not urgently update its policy to
have a presumption
against development consent for all hydrocarbon exploration and
extraction (an
approach which already took place in England, Scotland and Wales),
and these concerns include:
a.The
removal of permitted development
rights (PDR)
for gas exploration was announced on
October 5th, 2020 by Minister Mallon may be seen as regulation
of the
petroleum industry in Northern Ireland and a signal to the market that
Northern
Ireland is open for gas exploration without a policy decision at the
Executive
level. Businesses seek regulation as it gives them a clear pathway. The
removal
of PDR rights granted the public a voice but also added certainty for
the oil
and gas industry. However, with the exit of the UK from the EU
and extra powers
being vested in DAERA,
the concern now is that a pathway for
an onshore oil and gas industry via regulation is being created, as an
unforeseen consequence.
b.By
creating a planning process for gas exploration in Northern Ireland,
Minster
Mallon, with no supporting research, is either implying that it is
possible to
have a gas industry in Northern Ireland without Fracking - as asserted by Minister Dodds
in the Assembly on October 13th, 2020 - or else
she is undermining her Department’s own effective ban on Fracking.
c.A
new planning process per gas well is
ignoring the cumulative adverse public health impacts of thousands of
gas wells
in Northern Ireland as each application is assessed individually. One
other
consequence of the removal of PDR rights is that any drilling or
exploration
work now comes under the planning process. Therefore it now
comes solely
within the SPPS remit. There are now no barriers to updating the SPPS
with a
presumption against all drilling for, exploring for and extraction of
oil and
gas.
d.The
Research Study
will undermine the effective
ban on fracking. The Department has preempted the decision from the
Executive
on whether the licences should be awarded by commissioning a report
into
fracking before the Executive decides. The wording of the Strategic Planning Policy
Statement (SPPS)
(section 6.157) states:“in relation to unconventional
hydrocarbon extraction
there should be a presumption against their exploitation until there is
sufficient and robust evidence on all environmental impacts”.Therefore,
commissioning this report is effectively removing the ban on fracking
in
Northern Ireland, before the Executive has made a decision. The
published aim
of the research outwardly covers all the caveats of the SPPS policy ban
on
fracking, namely “research into the economic, societal and
environmental
impacts of future onshore petroleum exploration and production,
including
Unconventional Oil and Gas (UOG), in Northern Ireland”. This
report removes
the last legal loophole created by the SPPS in 2015 as the device that
has
effectively banned fracking in Northern Ireland.
e.The
Public Interest Decision
on the Tamboran
application in December 2018 noted that the SPPS effective ban on
fracking
would only be “likely to become a point of challenge at a
later stage should
exploratory activity be successful”. The concern here is that
DfE is
implying the ban on fracking only applies at the 20-year production
stage
(exploitation) and not the 10 year exploration and development phases
preceding
the production phase.
7.On September 17th, 2020
Minister Dodds confirmed
that the Research Study would not be making “any
recommendations in relation
to the grant or otherwise” of the current petroleum license
applications by
EHA and Tamboran - which should not prevent other cross-cutting
Departments
making a decision on these applications now in the Executive.
c.The
November 19th 2019
internal review by DfE also
found that “Benchmarking with others, such as Scotland and
Wales, and
preliminary discussions with colleagues in DAERA, DfI and NIEA has
clarified
that it can no longer be assumed that there is broad acceptance of the
need to
explore for and extract geological resources. Therefore, there is a
need to
determine if there is still a sufficient evidence base to support a
policy to
explore for, and extract, local geological resources.”
Therefore, DfE
officials accept that the current DfE policy supporting exploration and
exploitation
is not held by other impacted Departments and DfE is in the process of
determining if it also needs to change its own policy as a
consequence.
d.On
November 2nd, 2020, a leaked report
commissioned by DfE highlighted
a lack of coherence and party political influence in the development of
Stormont energy policy. It recommends that responsibility for
energy
policy be transferred to the Executive Office, as this could provide a “powerful
combination of both political leadership and expert scrutiny”.
The report
warns that without major changes the key aim of achieving so-called net
zero by
decarbonising energy consumption will be put at risk. As the report
highlights
current energy-related policy across no fewer than five departments, it
is
clear that the DfE should not have a monopoly on when the
decision on
petroleum licensing is made in the Executive, while it gets its own
house in
order.
e.Question
marks also hang over the
dropping of 3 Judicial Reviews taken by Tamboran against what are now
the
Departments for Economy (DfE) and Infrastructure (DfI) on 17 January 2018
- "amicably
resolved by all three parties".
It is highly
questionable how Tamboran could reapply for a petroleum license in
September
2016 and only withdraw its 3 Judicial Reviews once its licence
application had
first been validated by DfE on
November 12th, 2017 - 2
months earlier. No agreement on why the 3 cases were withdrawn was ever
made
public. This issue should be clarified within the
Executive.
8.Fracking
has been banned in Ireland since 2017 on public health
and environmental grounds.
The Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government must both take
cognisance of the transboundary implications of their respective
petroleum
licensing decisions, especially on border communities directly affected
by such
decisions, and strive for an alignment of energy policy in mutual areas
of
impact and concern.
a.In
simple terms, the conflict of
interest concern is that the fracking industry has huge influence over
the
pro-fracking British Geological Survey (BGS), which
in turn controls the
Geological Survey of Northern Ireland
(GSNI). GSNI, in turn, advises and
influences the Department for the Economy (DfE) which is currently
undertaking a research report that will
remove the effective fracking
ban in Northern Ireland - a report whose terms
of reference dictate
that GSNI will be working directly with its former directors Garth
Earls and
Tony Bazley who now work for Tamboran.
b.GSNI
should not have been directly “coaching”
applicants for fracking licences in
Northern Ireland - especially Tamboran whose senior management were
their
former managers in GSNI - while at the same time being advisors to the
government department assessing those same applications. It seems that
fracking
companies like Tamboran operate a revolving-door system for financially
enticing ex-directors of BGS and GSNI, which clearly demonstrates the
serious
conflict of interest problems of independence, objectivity
and
transparency of BGS and GSNI in their roles in advising government
departments.
c.The
biggest conflict of interest
concern of all is that the Department itself has a policy of
expeditiously
developing an oil and gas industry in Northern Ireland, with no concern
at all
for adverse impacts on the environment or on public health. As the Oil
and Gas
Authority in the UK has the same outdated policy that is allowing
fossil
projects to be forced through, this is now attracting increasing
legal attention.
10.Evidence
of Public concern and consensus against fracking is increasing
a.The
petition
against the research into fracking in
Fermanagh has 627 signatures
c.Almost
half of the TDs elected to the Dail in 2020 signed a pledge
stating that they were "opposed to fracking in Northern Ireland".
Before the 2020 General Election, in their #Pledge4Climate
campaign, environmental NGOS
'Love Leitrim', 'Friends of the Earth' and 'Safety Before LNG' obtained
support
from at least 193 candidates for the General election held on
February
8th, 2020, for the pledge which stated:
"I am opposed to the
importation of US fracked Gas into Ireland via LNG import terminals. If
elected, I, as a T.D., will work to find a way in the next Dail to
prevent
fracked Gas from entering the Irish energy mix via fixed or floating
LNG
terminals. I am opposed to fracking in Northern Ireland. If elected, I,
as a
T.D., will work constructively in the next Dail to prevent fracking
from taking
place in Northern Ireland".
74 of those candidates were
elected and this included all the elected T.D.s from the Labour Party,
The
Social Democrats, People Before Profit, The Green Party,
Independents for
Change, and Sinn Fein, along with leading elected Fianna Fail
and Fine
Gael T.D.s Eamon O'Cuiv, Marc McSharry and Frank
Feighan.
"That
this council restates its opposition to shale gas exploration and
extraction by
the process of hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as 'fracking' and
further
opposes the importation of fracked gas to the island of Ireland.
Furthermore,
that this Council, having already recognised that we are in a climate
emergency;
being aware of the environmental damage caused by fracking and all
forms of
exploration and extraction of fossil fuels; and furthermore aware of
our duties
under the Paris Agreement to drastically decarbonise to limit global
warming to
1.5 degrees by the end of the century, again calls on the Minister for
the
Economy to place an immediate moratorium on the issue of all petroleum
licenses, acknowledges the Minister for Infrastructure amending the
regulations
around permitted development rights and calls on that Minister to now
place a
ban on prospecting for oil and/or gas and update the 'Strategic
Planning Policy
Statement accordingly."
e.A call
for an immediate ban on Fracking in
Northern Ireland was signed by over 80 groups in October 2020
f.Mid Ulster District Council
passed the
following Motion calling on the Executive to enact an immediate ban on
petroleum licensing and immediate rejection of the current license
applications
by EHA and Tamboran on November 26th, 2020:
"This Council recognises that we are
in a climate emergency, notes that this motion builds on the 2015
Strategic
Planning Policy Statement presumption against the exploitation of
unconventional hydrocarbon extraction, acknowledges its responsibility
to
protect public health and the environment, and in light of the
Assembly's
unanimous motion on 13th October which called for a moratorium and
legislative
ban on petroleum licensing for all hydrocarbon exploration, drilling
and
extraction, this Council calls upon the Executive to enact an immediate
ban on
all such petroleum licensing and agrees to write to the Minister for
the
Economy requesting that the current applications (PLA1/16 and PLA2/16)
for
petroleum licences be immediately rejected."
Procedure
for Bringing
a Decision to the Northern Ireland Executive
Section
2 of The
Northern Ireland Ministerial
Code
outlines the
decision-making process in the Northern Ireland Executive (i.e. the
Executive
Committee) as provided for under section
28A of
the Northern
Ireland Act 1998 as amended.
Section
20 of Northern Ireland Act
1998 and Section 2.3 of the Ministerial Code require the NI Executive
as a whole to take decisions on any ‘significant’ and
‘controversial’
matters, which had not already been agreed
in the Programme for Government.
To
determine whether
a decision which ministers wish to take or have taken relates to a
matter that
ought to be considered by the Executive Committee, Section 2.5 of the
Ministerial
code states:
“Where
a Minister or junior Minister
wishes the Executive Committee to make such a determination, he or she
shall
set out in writing the details of the decision taken or to be taken,
and why he
or she believes it is or is not covered by paragraphs 2.4 (i) to (v)
above, and
seek the views of the Executive Committee. The Executive
Committee should
normally make a response at its next meeting”
Section
2.4 lists out
the types of decision that must be brought to the Committee by the
Minister responsible
- including if these decisions are cuts across the responsibilities of
two or
more Ministers, require agreement on
prioritisation, require the
adoption of a common position, and is significant or
controversial,
Section
2.11 of the
Ministerial code states:
“The
agenda for Executive Committee
meetings will be agreed by the First Minister and deputy First
Minister, taking
account of proposals made by Northern Ireland Ministers.”
Section
2.12 of the
Ministerial code goes on states:
“In
accordance with Section 28A (8) it
is the duty of the Chairmen of the Executive Committee to seek to
secure that
decisions of the Executive Committee are reached by consensus wherever
possible: if consensus cannot be reached, a vote may be taken, and if
any 3 members
of the Executive Committee require the vote on a particular matter
which is to
be voted on by the Executive Committee to require cross community
support, any
vote on that matter in the Executive Committee shall require cross
community
support in the Executive Committee. ”Cross community support” shall
have the
same meaning as set out in Section 4(5) of the Act. A quorum of 7
members will
be required for any vote. The requirement for cross-community support
must be
requested prior to a vote actually commencing.”
In
addition section
20(7) of the Northern Ireland Act gives extra powers to the Minister
for
Infrastructure as follows:
“Decisions
may be made by the
Department for Infrastructure or the Minister in charge of that
Department in
the exercise of any function under—
a.the
Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (except a function under
section 1 of that Act); or
b.regulations
or orders made under that Act,
without
recourse to the Executive
Committee.”
End.
Contact:
John McElligott
Safety Before LNG
(087-2804474) [email protected]
