About us

We're responsible for regulating environmental and decommissioning activity for offshore oil and gas operations, including carbon capture and storage operations, on the UK continental shelf.

Responsibilities

Our responsibilities include:

  • handling domestic and international policy relating to the environmental regulatory framework for offshore oil and gas (working with other departments, environmental bodies and international organisations)
  • developing, administering and enforcing the offshore oil and gas environmental regulatory regime (including offshore gas unloading and storage and carbon dioxide storage)
  • implementing the oil, gas and carbon capture and storage decommissioning regime and ensuring that the costs are met by the oil companies and not the taxpayer
  • managing the department’s Strategic Environmental Assessment for offshore energy projects
  • working with other regulators to drive the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from offshore oil and gas operations; in line with the commitments of the government’s Net Zero Strategy and the ‘Powering up Britain’ Energy Security Plan

Priorities

For 2023 to 2024, our priorities are:

Environmental operational delivery

  • promoting responsible business practice within the offshore oil and gas industry by working with industry to achieve compliance
  • creating a stable, consistent and proportionate regulatory regime
  • assessing Oil Pollution Emergency Plans, including financial provision for accidents and incidents, and ensuring that operators have an effective emergency response capability in place

Decommissioning

  • reviewing, approving and monitoring the implementation of decommissioning programmes to make sure decommissioning solutions are consistent with regulatory obligations
  • protecting the taxpayer from bearing the full cost of decommissioning (as decommissioner of last resort)

Policy and international delivery

  • achieving consistent and proportionate policy and legislation to underpin our regulatory responsibilities (including our Strategic Environmental Assessment programme and legislative programmes)
  • ensuring the environmental and decommissioning regulatory regime for the offshore oil and gas sector is proportionate both nationally and internationally
  • Regulatory regime development with respect to government priorities such as Carbon Capture and Storage

Who we are

OPRED is part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). We’re a team of 118 people, with an Aberdeen headquarters and a presence in departmental offices across the country.

Who we work with

We work closely with a number of partner organisations:

With HSE we form the Offshore Major Accident Regulator (OMAR).

Corporate information

Jobs and contracts

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