North Sea licenses pose a threat to 'fragile ecosystem'

More than a third of the locations being offered 'overlap' with marine protected areas home to threatened species

- SAPHORA SMITH

Hundreds of the locations being offered to companies to explore for oil and gas in the North Sea overlap with marine protected areas (MPAs) home to threatened species, new analysis has revealed.

The North Sea Transition Authority formally launched a licensing round for exploration and potential development in the North Sea yesterday.

The analysis by the campaign group Uplift found that 352 of the 898 locations being offered more than a third - fall across areas designated to protect species and habitats among other important environmental features. Some of those overlaps are tiny, but 166 of the locations fall fully within the protected zones, it added.

Meanwhile, other locations fall in the Arctic region as defined by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, a working group of the Arctic Council, according to Uplift. Some companies have already restricted their investment and underwriting of operations in this region due to its environmental fragility.

Uplift, which campaigns for a fossil-free UK, said it was not unusual for the North Sea Transition Authority to offer locations in MPAs in licensing rounds. But it warned that the safeguards in place to protect these areas were already limited and said it was concerned they could be further eroded as the government pursues a "deregulatory agenda."