In 2023, the Attorney General concluded in a report commissioned by the Danish Energy Agency that the agency had granted approvals for a number of fields under the Exclusive Licence without compliance with the EIA and habitat regulations.
Specifically, the Attorney General concluded that approvals had been granted for facilities, pipelines and wells on the four field complexes Gorm, Dan, Harald and Halfdan (including satellite fields) without compliance with the EIA regulations. This applies to the period from 1988 onwards. In addition, the rules in the Habitats Directive in connection with the approvals have not been observed to a sufficient extent.
However, not all facilities in the North and Baltic Seas were examined at that time. Therefore, supplementary examinations of the remaining approvals for offshore oil and gas facilities were initiated by the Attorney General at the request of the Danish Energy Agency.
The results of this examination have now been released, and it shows that several similar errors have been made. This is stated by the Danish Energy Agency in a statement.
- The supplementary report confirms the picture of errors in our historical EIA practice from the first report from the Attorney General from 2023. It is regrettable, but good to have it clarified so that we can also correct the historical errors for these approvals. Since the summer of 2022, the Danish Energy Agency has followed the Attorney General's recommendations to ensure correct case processing and to correct the historical errors in the case processing, says Director of the Danish Energy Agency Kristoffer Böttzauw.
Errors in several fields
Specifically, deficiencies have been identified in approvals for the fields Valdemar, Roar, Svend and Tyra Southeast as well as Siri, Nini, Cecilie, Syd Arne and Hejre. There are also deficiencies in connection with permits for the transit pipelines Europipe I, Europipe II, Franpipe and Zeepipe. It is noted that in the spring of 2024, the Danish Energy Agency approved an expansion of the Hejre field, and that the Hejre facilities were legally legalized in this connection.
No deficiencies have been identified for the approvals for the upstream pipelines Tyra-Nybro, Syd Arne-Nybro and Tyra-NOGAT, the oil pipeline from Gorm E to Fredericia and the gas pipelines Norpipe, Baltic Pipe, Lolland-Falster, Nord Stream I and Nord Stream 2.
The study covers the period from the implementation deadline of the EIA Directive in 1988 and until the Energy Agency's changed EIA practice in the summer of 2022 based on the advice of the Attorney General.
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