Environmental Statement - Maersk Oil

Balloch Field Development Environmental Statement
Section 5 Assessment of Potential Impacts and Controls
Proposed control measures for impacts associated with underwater noise during the proposed
Balloch development
The following control measures are proposed to minimise the impact associated with underwater
noise sources during all phases of the proposed development.
The risk of noise associated with the vessels and drilling rig causing any significant impacts is low.
Piling of the subsea cooling spool during the installation phase could cause relatively high sound
levels. Providing the mitigation measures outlined above are followed, the impacts from underwater
noise are assessed to be low.
5.5. ACCIDENTAL EVENTS
Uncontrolled hydrocarbon spills following an uncontrolled blowout at the proposed Balloch
development location are modelled and discussed in Section 6. This section also models the fate of
the loss of the diesel inventory from the drilling rig and discusses Maersk Oil’s tiered response to
respond to and mitigate such spills.
5.6. WIDER DEVELOPMENT CONCERNS
The potential of the proposed development to:
Cause an offence to European Protected Species;
Impact on protected areas;
Impact on other sea users;
Have a transboundary impact
is discussed in this section.
5.6.1. EUROPEAN PROTECTED SPECIES
Proposed Control Measures
Both the number of vessels required and the length of time the vessels are on site will be
minimised;
The JNCC piling protocol will be followed including:
Piling will commence using soft start;
Piling will commence in hours of daylight and good visibility;
A trained marine mammal observer (MMO) will be present during piling
operations
Following JNCC guidance, no pile driving will commence if a marine mammal has
been recorded within 500 m of the exclusion zone during the previous 20
minutes.
This section assesses the impacts of noise on Marine European Protected Species (EPS) likely to be
encountered in the area of the proposed development. EPS include all cetaceans, marine turtles and
the Atlantic sturgeon. However, it is unlikely that marine turtles or Atlantic sturgeon will be found in
the development area, therefore the assessment focuses on the cetaceans species likely to occur. As
detailed in Section 3, there are several cetacean species distributed through the CNS that the EPS
assessment should consider including harbour porpoise, minke whale, white‐beaked dolphin and
white‐sided dolphin.
The Offshore Marine Regulations 2007 (as amended 2010) contain a revised definition of
‘disturbance’ to European Protected Species. The Offshore Marine Regulations extended the offence
to areas of UK jurisdiction beyond 12 nautical miles (nm). It is now an offence under UK Regulations
to deliberately disturb wild animals of a EPS in such a way as to be likely to:
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