Page 13 - EurOil Week 48 2021

EurOil POLICY EurOil

EU defends position on climate in

front of lawmakers

EUROPE THE European Commission has defended the from the oil and gas sector will be published on
agreement reached at the COP26 climate con- December 14. A draft leaked to the media in
Among other things, ference in Glasgow, after a majority of members November includes a ban on routine flaring and
lawmakers has said the of the European Parliament criticised the deal for venting, and introduces requirements for EU
commission’s methane not going far enough. countries to monitor emissions of methane and
strategy does not align “We need to look at our own commitment for companies to fix leaks in gas pipelines, stor-
with climate goals. for 2030 that’s aligned with 2 degrees Celsius. age facilities and other infrastructure.
But it’s not aligned with 1.5 degrees Celsius,” According to the draft, EU countries must
the chair of the parliament’s environment com- designate an authority to be responsible for
mittee, Pascal Canfin, explained. He stressed monitoring and enforcing the new rules, includ-
that Parliament must align EU legislation ing through inspections, and gas infrastructure
proposed by the Commission in July to cut operators must submit reports on source-level
emissions by 55% by 2030 with the 1.5-degree methane emissions and devise a leak detec-
Celsius target. Forthcoming legislation should tion and repair programme that will need to be
also align with the Paris goal. approved by the authority.
“This is not the case for the methane strategy. EU countries will have the power to slap
You need to rework it. You at the Commission penalties on rule-breakers and undertake “all
have several weeks to rework it,” Canfin said. measures necessary to ensure that [the rules] are
New legislation governing methane emissions implemented.” ™

ENERGY TRANSITION

GIE pushes for better hydrogen

blending policies

EUROPE THE EU needs to improve its policies to sup- to guarantee the unhindered gas flow across
port hydrogen blending in order to decarbonise borders, while also considering regional spe-
GIE made a range of the gas grid, Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) cificities. Exploiting the benefits of hydrogen
recommendations. reported on November 24. blending is a great opportunity we should not
The organisation, which represents some miss to accelerate the decarbonisation of our
70 gas grid operators working in 27 European energy system.”
countries, stressed the need for an explicit reg- According to GIE, the advantage of hydro-
ulatory framework for blending hydrogen into gen blending is that it can deliver emissions cuts
the network. Investments in blending by oper- quicker and to more energy consumers, and it
ators should also be sufficiently remunerated, is also less costly than investing in dedicated
GIE said. hydrogen infrastructure. However, there is a
What is more, interoperability should be a group of operators looking to develop a dedi-
guarantee at interconnection points, and with cated system known as European Hydrogen
regional specificities in mind, local and specific Backbone. They aim to establish a system almost
solutions should be permitted. 40,000 km in size by 2040, consisting of repur-
GIE also called for further research and posed natural gas pipelines and new hydrogen
development and advanced gas quality handling ones. While many of its members are involved in
tools to assess new technical options for hydro- this initiative, GIE believes the benefit of blend-
gen blending that are emerging. ing hydrogen into existing systems should not
“Gas infrastructure operators stand ready to be overlooked.
integrate hydrogen blends into their systems as There are a number of challenges to estab-
quick as necessary where this option is chosen,” lishing a European hydrogen market, including
Francisco de la Flor, the sponsor of GIE Sys- the issue of sufficient storage space to underpin
tem Operation & Development Area, said in a supply, given hydrogen’s far lower density than
statement. “They have the technical expertise gas. ™

Week 48 01•December•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13