The Storage of Carbon Dioxide (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations form part of the implementation in Northern Ireland of Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the geological storage of carbon dioxide (OJ No L 140, 5.6.2009, p. 114) (“the Directive”). They implement Articles 21 and 22 of the Directive on third party access to carbon dioxide storage sites and transport networks.

Regulations 2 to 5 provide definitions for terms used in the Regulations, in particular definitions of “owner”, “associate” and “pipe-line”.

Regulation 6 provides that, in the circumstances set out in the regulation, the Department may, when considering an application for a storage permit for a relevant storage site, grant the storage permit subject to certain conditions requiring the storage site to be constructed to a capacity or design different to that proposed.

Regulation 7 requires a person, who proposes to make an application for the grant of planning permission or a Crown lease for a relevant pipe-line, to give not less than six months’ notice to the Department that such an application is to be made. At any time before the grant is made, the Department may serve a notice on the person requiring the pipe-line to be constructed to a capacity, design or route different to that proposed.

Regulation 8 gives power to the Department, where it has served a notice under regulation 6 or 7, to serve a notice allocating the additional costs of constructing the storage site or pipe-line in conformity with the requirements as to capacity, design and route.

Regulation 9 allows an application for access rights to be made in relation to relevant infrastructure which has yet to be constructed in the circumstances specified in the regulation.

Regulation 10 provides that requirements imposed under regulation 7 or 8 will continue to apply to a relevant pipe-line even where it is diverted beyond the limits permitted under the grant of planning permission or Crown lease.

Regulation 11 provides that, where a person has previously sought to secure access to a relevant pipe-line or storage site by application to the owner, but has not been able to reach agreement with the owner, the person may apply to the Department for a notice granting that access.

Regulation 12 deals with compulsory modifications to a relevant pipe-line or relevant storage site, where an application has been made to an owner, and the Department is considering whether to give an access notice under regulation 11(10). Regulations 11 and 12 each set out the considerations the Department must take into account when deciding how to deal with the application, the process it must follow and what may be required by a notice.

Regulation 13 allows for variation of notices under regulations 11 and 12 once they have been issued, either by agreement among the persons to whom notice is given or, in the case of a notice under regulation 11, by the Department if it is necessary to resolve a dispute about the notice between its recipients.

Regulation 14 gives the Department powers to require information in order for the Department to decide whether to exercise any function under regulation 7, 11, 12 or 13, and if so, how.

Regulation 15 provides that the use of relevant infrastructure in accordance with a right secured by virtue of these Regulations is not a contravention of section 17(1) of the Energy Act 2008 (prohibition on unlicensed activities). It also provides that no additional consent under the statutory provisions specified in the regulation is required for the modification of relevant infrastructure, if that modification is required by the Department under the Regulations.

Regulation 16 requires the owner of relevant infrastructure to publish information about the available capacity in that infrastructure and to update that information when there is a change in the available capacity.

Regulations 17, 18 and 19 provide for the enforcement of the requirements imposed by the Regulations. Regulation 17 creates a new offence of giving false information to the Department for the purpose of influencing the exercise of its functions under the Regulations.

Regulation 18 provides that a person who fails to give notice to the Department under regulation 7(1) or who contravenes a pipe-line variation notice shall be guilty of an offence.

Regulation 19 provides that the duty of a person to comply with a notice under regulation 8(1), an access notice or a modification notice is a duty owed to any person who may be affected by a contravention of the notice, and provides that any such duty may be enforced by a person to whom it is owed as if it were a contractual right. The duty of a person to comply with an information request under regulation 14, or with the publication requirements under regulation 16, is enforceable by civil proceedings by the Department.