If you’ve been following the SPS website posts on the subject, you’ll be aware of the steep learning curve that the communities on both sides of the Solent have been climbing to get to grips with the real story behind the ExxonMobil Solent CO2 Pipeline consultation. We here at SPS were in the same boat and have been burning the midnight oil trying to fill in the layers of detail missing from the consultation material and left unanswered at the drop-in sessions and presentations.
According to the glossy but sparse information provided with the consultation, the proposal could be summarised as the construction of an exhaust pipe to take the compressed and liquified carbon dioxide waste from the Esso Fawley refinery and lead it out under the English Channel to a burial site deep below the seabed south west of the Isle of Wight.
Respondents were asked to state their preference, for either one of two pipeline route corridors across the Isle of Wight, or for one across the New Forest. A Hobson’s choice to which the Society’s response can be read by clicking the image below:
In short, “The Society believes that the consultation for ExxonMobil’s ‘Solent CO2 Pipeline’ is flawed, incomplete and biased towards a predetermined outcome. It is unclear whether ExxonMobil’s internal agenda for this openly provocative consultation is to advance or delay decarbonisation at its Esso Fawley refinery complex. Regardless of the motive, this prematurely timed and selectively documented consultation has sparked a strong backlash which has united communities on both sides of the Solent.”
The one positive outcome from this consultation has been that public attention across the region is becoming far more focused on the United Kingdom’s approach to the achievement of a net-zero carbon future. There is growing public understanding of the political and commercial interests at play and their sometimes conflicting direction and pace with respect to the evolving science and technology thought leadership.
One thing is certain, we’ve not heard the last from ExxonMobil at Fawley. The courageous decision would be to simply decommission the current refinery and completely redevelop the Fawley site. This would follow the lead taken by New Forest property owner Jim Ratcliffe with Petroineos at Grangemouth in Scotland, the UK’s other big, elderly refinery. In addition to the complete redevelopment of Grangemouth as a biofuel refinery, Petroineos plan to develop larger facilities for handling imported carbon-based fuels from overseas refineries, all of which is supported by a joint investment plan from the UK and Scottish governments.
With ExxonMobil’s approach to this consultation and the lack of detail and context, conspiracy theorists could have a field day.
Just as DP World’s departure deflated the Solent LEP’s freeport balloon, could ExxonMobil’s consultation be intended to burst the Solent Cluster’s bubble and kick decarbonisation of the ageing refinery into the long grass as something ‘too hard to do given the public opposition’?
Only time will tell.
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