Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps his Department has taken to ensure equality of access to the UKOP, GPSS and MLP UK pipeline systems.

Both the UKOP and MLP pipeline systems are privately owned and operated and commercial decisions on access are taken by the companies concerned. The Pipelines Act 1962 contains provisions for owners/operators to offer third party access and for any spare capacity to be made available to anyone who wishes to apply for it.

The GPSS is a government owned pipeline operated by the Oil and Pipelines Agency (OPA), a public corporation sponsored by the Ministry of Defence. The OPA lets commercial contracts on a similar basis to operators of private pipelines provided these are consistent with Defence requirements. Access to the GPSS may require the agreement of private companies which control ingress points, egress points or other pipelines connected to the network.

Following the recent cross- government review of the role of both the UK refining and import sectors in UK, and in recognition of pipeline access being cited as an issue by some stakeholders, the new independently chaired Midstream Oil Government and Industry Task Force will take forward further work on this issue.