European energy commissioner says he would like to impose moratorium on new wells until lessons are learned

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

The government was tonight trying to fight off pressure from the European commission to ban drilling in the North Sea in the aftermath of BP's disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Gunther Oettinger, the EC energy commissioner, met UK oil companies and industry regulators and made it clear he would like to impose a moratorium on new wells until lessons were learned.

The stand-off came as BP took major strides towards finally capping the rogue Macondo well but new criticism rose that Britain gives energy companies an easy ride compared with other countries.

The local MP and residents in Hertfordshire expressed fury over the perceived leniency of the judicial system towards oil companies after a relatively tiny £5.3m fine was slapped on BP, Shell and Total over the Buncefield oil depot explosion.

In addition there was a growing row over US claims that the UK government had helped release a Libyan terrorist to win drilling rights for the UK oil industry.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change said the UK was exercising "utmost caution" in the North Sea and was recruiting more environmental inspectors to double inspections of drilling rigs.

But it made it clear that Oettinger demands for a moratorium would not be heeded. "There is no current provision within EU law which would enable any EU body to declare a moratorium on new drilling, or deep water drilling," said a spokesman.

Oettinger told the European parliament last week that "the precautionary principle should prevail" adding: "Any responsible government would at present practically freeze new permits for drilling with extreme parameters and conditions."

A spokeswoman for the trade body, Oil & Gas UK, said today that the industry was disappointed that Oettinger reiterated his desire for a moratorium. She added: "It is such a different situation compared to the Gulf of Mexico given the tighter regulations since the Piper Alpha disaster."

Kevin Myers, deputy chief executive of the HSE, said he wanted Oettinger to produce evidence to back his calls for a further clampdown on UK drilling.

Meanwhile the HSE was under fire from Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead and junior transport minister, for allegedly being compromised over the Buncefield explosion in 2005 which caused hundreds of homes to be evacuated and triggered a similar number of job losses.

Penning described the fine as insulting to his constituents caught up in the blast and wants a public inquiry to investigate the accident and particularly the HSE which brought the charges but also had a safety monitoring role at the site which he believes was not carried out properly.

Penning and Des Collins, a solicitor representing residents still chasing compensation claims, both compare the £5.3m with the billions being demanded from BP in the Gulf of Mexico - before the cause of the Deepwater Horizon is even known. Penning said he would be writing to Dominic Grieve, the attorney general to have the Buncefield decision reviewed.

In the US, secretary of state Hillary Clinton said she would look into claims by a group of Democrat senators that BP lobbied the British government to release Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, to help secure an oil deal with Libya.