GREENPEACE has launched an initiative which aims to bring together oil companies, governments and other interested groups to develop onshore decommissioning strategies, writes Quentin Sommerville.

The project, to be run by management consultants SustainAbility plans to build on the current consultation process being carried out by Shell on the future of the Brent Spar loading buoy.

Developed and funded by Greenpeace, the scheme is seeking to establish an integrated approach to the disposal of some 100 oil and gas installaions in the North Sea which may be decommissioned in the next ten years.

An Integrated Removal Strategy should be developed, says Greenpeace. Consultation will take place in the three months to September when there will be a conference, with a final report being published around November 1997.

The proposal met a cool response from a number of oil companies contacted by Energy Day.

Texaco has started seismic data acquisition in the north Atlantic, following earlier attempts by Greenpeace activists to halt the survey by deploying protestors in inflatable boats to interfere with the vessel's equipment.

The survey vessel Pacific Horizon began her task late on Monday evening, continued overnight and was still on station mid-morning Tuesday in seas 180 nautical miles east of the tiny barren island of Rockall.

The environmental organisation had threatened to put activists into the water if the air guns used to acquire the data were fired. Texaco described the threat as "inherently unsafe".