BP delivers dirty oil production waste to E.ON coal plant for burning

British oil company BP is disposing of oil production waste, which possibly contains elements harmful to humans, by delivering it to energy company E.ON for burning in a Gelsenkirchen coal plant, Jürgen Döschner and Jochen Taßler report for public broadcaster WDR. BP delivers up to 100 tonnes per day of the waste in compressed “oil pellets” to E.ON’s plant in the western German city of Gelsenkirchen, after obtaining a license from local authorities to trade their “product”, the article says. However, experts like environmental lawyer Martin Führ say this is wrong, as BP’s “product” has not been given a license in accordance with the European Chemicals Directive REACH. But the oil company and the local authorities insist the procedure is legal. The authors say BP founded a task force for “reducing pellet costs” several years ago and has achieved a “cost-neutral” way of disposing of the pellets that contain hazardous materials like nickel, vanadium and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).

Read the article in German here.