New Oil and Gas Regulator Could Encourage Breaches of Competition Law, Says CMA

The Competition Markets Authority (CMA) wrote a letter to UK energy secretary Amber Rudd saying that government’s plans to establish the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) might backlash. 

The letter, which was sent last week, was made available on Monday.  

‘The provisions in the Bill give rise to some risks to competition and to the effective functioning of markets… Our recommendations are primarily concerned with ensuring that in discharging its responsibilities the OGA takes due account of risks to competition and of the impact of its actions on competition in markets’ reads the document written by Alex Chisholm, CMA’s CEO.

In other words, the CMA said that OGA should not act in ways that might encourage or facilitate breaches of competition law by others. 

The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is the new independent regulator for the North Sea oil and gas market, whose launch early this year is meant to support oil and gas companies that saw oil prices halving over the last 18 months.  

Meanwhile, OGA continues working, publishing on Monday an update on data for oil and gas wells around the UK.  

Also on Monday, Independent Oil and Gas said that the loan agreements signed with GE Oil & Gas UK and London Oil & Gas for an aggregate amount of up to £4.75 million will allow the North Sea focused company to drill an appraisal well on the Skipper field early next year.

‘IOG anticipates that the Skipper appraisal well will be spudded late January or early February 2016. This is contingent upon the OGA approving IOG as operator of the licence area and granting an extension to the Skipper licence’ the company wrote on its website.