UK Offers Mature Blocks in 30th Licensing Round: Update
(Adds industry comment in final two paras)
UK upstream regulator, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has offered 813 blocks or part-blocks in mature offshore UK areas in its 30th Offshore Licensing Round launched July 25.
Blocks are on offer in the southern, central and northern North Sea, the West of Shetland and East Irish Sea, featuring a large inventory of prospects and undeveloped discoveries; the total area offered covers 114,426 km2 ; a related event will be hosted by the OGA in Aberdeen on August 22.
The round will make use of the new Innovate Licence, developed by the OGA in collaboration with industry to create flexible, variable licences. Additionally, regional geological maps covering the Central North Sea and Moray Firth were also made freely available on 19 July, along with supporting datasets and studies on OGA’s website.
OGA CEO Andy Samuel said: "We are encouraging companies to take a fresh look at large areas of acreage, some of which have not been available since 1965, and make best use of the recently released information and new data packs to inform their applications."
The 30th Round is open for 120 days until 2pm GMT on November 21 2017. Decisions are expected to be made in Q2 2018. This round follows on from the 12 licences awarded to 10 companies in a supplementary round earlier this month.
Mature areas of the UKCS were last on offer in the 28th Offshore Licensing Round in 2014, which was one of the largest rounds in five decades. This round will be followed by the 31st Offshore Licensing Round, which OGA expects once again will focus on frontier areas of the UK offshore.
Industry group Oil & Gas UK said that the OGA had "worked closely with industry to prepare for the round and provide a wealth of data offering fresh insight on the potential of the UK Continental Shelf. Cost effective deployment of technology will be critical to the success of the round and we support the 30th Round Technology Forum which the OGA and the Oil and Gas Technology Centre are co-hosting on 22 August 2017 to help make a success of the Licensing Round.
Mark Smedley