Thursday 13 July 2017

The UK on Thursday offered 12 offshore licences to 11 companies in a supplementary licensing round that was launched last year.

A total of 14 blocks were originally on offer in the 2016 Supplementary Round, held in response to industry nominations of areas outside of those covered by last year’s frontier 29th Licensing Round.

The round closed for applications in March.

Andy Samuel, chief executive of the UK Oil & Gas Authority (OGA), said: “We’re listening to industry and are pleased to make available a number of additional, nominated areas.

“The strong interest in this round bodes well for the forthcoming 30th round, demonstrating the renewed attractiveness of the UKCS and the opportunity for operators to rebuild their portfolios with a mixture of exploration, development and re-development activity.”

The locations are spread across the UK continental shelf (UKCS), including the southern North Sea and the East of Shetland.

The round offered blocks under flexible terms and gave applicants the chance to define their own licence duration to shape their own work programme.

The OGA said five of the awards are for work programmes that will proceed straight into the second phase of the licences, which cover either potential developments or re-developments of fields where production had ceased and the acreage had been relinquished.

The remainder of the licences will enter the initial exploration phase.