LONDON — Britain’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) is investigating an oil and gas company for potentially not satisfying license commitments.
Its team will assess whether the company was obliged, under the terms of an award issued in a prior licensing round, to acquire seismic to support a decision on whether to drill an exploration well; whether the licensee did not propose a satisfactory alternative work program to ensure progress on the acreage continued; and whether a sanction should be imposed on the company, potentially with a financial penalty of up to £1 million ($1.2 million).
This is the second investigation the NSTA has launched in recent months of a company suspected of failing to meet license commitments within agreed timescales.
Jacob Blatch, NSTA interim head of disputes and sanctions, said, “The NSTA works closely with industry to drive forward exploration and production activities to help the UK meet as much energy demand as possible from its domestic oil and gas reserves. However, as opening this investigation demonstrates, we will scrutinize incidents where licensees potentially sit on licenses and make no real progress on fulfilling obligations.”
