Offshore staff
LONDON — Britain’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has offered a further 31 offshore licenses under the latest-phase awards for the UK’s 33rd oil and gas licensing round.
The NSTA has now offered 82 licenses to 50 companies, which it says could add about 545 MMboe in fresh production by 2050 and 600 MMbboe.
The latest offer includes 29 new licenses of which 23 cover an Initial Term Phase A (geotechnical studies, seismic reprocessing), four for Phase B (seismic surveys and other geophysical data, while two more are for an Initial Term Phase C (firm wells).
All the remaining four licenses will go straight to the Second Term, allowing the license holders to proceed more quickly to production.
Following discussions with the Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland, the NSTA has also introduced a clause for overlapping oil and gas licenses and wind leases. This will be the main commercial mechanism for these licenses to resolve spatial overlaps and to support co-development of the two industries.
At a later date, the NSTA may issue a few more license offers.
According to industry association Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), most of the licenses announced today are for gas extraction from the southern North Sea.
OEUK CEO David Whitehouse said, “We all recognize that our energy mix must change, and our sector is ramping up renewables and accelerating the drive to net zero. But this journey will take time.
“Meanwhile our North Sea basin is naturally declining. We have over 280 oil and gas fields, but by the end of the decade 180 of them will have stopped producing. We need the churn of licenses for an orderly transition that supports jobs and communities across the country and meets our energy needs.”
05.03.2024
