OGA awards 37 offshore licenses

The UK Oil and Gas Authority has offered for award 37 license areas over 141 blocks or part-blocks to 30 companies in the 31st Offshore Licensing Round on Tuesday. The 31st Offshore Licensing Round was launched on  July 10, 2018, and closed for applications on November 7, 2018.

“These successful awards act as a strong platform for future exploration and production in frontier areas of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) in the Faroe-Shetland Basin, Moray Firth, East Irish Sea, East Shetland Platform, Mid North Sea High and English Channel,” the OGA said.

According to the Oil and Gas Authority, a number of proposed new work programs have been secured in the round, including new shoot seismic acquisition, with two licenses progressing straight to field development planning (second term licenses).

“Overall, the awards have been offered to a broad spectrum of companies; with super-majors expanding their footprint and new entrant companies investing for the first time,” the OGA said.

Nick Richardson, Head of Exploration and New Ventures at the OGA, said: “Exploration on the UK Continental Shelf continues to be revitalized with the results indicating a continuation of the strong interest shown in the previous frontier round, the 29th Round in 2016. It has been very encouraging to see industry generating new prospects and play concepts, and seeking acreage in areas which have never before been licensed, such as parts of the East Shetland Platform, underlining the positive impact of ongoing GovernmentFun ed data initiatives.”

The OGA said it had provided “a number of incentives to support this successful round and stimulate interest.”

The incentives included a suite of new data and analyses, digital maps, prospect and discovery reports, plus well and seismic data. This includes the data from 2016 government-funded seismic program, which provided almost 19,000 km of broadband seismic data, freely available to download, together with approximately 23,000 km of reprocessed legacy seismic data and well data packages.

OGA is expected to launch the 32nd Round in Summer 2019. This round will provide exploration and field development opportunities in mature areas of the UKCS.

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