An announcement in this regard came from UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond during his visit to Aberdeen and Dundee in Scotland.
OGA will use the funding to find potential new deposits in the UK Continental Shelf by surveying under-explored areas.
OGA intends to give a range of high quality new data to the industry through the surveys, which is expected to help address exploration risks and uncertainties. At the same time, the new data will encourage companies to take up activities in frontier and under-explored areas.
OGA CEO Andy Samuel said: “Oil and gas continues to be a vital contributor to the UK economy and energy security, and there has been tremendous progress over the past two years, despite the low oil price environment.
“We have seen how targeted intervention can have a disproportionately positive effect – for example the first round of seismic funding for the OGA opened up frontier areas for the 29th Offshore Licensing Round, where we awarded 25 licences to 17 companies.”
According to the UK government, its work with industry on new subsea technologies has the potential of unlocking an additional 400 million barrels of oil and gas from the North Sea. Overall, the efforts are to yield an additional value of £3bn to the industry, stated the government.
Hammond said: “The oil and gas industry remains vital for the Scottish economy and the UK as a whole. The £5 million funding I am announcing will help exploration to find potential new deposits, and boost prospects for jobs in Aberdeen and the surrounding area.
“This continues the UK government’s extensive package of tax and funding support for the industry and the wider Scottish economy.”
The UK government stated that it has supported the oil and gas sector substantially with a £1.3bn package of tax cuts at Budget 2015 to go along with an additional £1bn package at Budget 2016.
UK Energy Minister Richard Harrington said that North Sea oil with an estimated reserves of 10-20 billion barrels will continue to accelerate growth and jobs in Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Last month, Harrington said that oil and gas leaders have the full backing of the government in maximizing the economic opportunity in the North Sea.
Image: Oil rigs moored in Cromarty Firth. Invergordon, Scotland, UK. Photo: courtesy of Crown copyright.
