UK Oil and Gas Authority awards 37 licence areas to 30 companies in 31st Offshore Licensing Round
Image: Equinor was awarded four operatorship licenses in OGA's 31st Offshore Licensing Round. Photo: courtesy of IKM Testing AS/Equinor ASA.
The UK’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has awarded 37 licenses areas in over 141 blocks in frontier areas of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) in the 31st Offshore Licensing Round.
A total of 30 companies have been awarded the blocks for oil and gas exploration in the frontier areas of the UKCS in the Faroe-Shetland Basin, East Shetland Platform, Moray Firth, East Irish Sea, Mid North Sea High and the English Channel.
The selected firms include Ardent Oil, BP Exploration, Equinor UK, Burgate Exploration & Production, Chevron North Sea, Chrysaor North Sea, Corallian Energy, Cycle Petroleum, Draupner Energy, Faroe Petroleum, Geoscience Services, Jetex Petroleum, Nautical Petroleum, among others.
OGA exploration and new ventures head Nick Richardson said: “Exploration on the UK Continental Shelf continues to be revitalised 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 government-funded data initiatives.”
The work programmes under the licensing include new seismic acquisition while two licences will progress directly to field development planning (second-term licences).
Following the launch of the 31st Offshore Licensing Round on 10 July 2018, OAG received a total of 36 applications.
Equinor awarded fiver licenses in UK’s 31st Offshore Licensing Round
Equinor has been awarded four operatorship licenses and will also participate as a non-operating participant in one license.
Equinor Norway and UK exploration senior vice-president Nick Ashton said: “The UK Offshore Licensing rounds enable us to add new opportunities to our exploration portfolio in a prolific basin, in line with our strategy to unlock the remaining potential in both underexplored and more mature areas.
“We believe in continued value creation on the UKCS through new discoveries and look forward to our fifth exploration well in 2019, Lifjellet, to be drilled later this year.”
OGA will now focus on the 32nd licensing round, which is planned to be launched in Summer 2019.