The UK government has opened up certain parts of the central, northern and southern parts of the UK North Sea and also in the West of Shetlands for hydrocarbon exploration
Image: A total of 768 UKCS blocks will go under auction at the 32nd Offshore Licensing Round. Photo: courtesy of D Thory/Pixabay.
A total of 768 blocks or part-blocks located across the main producing regions of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) will be offered for exploration in the 32nd Offshore Licensing Round organised by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
The blocks to be offered by the British oil and gas regulator are in the central, northern and southern parts of the UK North Sea and also in the West of Shetlands.
Applications for the 32nd Offshore Licensing Round
According to the OGA, the 32nd Offshore Licensing Round will be open for 120 days with the closing date for the applications to be 12 November 2019. The regulator said that decisions on awarding the blocks are likely to be made in the second quarter of next year.
The OGA said that it is also providing companies the scope to propose additional blocks in adjacent areas which can be possibly included if applicants plan to commit to a substantial firm work programme.
The regulator also revealed that the timing of the 5th Faroese Licensing Round has been aligned with the 32nd Offshore Licensing Round.
The OGA said that it will provide access to a considerable volume of data to companies in support of the upcoming auction for the UKCS blocks. The data packs have been collated to help the industry towards taking up exploration and promoting new opportunities within the mature regions of the UKCS, said the regulator.
The OGA disclosed that the geochemical database represents more than 90,000 geochemical samples from more than 2,700 wells. Other significant data sets that are part of the data packs are the open release of the Southern North Sea (SNS) Seismic Megasurvey which represents nearly 23,000km2 of 3D post-stack seismic data, and a rock-physics study centred on the pre-Cretaceous prospectivity of the East Shetland Basin and the Central North Sea.
OGA principal regional geologist Jo Bagguley said: “This latest release of carefully targeted, value-adding data demonstrates the OGA’s continued commitment to supporting industry in its efforts to revitalise exploration.
“We’re particularly excited about the geochemical database and the release of the SNS Megasurvey and look forward to seeing these, and the other released data packs, being used to good effect to support both 32nd Licensing Round applications and ongoing exploration activity in the basin.”
In the previous offshore licensing round, announced in July 2018, the regulator placed 1766 blocks, spanning a total of 370,000km2, under auction. The blocks, that were part of the 31st offshore licensing round, are located in the West of Scotland, the East Shetland Platform, the Mid North Sea High, parts of the English Channel, and Southwest Britain.