UK awards 41 more licenses in offshore round

July 28, 2015
The UK government has awarded 41 licenses for exploration and production in the second tranche of the 28th Offshore Licensing Round.

The UK government has awarded 41 licenses for exploration and production in the second tranche of the 28th Offshore Licensing Round.

In the first tranche late last year, it awarded 134 licenses (OGJ Online, Nov. 6, 2014).

The combined results make the 28th round “one of the largest rounds in the 5 decades since the first licensing round took place,” according to the new Oil & Gas Authority, which recently took over licensing from the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The round, opened in January 2014, drew 173 total applications. The 175 licenses awarded in both tranches cover 353 blocks on the UK Continental Shelf.

The new awards were confirmed after supplemental environmental assessment and consultation.

Work obligations in the new tranche include one firm well, by E.On E&P with partner Bayerngas on Block 48/3, and two contingent wells. Other firm work commitments are acquisition or reprocessing of seismic data.

Awardees in the latest tranche are a mix of large and small independent producers and integrated operators.

Among the latter group are BP PLC, Eni SPA, Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd., OMV AG, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Statoil ASA, Suncor Energy Inc., and Total SA.