UK regulators will increase pressure on offshore operators and equipment owners to settle issues impeding progress toward the government’s goals of maximizing economic recovery (MER).
In a June 4 letter to license holders and infrastructure owners, Oil and Gas Authority Director of Regulation Tom Wheeler said OGA “will be more progressively more proactive in using [its] powers.”
Noting that the government’s MER strategy “is binding on all operators, licensees, and infrastructure owners” working off the UK, Wheeler said, “We have seen and still see a number of examples of behavior that threaten MER UK or that otherwise indicate a lack of awareness of the obligations imposed by the MER UK strategy.”
OGA’s concerns are dispute resolutions, issues of third-party access to infrastructure, and anything else threatening MER.
Since 2017, the authority has intervened in 56 cases in a process it calls “measured escalation.” Of those, 14 were closed at the “facilitation” stage and 21 at the “enhanced facilitation” stage. Other cases went to regulatory escalation: 16 to enquiry and 5 to investigation, OGA’s highest level of intervention.
Wheeler said OGA now will:
• Use newly published “enquiry guidance,” which provides flexibility to the use of powers and includes alternative dispute resolution.
• Accelerate movement of issues through measured escalation.
• Increase transparency around its use of regulatory powers and use “thematic reviews” where appropriate.
• Refresh stewardship expectations, including a new one on commercial behavior, and publish a regulatory requirement, which it describes as “consents and authorizations and basic license management.”