Thirty companies have acquired acreage in the UK 31st Offshore Licensing Round, the country’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) announced on Tuesday.
In all, 37 licence areas were awarded over 141 blocks or part-blocks to a broad spectrum of companies that includes supermajors expanding their footprint and new entrant companies investing for the first time.
According to the OGA, the awards represent strong platform for future exploration and production in frontier areas of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) in the Faroe-Shetland Basin, Moray Firth, East Irish Sea, East Shetland Platform, Mid North Sea High and English Channel.
A number of proposed new work programs have been secured in this round, including new shoot seismic acquisition, with two licences progressing straight to field development planning (second term licences),” the OGA said.
“Exploration on the UK Continental Shelf continues to be revitalized with the results indicating a continuation of the strong interest shown in the previous frontier round, the 29th Round in 2016, said Dr. Nick Richardson, Head of Exploration and New Ventures at the OGA.
“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 OGA provided a number of incentives to support this successful round and stimulate interest, including a suite of new data and analyses, digital maps, prospect and discovery reports, plus well and seismic data. This includes data from the 2016 Government-Funded Seismic Program, which provided almost 19,000 km of broadband seismic data, freely available to download, together with approximately 23,000 km of reprocessed legacy seismic data and well data packages.
The OGA said it will now turn its attention to the 32nd Round, scheduled to be launched in Summer 2019, which will provide exploration and field development opportunities in mature areas of the UKCS.