A complete of 24 licenses have been supplied to 17 corporations within the second tranche of the thirty third oil and fuel licensing spherical, UK oil and fuel regulator the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) revealed in a launch despatched to Rigzone just lately.
Shell, Equinor, BP, Whole, and NEO are amongst these corporations, the NSTA highlighted. The 74 blocks and part-blocks supplied within the tranche are all within the Central North Sea, Northern North Sea, and West of Shetland areas, the NSTA revealed.
The most recent awards observe the 27 licenses supplied within the first tranche of the thirty third oil and fuel licensing spherical again in October 2023, the NSTA identified. The regulator, which famous within the launch that the most recent awards will assist to make sure job safety and supply advantages to the native and wider economic system, outlined that extra awards will observe “within the coming months”.
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“This newest batch brings complete presents up to now to 51, with extra to come back as soon as the suitable environmental checks are full,” an NSTA spokesperson mentioned within the launch.
“These licenses have the potential to make a major contribution to the UK in power manufacturing and financial advantages, and the NSTA will work alongside the licensees to assist carry them into manufacturing as rapidly as potential,” the spokesperson added.
The Minister for Power Safety and Internet Zero, Graham Stuart, mentioned within the launch, “we’ll proceed to wish oil and fuel over the approaching many years, so it’s common sense to benefit from our personal assets – with domestically produced fuel nearly 4 instances cleaner than importing liquefied pure fuel from overseas”.
“These new licenses will strengthen our power safety now and into the long run, whereas additionally serving to increase our economic system, by backing an trade that helps 200,000 jobs and is price GBP 16 billion ($20.2 billion) every year,” Stuart added.
In an announcement despatched to Rigzone, trade physique Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), mentioned the award of recent oil and fuel licenses by the NSTA “has the potential to strengthen homegrown power safety because the sector continues its growth in wind, hydrogen, and carbon seize and storage”.
Offshore Energies UK CEO David Whitehouse mentioned within the assertion, “on this basic election yr, we face a selection – we are able to construct a homegrown power transition by backing our individuals, our offshore companies, and our world class provide chain, or we are able to import much more power and fail to develop our new wind, hydrogen, and carbon seize industries”.
“Coverage selections made at present might be felt for generations to come back. Our power safety, financial progress, and a whole bunch of 1000’s of jobs in nearly each parliamentary constituency up and down the UK are at stake,” he added.
“All of us acknowledge that our power combine should change and our sector is ramping up renewables and accelerating the drive to web zero. However this journey will take time. In the meantime our North Sea basin is of course declining,” he continued.
“Now we have over 280 oil and fuel fields however by the tip of the last decade 180 of them can have stopped producing. We’d like the churn of licenses for an orderly transition that helps jobs and communities throughout the nation and meets our power wants,” Whitehouse went on to state.
The thirty third Licensing Spherical opened in October 2022 and the applying window closed in January 2023. The NSTA highlighted in its launch that 115 bids got here in from 76 corporations, which it mentioned demonstrated “the continuing urge for food inside trade to discover the UK Continental Shelf”.
The NSTA described the spherical within the launch as a key a part of its drive to assist the oil and fuel trade, “which at present contributes round three quarters of home power wants and, based on official forecasts, will proceed to take action at the same time as demand is diminished”.
In its launch, the NSTA famous that inner NSTA evaluation present that the common time between licensing and first manufacturing is now shut to 5 years.
To contact the writer, electronic mail andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
