New OGA decommissioning strategy

The UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has awarded contracts for the second UK government funded £20mn seismic campaign to promote under-explored areas of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

PGS and WesternGeco have been awarded the contracts to acquire seismic data from the East Shetland Platform and south-west Britain respectively. The programme is anticipated to collect between 10,000 and 15,000 km of new seismic data from under-explored frontier areas. It is expected these areas will be made available for licensing in the 31st Frontier Licensing Round, which will be held in 2018. Acquisition was due to begin in July, subject to receiving the relevant environmental approvals.

Gunther Newcombe, OGA Director of Exploration and Production, said: ‘The UKCS is in a unique position having recovered more than 43bn boe to date, yet up to 20bn boe still remains. The challenge is now for industry to increase exploration drilling in the UKCS and work with OGA to meet our shared target of 50 exploration and appraisal wells per year by 2021.'

The UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has released a new decommissioning strategy report, which aims to reduce the cost of decommissioning in the North Sea. This is the first of a number of strategy reports that aim to encourage new ways of working across the UKCS oil and gas lifecycle. The OGA’s decommissioning strategy has three main priorities – cost certainty and reduction; decommissioning delivery capability; decommissioning scope, guidance and stakeholder engagement. 

The decommissioning strategy will be assessed in more detail in the October issue of Petroleum Review.