The UK’s oil and gas industry regulator today launched the 29th offshore licensing round with blocks in a number of “under-explored, frontier areas” up for grabs.
In total, 1,261 blocks have been made available during the round, which will be open to applications until 2pm on October 26.
The competition will give the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) a clearer picture of the merits of a seismic survey programme carried out last year using £20million of UK Government funds.
A £20million programme of seismic surveys in the UK continental shelf will get under way within weeks, the energy industry’s regulator said today in Aberdeen.
The programme − announced in the last Budget − is aimed at stoking North Sea drilling, which is currently at an all-time low.
Gunther Newcombe, director of exploration and production at the Oil and Gas Authority, said the surveys would cover an expanse of 15,000 to 20,000 kilometres with data slated for release in the second quarter of 2016.
Dana Petroleum, the Aberdeen-based oil and gas operator, said yesterday it had agreed a deal to acquire a 23% working interest in a huge concession offshore Guinea, in west Africa.
