UK 25th Offshore Licensing Round awards

On 12 November 2008 Energy Minister, Mike O’Brien, announced 171 new licences, covering 257 blocks and part-blocks, were being offered to 100 companies under the 25^th Offshore Licensing Round. This is the highest number of licences to be offered in a UK offshore licensing round and represents an increase of 14% on the number of licences awarded in the 24^th Licensing Round.

The 25^th Licensing Round was opened on 20 February 2008, when 2,297 blocks were opened for application. In June 2008 it was announced that 193 applications had been made by a total of 131 companies. Following a screening exercise, it was decided that 46 of the blocks applied for should be subject to more detailed assessments of the likely effects of oil and gas activities on certain protected nature conservation areas. A decision on whether to grant licences for these blocks will be subject to the results of the environmental assessments.

	21st Licensing	22nd Licensing	23rd Licensing	24th Licensing	25th Licensing
	Round	Round	Round	Round	Round

Blocks for application
Blocks/part-blocks	611	1039	1326	1409	2297
Offered Awards
Blocks/part-blocks	137	163	259	246	257
Traditional licences	35	32	70	79	124
Promote licences	53	58	75	65	41
Frontier licences	n/a	7	6	6	6
Companies	62	58	87	104	100
New Entrants	27	13	28	17	8

Commenting on the awards, Energy and Climate Change Minister, Mike O’Brien, said: “We are now seeing record interest from companies wishing to exploit the UK’s considerable oil and gas resources in the North Sea.

Whilst there’s not an endless supply of North Sea oil and gas, with up to 20 billion barrels, or more, left under the sea we can’t overlook its contribution to our security of energy supply as well as to our economy.

“The oil and gas sector is one of the UK’s most important industries and this latest result can only reinforce and maintain this position. While we work to develop low carbon sources of energy, oil and gas will continue to be an important source of energy for the UK. And that’s why our ambition is to squeeze as much oil and gas out of the North Sea as is possible.”

Venture has been the most successful company, in terms of operated licences awarded under the 25^th Licensing Round. The company has been awarded a total of 12 licences, located in the Central North Sea and Southern North Sea.

Under the work commitments of the 25^th Round licences are obligations to drill 34 firm wells and 16 contingent wells.

25th Offshore Licensing Round Awards

Blocks offered in licence	Operator	Partners	Licence type	Firm obligations	Contingent obligations

2/10a	Antrim		Promote	Obtain 2D	Drill or drop
2/15b				Obtain 3D
2/20	Silverstone	Wilderness	Promote	Obtain & reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
3/16
3/3b	Ithaca	MPX	Traditional	1 firm well
		Revus		Reprocess 3D
3/8d	Fairfield		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain 3D
3/11a	Lundin		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain & reprocess 3D
3/22	Nautical	Canamens	Traditional	EM feasibility	Drill or drop
		Rocksource
3/23b	MPX		Promote		Drill or drop
3/26	Nautical	Canamens	Traditional	EM feasibility	Drill or drop
		Rocksource
8/25b (split)	Canamens	Celtic	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
		Nautical
8/25b (split)	Mariner		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
8/30 (split)				Obtain & reprocess 3D
9/2c	Nautical	Canamens	Traditional		To be confirmed
		Celtic
9/4a (part)	Corsair		Promote		To be confirmed
9/6	Nautical	Canamens	Traditional	Shoot HR 2D	Drill or drop
		Celtic		Obtain 2D
				Obtain & reprocess 3D
9/7	Silverstone	Wilderness	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	1 contingent well
9/12b				Acquire CSEM
9/8b	Lundin	NORECO	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
9/9d (split)	Lundin	Genesis	Traditional		To be confirmed
9/9d (split)	MPX		Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
9/10c	Sagex	First Oil	Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain 2D
				Obtain & reprocess 3D
9/21 (split)	ATP	MOST	Traditional	1 firm well
9/21 (split)	Valiant	Century	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
9/26		Silverstone		Obtain 3D
9/27b (split)				EM feasibility
9/27b (split)	EnCore		Promote	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
13/17	Fox Energy	Aimwell	Traditional	1 firm well
13/22b	Chrysaor		Traditional		Drill or drop
13/23a	Bow Valley	Sumitomo	Traditional	1 firm well
		Reach		Reprocess 3D
13/27e	Petro-Canada	NORECO	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
		Silverstone
13/29c	EOG		Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
14/13	Silverstone	NORECO	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
				Acquire CSEM
14/25b	Petro-Canada	Silverstone	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
15/21e (split)
14/26b	Zeus	Aimwell	Traditional	1 firm well
14/28c	Black Sapphire		Promote	Obtain 2D	Drill or drop
14/29c (split)				Obtain & reprocess 3D
14/29c (split)	EnCore		Promote		Drill or drop
14/30b (split)
14/30b (split)	Nexen	Oilexco	Traditional		1 contingent well
15/7	Silverstone	Wilderness	Traditional	Reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
15/12a				Reprocess 3D
				Acquire CSEM
15/8	Silverstone	Wilderness	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
				Acquire CSEM
15/18c	Silverstone	Wilderness	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
				Reprocess 3D
				Acquire CSEM
15/19c (split)	Maersk		Traditional	2 firm wells
15/19c (split)	Sable		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
15/20d
15/21e (split)	EnCore	Nautical	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
		Serica
15/23e	Nexen	Oilexco	Traditional	Obtain 3D	1 contingent well
15/26a	Oilexco		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain 3D
15/30b	Oilexco		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain 3D
16/1b	Excelsior		Promote	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
16/2c
16/6b	Carrizo	MPX	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
16/12b	Dana		Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
16/13b	Bow Valley		Traditional	Obtain LO 2D	Drill or drop
				Reprocess 3D
19/10b	Mahona		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
19/15
20/3f	Nexen	Atlantic	Traditional		Drill or drop
		Bow Valley
20/5b (split)	Silverstone	NORECO	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
20/5b (split)	Black Sapphire		Promote	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
20/10
20/7	Carrizo	MPX	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
20/8 (split)	Nexen		Traditional		Drill or drop
20/8 (split)	Black Sapphire		Promote	Obtain 2D	Drill or drop
20/9b				Obtain & reprocess 3D
20/15 (split)	Stratic		Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
20/15 (split)	Apache		Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
21/11b (split)
20/30	Sable		Promote	Obtain 2D	Drill or drop
21/26				Obtain & reprocess 3D
21/3f	Nexen		Traditional		1 contingent well
21/6b	Carrizo		Promote	Obtain 2D	Drill or drop
				Obtain & reprocess 3D
21/11b (split)	Endeavour	Lundin	Traditional	1 firm well
		Revus
21/12b (split)	EOG		Traditional	1 firm well
21/12b (split)	Lundin	Challenger	Traditional	1 firm well
21/13a (split)		Revus
21/13a (split)	Bow Valley		Traditional	1 firm well
21/20c	Dana	Venture	Traditional		1 contingent well
21/20e	Dana	Venture	Traditional		Drill or drop
21/21	Revus		Traditional	Shoot HR 2D	1 contingent well
21/22				Reprocess 3D
21/24b	Oilexco		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain 3D
21/24c	Antrim		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
21/27b	Revus		Traditional	1 firm well
				Reprocess 3D
21/28b	Antrim		Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	1 contingent well
21/29c				LMR inversion
22/1a	Venture	MPX	Traditional	1 firm well	1 contingent well
				Reprocess 3D
22/9b	Carrizo	E.On Ruhrgas	Traditional	Obtain 3D	Drill or drop
		NORECO
22/19c	Venture	MPX	Traditional	1 firm well
				Reprocess 3D
22/24e	Talisman		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain 3D
22/26b	Talisman	Venture	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
22/27b	REAP		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
22/28b	REAP		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
22/29c (split)	Talisman		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain 3D
22/29c (split)	Maersk	Dana	Traditional	1 firm well
22/30d	REAP		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
23/11b	EOG		Traditional	Shoot 3D	Drill or drop
23/26c (split)	Oilexco		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain 3D
26/5	Deliverit		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
26/10
27/1
29/1c	Oilexco	Petro Summit	Traditional	1 firm well	1 contingent well
		Reach		Obtain & reprocess 3D
29/2e	REAP		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
29/2f	REAP		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
29/2g	REAP		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
29/3b	Total	E.On Ruhrgas	Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain & reprocess 3D
29/4b (split)	Ithaca		Traditional	Shoot LO 3D	Drill or drop
29/5e				Obtain & reprocess 3D
29/4b (split)	Shell	ExxonMobil	Traditional		Drill or drop
29/9c (split)
29/6a	First Oil	Sagex	Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain & reprocess 3D
29/7b	Oilexco		Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D
29/8c	REAP		Promote	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
29/9c (split)	Venture	MPX	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	1 contingent well
29/10b	Maersk	Ithaca	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
29/23	ConocoPhillips		Traditional	Shoot 2D	Drill or drop
29/30	ConocoPhillips		Traditional		Drill or drop
30/1f	GDF SUEZ	Centrica	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
		Endeavour
		OMV
		RWE
30/7b	ConocoPhillips	BG	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
30/11c	Petro-Canada	NORECO	Traditional	Obtain & reprocess	Drill or drop
		Silverstone		LO 3D
30/12c	CGGVeritas		Promote		Drill or drop
30/18b	Valiant		Traditional	1 firm well
				Obtain & reprocess 3D
30/18c	Sussex		Promote		Drill or drop
30/29	CGGVeritas		Traditional		Drill or drop
35/21	TGS-NOPEC		Promote	Reprocess 2D	Drill or drop
38/4	CGGVeritas		Promote		Drill or drop
39/2b	Nexen		Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
42/10	Sterling Res	Petro-Ventures	Traditional	1 firm well
42/15		Stratic Energy		Obtain 2D & shoot 3D
				Shoot pseudo 3D
				& Reprocess 2D
42/29c	Silverstone	Wilderness	Traditional	Shoot 3D	Drill or drop
42/30c				Obtain & reprocess 3D
47/5b (split)
42/30b	Focus		Promote		Drill or drop
43/22b	Venture	Volantis	Traditional		Drill or drop
43/26b	E.On	Dana	Traditional		Drill or drop
43/27b
43/28	Venture	Ithaca	Traditional		Drill or drop
		Volantis
43/29	Venture	Ithaca	Traditional		Drill or drop
		Volantis
43/30b	Holywell		Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
44/26b	Venture	Volantis	Traditional		Drill or drop
44/26c	Venture	Volantis	Traditional		Drill or drop
44/28a	Venture	Volantis	Traditional		Drill or drop
44/29c	GDF SUEZ	Faroe	Traditional	Reprocess 3D	Drill or drop
		RWE
47/4d	Dana		Traditional	Obtain & reprocess 3D	1 contingent well
47/5b (split)
47/5b (split)	CalEnergy	Challenger	Traditional		To be confirmed
		Endeavour
		Hunt

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UK 25th Offshore Licensing Round awards