Exploration

Exploration operator approval

Approval of an exploration operator on the UKCS Checklist of information required by the DTI

Contents:

General Information

1. Charts showing the proposed management structure of the company, and the organisation, responsibilities, reporting lines and current post holders of the proposed operating team for the exploration of the licence area(s), including their location (e.g. London, Aberdeen etc. or offshore). The location of the registered office with telephone and fax numbers should be provided. For non-UK-owned companies the hierarchy of decision-making responsibility between the UK affiliate/subsidiary and head-office should be clearly explained.

2. The charts should identify who is specifically responsible for safety, emergencies, environmental matters, seismic and other survey work, facilities engineering, reservoir evaluation, drilling (if applicable), supply services, maintenance, monitoring progress and reporting to the Department.

3. Details of the numbers and disciplines of the personnel employed in each of the key areas of management and operating responsibility and the basis on which they are employed (e.g. permanent or contract staff or consultants). More specifically:

(a) For seismic activities : description of activities planned for the licence area(s); who will be responsible for liaising with seismic acquisition and processing contractor(s), and interpretation of data etc.

(b) For exploration drilling : outline of proposed drilling programme who will be responsible for managing the drilling contractor, monitoring of progress, interpreting results etc.

4. Curricula vitae of Board and executive directors and all key management and operating personnel, giving full details of their technical background, skills and previous experience and where appropriate their experience to date on the field(s).

5. If there are any current vacancies in key posts in the management structure and operating team, a statement of what action is in hand to fill them, whether it is intended to fill the vacancies with permanent, contract or consultancy staff, and what arrangements are being made to provide the necessary expertise pending recruitment of suitable personnel.

6. A statement of the company ’s environmental management system for operating exploration blocks and the Environmental Policy of the company (and parent company) should be supplied. This should include details of the company ’s [intentions regarding] membership of groups and schemes

for dealing with oil spills and emergency situations (e.g. OPOL). Details of any environmental incentive schemes and their objectives should be described. How will contractors be monitored? A discussion of the companies environmental track record to date would be helpful.

7. Details of the company’s contingency arrangements for dealing with any environmental incident on offshore activities in the licence area(s). This should cover both the technical and financial resources available in -house to handle such situations and the arrangements and funds available to secure assured access to expert help from outside sources.

8. An explanation of the quality management standards the company will apply in all aspects of operating the licence areas. How will contractors be audited? The allocation of duties between in-house and external providers of oil field management services should be clearly explained, including the chain of responsibility and decision making matrix.

9. The proposed business process (e.g. regularity of opcoms and techcoms and the procedure for dealing with Partner disputes) should be described.

10. A detailed statement of the financial resources available to the company to ensure that sufficient funds are available to meet the company ’s share of the anticipated exploration programme in the relevant licence area(s) to be operated (estimates of the costs should be supplied). Where appropriate, a letter of support from the parent company and or major shareholders should be provided.

11. A statement of what the applicant sees as the principal challenges of operating in the UKCS. A list of current UKCS licence interests should be provided.

12. For companies already operating outside the UKCS:-

(a) a list of oil or gas exploration blocks world-wide (onshore and offshore) which have been or are currently being operated; and:(if relevant)

(b) a list of oil or gas fields (either currently producing or ceased producing) which have been or are currently being operated

13. Companies with no previous operator experience:- should provide a clear statement of the reasons why they are seeking a UKCS operatorship at this time.

14. A statement of the company’s policy towards the training of its technical staff, including formal internal or outside training programmes and other ways of ensuring that staff are kept up to date in their specialist subject(s).

15. A statement of the company’s data acquisition policies, with reasoning (covering e.g. coring and testing). The proposed monitoring strategy for the exploration blocks should be clearly outlined.

16. List extent of the company’s current engagement with industry fora such as Brindex, UKOOA etc.

Seismic and sampling operations

Notification

PON14 is needed to either notify DTI (and other interested parties) or to act as a dual purpose application for consent/notification. Most PON14 will be processed within 28 days and often within 14 days. Draft Guidance notes are available here.

Data Requirement

The seismic navigation data should be sent to the Directorate, ideally within 3 months of acquisition; this applies to both 'Speculative' and 'Group' shoots. Only if requested by the Directorate should the actual seismic data, site survey data, magnetic and gravity data be supplied.

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Current consultations

Previous consultations

The following consultations have recently closed but may still be of interest:

Consultation document on the Habitats directive

Some older consultation documents can be found in our archive.

There may also be consultations taking place for the following issues:

In his Budget speech on 17 April 2002, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Government intends, subject to consultation on the appropriate timing, to abolish North Sea Royalty. DTI has issued a consultation paper to interested parties (primarily, holders of petroleum production licences and their representative bodies).

The paper, Abolition of North Sea Royalty: Consultation on Appropriate Timing, is available for download in Adobe Acrobat PDF format by clicking on the above link.

Written comments on the issues raised in the consultation paper should be sent by 4 October 2002, preferably by e-mail, to:

Mike Earp
Oil and Gas Directorate
Department of Trade and Industry
Room 225
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0ET
Tel: 020 7215 5271
Fax: 020 7215 5228
e-mail: Mike.Earp@dti.gsi.gov.uk

For those without access to Adobe Acrobat Reader, hard copies of the paper are available on request from Mike Earp at the address above.

Confidentiality

The Department may wish to publish responses to this consultation process in due course, or to deposit them in its libraries. If this is done, all responses received will be so published unless a respondent specifically asks that his or her response be treated as confidential. Confidential responses will, nevertheless, be included in any statistical summary of comments received or views expressed.

Consultation package for The Merchant Shipping (Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation Convention) Regulations 1998

Consultation Document Contents

Comments on the above documents are invited by 12 August 2002 and should be addressed to:

Bryan Braidwood
Environment Operations Unit
Oil & Gas Office
Department of Trade and Industry
Atholl House
86-88 Guild Street
ABERDEEN AB11 6AR
Tel: 01224 254004
E-mail: bryan.braidwood@dti.gsi.gov.uk

Consultation on guidance on applications for resolution of disputes over third party access to oil and gas infrastructure (URN 01/1465)

Consultation Document Contents

GAS: A Consultation on concerns about gas prices and possible improvements to market efficiency

Preface - Administrative details of consultation

You are invited to make comments on the issues and proposals in this consultation paper. Specific questions are raised in the text, though you are welcome to make comments on any other aspects.

Your response to this consultation exercise will be made publicly available in whole or in part at the Department's discretion. If you do not wish all or part of your response (including your identify) to be made public, you must state in your response which parts you wish us to keep confidential. Where confidentiality is not requested, responses may be made available to any enquirer, including enquirers outside the UK, or published by any means, including on the internet.

The consultation criteria, which apply to all public consultations, are at Annex 4.

Responses should be sent, preferably by email, by 28 February to:

Gas Issues Consultation
Department of Trade and Industry
Room 243
1 Victoria Street
LONDON SW1H 0ET
Fax: 020 7215 5231
Email: Gas.Consultation@dti.gov.uk

Requests for additional hard copies of this consultation paper should be addressed to:

Keith Khoo
Oil and Gas Directorate
Telephone: 020 7215 5065
Fax: 020 7215 5231
Email: keith.khoo@dti.gov.uk

Executive summary

1 The Government is committed to an efficient, competitive gas market from wellhead to burner tip, to the economic exploitation of national oil and gas resources, and to the competitiveness of the whole economy. It is prepared to consider making changes to the existing regulatory framework if this is necessary to achieve these objectives. Attention has focused on gas markets in the past year because of complaints about the rise in gas prices.

2 Concerns have been expressed to the Department about the working of gas markets, in particular, that the behaviour of various parties upstream and downstream may be affecting the efficiency of gas markets and increasing the level and volatility of wholesale gas prices. There are also concerns about the interaction of the regulatory regimes for gas upstream and downstream.

3 The Department and OFT have sought evidence in response to complaints of alleged anti-competitive behaviour, and where this has been found, e.g. around the Belgian interconnector, have drawn it to the attention of the relevant competition authority.

4 This consultation document is intended to provide a comprehensive opportunity to establish the position on these and any other concerns. It sets out the main concerns, together with comments, and invites further evidence and views on these and any other concerns related to gas prices. If more evidence of anti-competitive behaviour emerges, we will not hesitate to draw this to the attention of the relevant competition authority. 5 The main concerns are: a) upstream mergers have resulted in over-concentration of gas ownership b) gas producers have limited gas production to influence prices

c) the lack of regulated third party access for offshore transportation and ancillary infrastructure may result in inefficient utilisation of existing infrastructure

d) end of day or within day gaming skews the profile of gas delivery into the NTS to influence Transco's behaviour and gas prices

e) gaming around the Belgian interconnector has manipulated prices

f) lack of liberalisation , principally outside the UK, results in oil:gas indexation and various restrictive practices

g) vertical and horizontal integration of some gas producers, within and across EU boundaries, has affected gas prices

h) some or all of the above combine to push up gas prices

6 The document also seeks views on proposals to improve the working of gas markets through more publication of information, if necessary through new legislation.

Oil and gas infrastructure: Access provisions and voluntary arrangements

Oil and gas infrastructure: Access provisions and voluntary arrangements (URN 01/540)

DTI published on 15 February a consultation which:

Views were required by 11 May 2001.

Data storage

Well and seismic records

Under a Petroleum Licence all parties to a licence are jointly and severally responsible to the Secretary of State for keeping records. PON 9 sets out the 'record and sample requirements for surveys and wells' and the location of that data receipt. Historically the Directorate has undertaken its own cataloguing and storage of these data.

CDA

Since 1995, Common Data Access Limited (CDA), a consortium of oil and service companies has provided a shared data storage and associated services, for data items gathered in the process of exploration, appraisal and development activities on the UKCS. The first phases of CDA, the digital well data and the seismic navigation data stages, are almost complete. The hardcopy well data scanned image project will be complete by the end of 2000. The provision of data by CDA members to CDA will discharge them of their obligations to provide such data to the Secretary of State under the Model Clauses for those data items. Further information can be obtained from the CDA web site at http://www.cdal.com.

Back | Title | Table of Contents
Appendix 1 | Appendix 2 | Appendix 3 | Appendix 4 | Appendix 5 | Appendix 6 | Appendix 7 | Appendix 8 | Appendix 9
Appendix 10 | Appendix 11 | Appendix 12 | Appendix 13 | Appendix 14 | Appendix 15 | Appendix 16 | Appendix 17
Index Map | Plate 1 | Plate 2W | Plate 2E | Plate 3W | Plate 3E | Plate 4W | Plate 4E | Plate 5 | Plate 6
Plate 7 | Plate 8W | Plate 8E | Plate 9W | Plate 9E | Plate 10W | Plate 10E | Plate 11 | Plate 12 | Legend