- 82 awards offered so far in 33rd oil and gas licensing round
- 50 companies offered awards in the round
- North Sea remains a vibrant home for exploration
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has offered a further 31 licences in the latest phase of the 33rd oil and gas licensing round.
A total of 82 offers to 50 companies have now been made in the round which attracted 115 bids from 76 companies across 257 blocks and part-blocks.
The licences offered in the round would be expected to add an estimated 600 mmboe up to 2060, or 545 by 2050.
The 33rd UK Offshore Licensing Round officially opened on 7th October 2022 and closed for applications for licences on 12 January 2023.
The Licensing Round was formulated in compliance with the Climate Compatibility Checkpoint (CCC) which was published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (now the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero).
It was also written in light of the OGA Strategy which ‘requires industry to operate in a way consistent with net zero ambitions, lowering production emissions and making serious progress on the solutions that can contribute to the UK achieving net zero.’
On 13 October 2022 we announced that further Blocks were made available for offer. On the 30th October 2023 the NSTA announced the offer of 27 new licences and the merge of 6 blocks into 5 existing licences, in the first set of awards for the 33rd Round. On 31 January 2024 the NSTA announced the Tranche 2 awards for the 33rd Round, comprising of 24 new licences made up of 74 blocks/part block in the West of Shetlands, Northern North Sea and Central North Sea. On 3 May 2024 the NSTA announced the Tranche 3 awards for the 33rd Round, comprising of 31 new licences made up of 88 blocks/part blocks in the Central North Sea, East Irish Sea and the Southern North Sea
The first tranche offered 27 licences in October 2023, with the second offering 24 licences in January 2024.
Source: NSTA
