| Details: | A raft of oil and gas opportunities are to be opened up by their owners to potential new developers, Energy Minister Brian Wilson announced today.
In all, 77 blocks and discoveries are to be made available under the Fallow Initiative, a joint Government-Industry project to ensure that North Sea assets are fully exploited.
This is the second phase of the initiative and means that companies currently owning blocks or discoveries which have had no drilling or significant activity in the last four years, will now either bring in new investment and ideas or pass the assets on to companies prepared to invest in and exploit them.
Energy Minister Brian Wilson said:
"It is essential to get licences into the hands of companies who are going to use them.
"The Fallow Initiative has already provided a fresh impetus for oil and gas activity, ensuring that fallow blocks and discoveries are developed while North Sea platforms and pipelines are still in place.
"Often this means passing some assets on to independent newcomers better suited to their size and potential.
"The first release of fallow assets triggered new activity and this latest release should provide a boost to the North Sea, helping to extend production and safeguard jobs."
Paul Blakeley, co-chair of the Industry Leadership Team within the industry body PILOT and vice president of Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd, said:
"The Fallow Initiative seeks to regenerate activity in acreage and assets that have lain dormant for many years by inviting third parties to come forward with investment or good technical ideas that will stimulate new exploration and development.
"This latest release of blocks and discoveries offers interesting opportunities for existing UK licensees as well as new entrant companies from around the world."
The list of 40 fallow blocks and 37 fallow discoveries has been placed on the Licence Information For Trading (LIFT) and Department for Trade and Industry websites (www.uklift.co.uk and www.og.dti.gov.uk)
Technical data and information, and how to acquire it, may be found on the UK-LIFT complementary website www.ukdeal.co.uk. |
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