The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has opened an additional 31 licences offer in the  final 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 33^rd Licensing Round opened in October 2022 with more than 900 Blocks being made available. The application window closed in January 2023 with 115 bids coming in from 76 companies, demonstrating the ongoing appetite within industry to explore the UK Continental Shelf.

To encourage production as quickly as possible, the NSTA identified four priority cluster areas in the Southern North Sea, which have known hydrocarbons, are close to infrastructure and have the potential to be developed quickly – and will seek to license these ahead of others. Applicants were encouraged to bid for these areas so they can go into production as soon as possible. 

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.

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