The Government has published its responses to submissions from the oil and gas industry on its soon-to-be mandatory Collaboration Code for North Sea exploration and production companies.
It sets out the key issues raised by individuals and organisations responding to this consultation and Government’s response to these points.
Read the full revised Collaboration Code here: –
A DECC spokesman explained: “The Government is committed to supporting the oil and gas industry, which plays a vital role in meeting our energy supplies as well as supporting employment and our economy more generally.
The OGA, which was established as an executive agency on April 1 2015, is already engaging with industry to drive down costs and improve efficiencies and to maximise economic recovery of our offshore oil and gas reserves.
“The Petroleum Act 1998, as amended by the Infrastructure Act 2015, places a duty on the Secretary of State to produce one or more strategies for enabling the Principal Objective of “maximising the economic recovery of UK petroleum to be met”. The first MER UK Strategy is required to be produced within 12 months of the relevant clauses coming into force, therefore by April 2016.”
The OGA will transition to a Government Company in summer 2016, subject to Parliamentary approval for the Energy Bill 2015/16 (the Energy Bill). The Energy Bill, which was introduced into the House of Lords on 9 July 2015, seeks to establish the OGA as a Government Company and equip the body with additional powers to maximise economic recovery of oil and gas from beneath UK waters. These powers will give the OGA the ability to issue enforcement notices and financial penalties for non-collaborative co-operation.
You read it here first: 28 Jan 2016 Scottish Energy News
UK Govt. publishes new Collaboration Code of law in its Strategy for Maximising Economic Recovery in the N. Sea