UK Opens North Sea Licensing Round

The UK is opening the latest North Sea exploration licensing round to develop offshore natural gas and oil production.

• The North Sea Transition Authority will take applications to explore areas with the potential for more than 100 licenses.
• Licensing rounds happen regularly but the UK are trying to encourage quicker development in an effort to ease surging energy costs. Projected timelines for the development of production takes years so the new licensing round will not ease the very tight near term supplies.
• “Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine means it is now more important than ever that we make the most of sovereign energy resources, strengthening our energy security now and into the future,” according to Business and Energy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg.
• “Ensuring our energy independence means exploiting the full potential of our North Sea assets to boost domestic production.”