Global Competitiveness

Current Initiatives to Promote the UKCS

DTI and UKOOA are working closely together through PILOT, the joint Oil and Gas Industry / Government body chaired by the Energy Minister, to encourage a positive business environment which can maximise recovery of oil and gas. These measures combined with the rise in oil price have undoubtedly benefited the UKCS:

• Access to Data – the DEAL website (www.ukdeal.co.uk), is now an indispensable tool for any company working or wanting to work in the offshore UK. DEAL is a free publicly available web-based service managed for UKOOA by its subsidiary CDA. This includes access to the National Hydrocarbon Data Archive, the repository for relinquished licence data;
• Access to licences – new promote and frontier licences enhance the fallow discoveries and blocks process;
• Access to infrastructure – through the revised Infrastructure Code of Practice;
• Good stewardship of UKCS assets – through the new “stewardship process” launched in 2005;
• Positive commercial behaviours – through the Commercial Code of Practice;
• Strong supply chain – through the Supply Chain Code of Practice

The industry is committed to self regulation and performance improvement. Delivery against codes of practice is reviewed annually and reported through PILOT. The Infrastructure Code of Practice was re-written in 2004 and a full review will be carried out by UKOOA with DTI during 2006.