Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which new gas and oil fields in the North Sea have been licenced for production in the last six months.

The most recent offshore licensing round was the 32^nd UK Offshore Licensing Round. It was conducted by the Oil and Gas Authority (now the North Sea Transition Authority), and concluded on 30^th September 2020, with 113 licences issued that year. The Government recently held a public consultation on the new Climate Compatibility Checkpoint, which will inform the next licensing round to be opened later this year.

Oil and gas fields, after being licensed, require a number of consents issued by regulators, such as Development and Production Consents granted by the North Sea Transition Authority, before they can begin production. A number of fields have received these consents in recent months. A full list of these consents can be found on the North Sea Transition Authority’s website here: https://www.nstauthority.co.uk/data-centre/data-downloads-and-publications/field-data/.