Expectations

In consultation with the industry, we have developed stewardship expectations across the oil and gas lifecycle, for operators and licensees. In July 2019 a refreshed set of stewardship expectations were launched, to reflect three years of experience since first issue in 2016.

These good practice expectations promote industry good practice and support maximum economic recovery (MER). They aim to further stimulate upstream activity, maintain and support performance improvements while continuing to maintain high standards of safety and environmental management.  

Two expectations are new: Well activity performance; and Commercial alignment and delivery. The first promotes successful delivery of well activity throughout the lifecycle using systematic deployment of existing practices and learning during planning and execution phases. The second, commercial alignment and delivery, promotes the adoption and implementation of existing good commercial practices to enable activity to progress in a manner and pace consistent with licensees’ obligations in the MER UK strategy.

Stewardship expectations cover the following areas:

• Stewardship Expectation 1 - Joint venture hub strategy
• Stewardship Expectation 2 - Delivering exploration and appraisal work programmes
• Stewardship Expectation 3 – Optimum use of subsurface data
• Stewardship Expectation 4 – Well activity performance
• Stewardship Expectation 5 – Robust project delivery
• Stewardship Expectation 6 - Integrated field management
• Stewardship Expectation 7 – Commercial alignment and delivery
• Stewardship Expectation 8 – Technology deployment
• Stewardship Expectation 9 – Build a culture of collaboration
• Stewardship Expectation 10 – Cost effective decommissioning

An accompanying overview document introduces the ten refreshed Stewardship Expectations and provides context for and a precis of how the Stewardship Expectations should be implemented.

We will observe the performance of operators and licensees against the stewardship expectations and, if appropriate, seek to improve performance in relation to particular assets. Where an expectation has not been achieved, following discussions with the licensee, we may consider whether or not the licensee is complying with their obligations under the MER UK Strategy.

The below documents provide guidance on the OGA's process to assess operators' collaborative behaviour.