On 9 October the OGA hosted a very well attended breakfast briefing to launch its first Thematic Review – if you missed the session, please find the accompanying slides here. This thematic review aims to increase compliance with regulatory obligations, a vital part of the oil and gas industry’s social licence to operate, by means of an open, transparent and consultative process.
The first step in the thematic review is for the OGA to carry out a grassroots industry survey with OGUK, who will send out the survey and receive all responses before passing on anonymised and collated information to the OGA. This will ensure that the responding companies feel able to provide honest responses to the survey, which will maximise the benefits of the review. The survey is being sent out on 10 October, with a 4 week period for responses ending on 7 November. It will ask a number of questions in relation to various areas of licences and consents, designed to find out where most assistance is needed – whether it be better guidance, better processes, more education, and so on.
Once the responses have been received and analysed, the OGA will be working with OGUK to develop tailored solutions to address the feedback received. We will also be carrying out some international benchmarking work as part of the review in order to benefit from established best practice. We are also offering licensees the opportunity for a 1:1 meeting with members of the thematic review team before the end of November, to discuss any particular perspectives they may have including areas they feel need fixing, solutions they have found which can be shared to the benefit of others, or just general comments on the areas covered by the thematic review. If you would like to take up this offer, please get in contact with brian.malone@ogauthority.co.uk