Strategy document

The role of the OGA with regard to Supply Chain, Exports and Skills (SCES) is to encourage, influence and promote the UK oil and gas industry to achieve MER UK and to generate additional value for the supply chain.

The OGA does not directly regulate the service sector but recognises that a strong supply chain is essential to achieve MER UK while improving and sustaining competitive advantage and investment for the UK economy.

This Strategy sets out a vision for the supply chain to 2035 to grow the UK service sector’s share of both the domestic and global market. If the service sector builds on its global competitiveness and attracts the necessary investment, additional turnover of well over £200 billion can be generated over 20 years.

The purpose of this Strategy is to help bring about the conditions to achieve this. Its achievement will depend on industry working closely with “relevant stakeholders” to:

  • Maximise the economic potential from the UKCS
  • Anchor the service sector in the UK
  • Double the accessible international market share by 2035

The OGA has been set up to regulate, influence and promote the UK oil and gas industry and has been provided with a range of new powers to enable it to do so. The development of a series of strategies represents a key step in setting the strategic direction of how the OGA and industry will work together to maximise economic recovery (MER) from the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) and was one of the core recommendations of the Wood Maximising Recovery Review.

The MER UK Strategy underpins our work and came into force in March 2016. It describes how MER should operate in practice, setting out a legally binding central obligation to take the steps necessary to secure the maximum value of economically recoverable hydrocarbons. It also sets out a range of supporting obligations as well as the required actions and behaviours of collaboration and cost reduction.