UK’s offshore oil and gas industry regulator, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), has launched its new 2017 Stewardship Survey for operators of UKCS petroleum licenses and upstream infrastructure.
OGA said on Wednesday that the annual survey was enhanced by industry feedback during 2017 and gathers data on activity and performance.
Areas covered include exploration, production, projects, operating and decommissioning costs, and technology.
Data gathered from the survey is used among other things to inform the OGA’s asset stewardship reviews with operators and provide meaningful insights into current and forecast activity in the UKCS. It is also being used to facilitate robust economic modeling of UKCS fields and hubs and help build regional strategies and area plans.
OGA added that it also published reports derived from these data in the form of lessons learned and benchmarking reports to provide insights for the industry.
The survey, introduced last year, replaced and integrated up to nine previous surveys which, according to the UK oil and gas regulator, streamlines the way data is gathered and analyzed to reduce the burden on operators, license holders, and the OGA.
A series of workshops were held in August 2017 to discuss proposed changes to each section of the survey and provide the industry with the opportunity to give feedback and be involved in how changes are implemented. Following that, the OGA held 16 training sessions in October, helping around 330 people working for oil and gas operators to familiarise themselves with the new system.
OGA director of operations, Gunther Newcombe , said: “The annual UKCS Stewardship Survey is an important exercise which allows the OGA to gather meaningful data to analyze industry’s performance and activity.
“We’ve listened to industry’s feedback and enhanced the survey to ensure it is as simple as possible and is providing ‘playback’ of the data in the form of benchmarking reports to help improve performance.”
The main survey opens on November 1, 2017, and will close on February 28, 2018. The activity section of the survey will start on the same date as the main survey but will close on January 19, 2018.
In late 1Q 2018, the OGA will undertake a short feedback session to gauge industry response to the enhanced survey and how it can be improved.