A new approach to licensing in the UK
July 2011
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is expanding its web-based licensing portal to make the licence administration process easier to use and improve the security and confidentiality of information. Simon Toole, DECC’s head of licensing, exploration and development at the energy development unit, describes to readers what they can expect from the new facility known as PEARS.
DECC, which is responsible for issuing and administering UK Petroleum Licences, has a key role in supporting the industry’s exploitation of the UK’s oil and gas resources. With some 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent remaining to be produced, the UK still offers many exploration and development opportunities. As the UK province matures, industry must continue to adapt technology and processes to ensure it can maximise this remaining potential.
For its part, the Government is committed to ensuring that the regulatory process also adapts to meet the changing needs of the province and of the industry. In recent years we have been moving our regulatory activities away from a completely paper-based system and onto a web-based system, which we call the UK Oil Portal. Well consents and environmental consents are already processed in the Portal.
The 26th Licensing Round of 2010 was held within a new part of the Portal called LARRY, our first electronic Licensing Round. These enhancements have been well received by the industry and the next step will be to bring the benefits of e-Government to licence administration. We are proud of the progress we have already made, and I’d like to thank the industry for its very positive support. The purpose of this article is to explain briefly the imminent change in licence administration, and the benefits that industry will see.
The new licence administration part of the Portal, known as PEARS, will administer five areas of licence regulation:
- Licence assignments
- Operator approvals and Licence Administrator appointments
- Equity interest apportionments and subarea definitions
- Licence relinquishments (surrenders and determinations)
- Data correction
It will be designed with three key objectives in mind:
- Confidentiality and security
- Ease of use
- Improved data quality
We recognised from the start that industry must trust the Portal to be sound, secure and robust. We subject the UK Oil Portal’s security and confidentiality provisions to regular independent auditing and testing. You can place complete confidence in the integrity and security of our records, and PEARS will benefit from the same security provisions.
One of the biggest benefits that industry will see is the simple reduction in the bureaucratic burden, as PEARS helps the user to complete his or her applications, and makes it easier to communicate with DECC during the process. PEARS will use many of the same Portal tools and screens that users are already accustomed to, from their experience in applying for well permits and production consents, or reporting oil production.
PEARS will also bring improved accuracy. That will require correspondingly high standards from the industry side too, which means companies will have even more confidence in the quality of our published records. To ensure this raising of standards helps us to enhance the efficiency of our regulation, we will encourage all licensees to help us maintain the quality of our records – preferably at all times, but especially when companies start working towards transactions for which they will need the Secretary of State’s consent, such as assignments. It will now be easy for all licensees to ensure that discrepancies are corrected in good time, removing the need for last minute changes which can delay the regulatory process.
In the lead up to launch (currently planned for the Autumn) we will be holding a Gala Day to explain the new system, and in addition we will ensure there is a dedicated support team to help people use PEARS once it is running. We hope industry will be as excited about the introduction of PEARS as I am.
