14th licensing round

oil-and-gas-authority

On this page:

Summary of the 14th licensing round
Links to detailed licence information
Could your area be fracked under the new oil and gas licences?
National and regional maps
Links to related posts

Summary

On August 18^th 2015, the Oil and Gas Authority released details of new onshore oil and gas licences issued under the 14^th round. See map of licences half way down this page.

The OGA divided the licences into two groups.

The first group, numbering 27 licences blocks (usually 10km squares), were mostly in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and in the area between Sheffield and Leeds. These were issued to 12 different companies, including Cuadrilla, Egdon, IGas, INEOS, as well as some new entrants to the industry. List of companies and more details.

The second group, numbering 132 blocks, were subjected to wildlife assessments because they included or were close to important natural sites. The government carried out a consultation on the wildlife assessments until September 2015. These licences were mainly on either side of the Pennines in northern England but also included the Isle of Wight and south and south west England. Details of these licences were confirmed, along with the operators, on 17th December 2015.

Now that all the blocks have been awarded, we know that 22 companies were successful. The highest number of blocks went to Ineos, which was awarded 37 blocks. Along with its existing licences, its exploration area now covers 1m acres. More details

The OGA has grouped the 159 blocks into a total of 93 licence areas. Of these, 63 are for shale exploration and will potentially be fracked. Another 19 are for conventional oil or gas, 6 for abandoned mine methane vents and 5 for coal bed methane.

A total of 75 blocks contain a condition that prohibited all of specific activities in parts of the area.

More information

Which companies have which licence blocks?

Fracking by numbers. Figures from the new licences

Details of conditions on licence areas near wildlife areas

Reaction from industry

Reaction from opponents

Could your area be fracked under the new oil and gas licences?

There are two ways to find out how the licences will affect your area.

Search our alphabetical list of all the places that are in the licence blocks. The list is divided by counties and has links to licence information. Alphabetical list of licensed towns and villages
Or click your region on the map below. If you have a smaller screen, click a region in the list below the map. This will take you to a larger scale map, where you can select a particular licence block. There is more information on using the map below.

Map