The Wood Maximising Recovery review proposed that an Asset Stewardship Strategy should “ensure that operators are held to account for the proper stewardship of their assets and infrastructure.”
Effective stewardship means asset owners consistently do the right things to identify and then exploit opportunities, and assets are in the hands of those with the collective will, behaviours and capabilities to achieve this.
The newly published Asset Stewardship Strategy’s objectives are to:
• Ensure asset licensees fully identify opportunities and the means to realise them
• Increase the resource base through: Timely and efficient exploration and appraisal of 6 billion boe best estimate of prospectivity; Timely and efficient development of the 5 billion boe discovered contingent resource base
• Maximise recovery through: Increasing recovery of remaining reserves, and reducing uncertainty on the 1.9 billion boe possible prize in and around existing fields; Optimising delivery efficiency and pace, using technology, the supply chain and collaboration
• Identify both underperformance and best practice and ensure the latter is shared to the benefit of all stakeholders and define good asset stewardship through setting clear expectations
• Demonstrate the process through which the OGA will facilitate good asset stewardship
The term ‘asset stewardship’ has historically been associated with the UK’s producing oil and gas fields, however the evolution of the UKCS with a growing number of operators and licensees, smaller prospects and discoveries, marginal fields and much greater inter-dependence between exploration, development, production and decommissioning, has resulted in the requirement for an enhanced approach to asset stewardship and a broader definition to the term asset.
In addition to oil and gas fields in production; licences, prospects, discoveries, development projects, infrastructure decommissioning, information, supply chain and technology, are all matters which should be subject to good stewardship throughout the upstream oil and gas lifecycle.
The Asset Stewardship Strategy supports the MER UK Strategy through four complementary strategic elements:
• Stewardship Expectations – The OGA has developed 10 Stewardship Expectations for industry, across the oil and gas lifecycle, which, if followed, are intended to help facilitate delivery of the MER UK Strategy obligations
• Rationalised Industry Survey – The OGA has created a new single, annual, UKCS Stewardship Survey which replaces nine existing surveys, streamlining the way data are gathered and analysed into a more efficient format; reducing complexity, time, effort and burden on operators and the OGA
• Benchmarking – The OGA will use UKCS data to benchmark assets for production efficiency, recovery factor, operating cost and decommissioning cost, the results of which will be confidentially communicated to operators with the purpose of working in partnership with respective operators to improve performance
• Stewardship Reviews – The OGA will continue to undertake pro-active, structured and prioritised stewardship reviews with operators and licensees based on intelligence gathered, prioritising
A strong focus on asset stewardship is proven to have a positive effect. During 2013-2015, a strong stewardship focus on production efficiency resulted in an increase from 65% to 71% across the period.
The OGA can’t do it alone. Successful development and implementation of this Strategy and the desired outcome of improved asset stewardship are dependent on support from industry. Asset Stewardship is a crucial element in the OGA’s objective to maximise economic recovery from the UKCS and to deliver greater value overall.
Read the Asset Stewardship Strategy here.
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