OIL and Gas UK yesterday unveiled new model agreements to help companies conclude deals quickly and efficiently.
The industry body said they would provide a valuable tool for the country’s oil and gas industry to reduce costs and maintain competitiveness.
The documents will help to simplify procedures and reduce costs in several areas of oil and gas operations, including asset transfer, gaining access to infrastructure and building new pipelines.
The first of the models, the confidentiality agreement (CA), will provide an off-the-shelf solution for firms to agree confidentiality arrangements when information is shared, particularly during the sale and transfer of assets and the gaining of third-party access to infrastructure.
OGUK operations and supply-chain director Paul Dymond, said: “Oil and gas projects on the UK continental shelf must prove competitive to attract the necessary investment and one way of doing this is to reduce the time and cost of dealmaking. The new standard CA will ‘oil the wheels’ of dealmaking by ensuring a speedier start to substantive negotiations.”
A second model, the joint operating agreement, provides a basis on which co-venturers can manage shared operations on their licence.