Energy Disputes

Recent Articles

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  25.05.2023

  International

  North Sea Strikes and Force Ma­jeure

  The latest in a series of strikes by oil & gas workers in the North Sea continues to test the operation and efficacy of force majeure (“FM”) provisions in oil and gas industry contracts.There is no single “industry standard” FM clause, and so each contractual FM clause must be carefully considered in its contractual context to determine how it operates.With many North Sea oil and gas industry contracts based on industry model forms, such as LOGIC and OEUK (formerly OGUK), we consider below the impact of the recent (and proposed) North Sea strike actions.  A review...

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  28.04.2023

  United Kingdom

  North Sea Trans­ition Au­thor­ity – Car­bon stor­age data powers con­sulta­tion re­sponse

  The North Sea Transition Authority (“NSTA”) has published a response to its consultation on new carbon storage data powers. The consultation, which ran from 18 January 2023 until 1 March 2023, sought views on whether information and sample retention and reporting requirements should exist for licensees of carbon dioxide appraisal and storage licences (“CS Licences”). The NSTA already has similar data retention, reporting and disclosure powers in place for petroleum licensees.The NSTA received 11 responses to its consultation, which it says were overwhelmingly supportive...

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  27.04.2023

  United Kingdom

  Green­peace and Up­lift gran­ted per­mis­sion to pro­ceed with ju­di­cial re­view against the latest off­shore oil and gas li­cens­ing round

  IntroductionEnvironmental campaign groups such as Greenpeace and Uplift are increasingly using court proceedings to seek to advance their arguments, often by means of judicial review applications challenging the approach taken by government or regulators in considering environmental issues in licensing or approval processes. In a high profile example in the oil and gas industry, Greenpeace and Uplift have been given permission to bring judicial review proceedings in connection with the decision to commence the 33rd oil and gas licensing round in October 2022 – the first licensing round...

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  20.04.2023

  United Kingdom

  DES­NZ con­sults on fur­ther re­forms to the CfD re­gime

  IntroductionOn 17 April 2023 the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (“DESNZ”) launched a call for evidence (the “Consultation”) to consider ways in which the Contract for Difference (“CfD”) auction allocation process for renewable energy projects in the UK could capture wider, non-price, factors in the value of renewable projects. This Consultation follows a number of wider CfD reforms which address a range of variations to the CfD Allocation Rounds (“AR”). For more information on the recent development, please see our commentary on the AR5...

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  04.04.2023

  United Kingdom

  Power­ing up Bri­tain: March 2023 GB en­ergy policy pack­age

  On 30 March 2023, as its wide-ranging Energy Bill continues to undergo parliamentary scrutiny (see our range of previous articles on the Energy Bill e.g. here, here and here), the UK Government released a further package of energy policy publications under the banner “Powering-up Britain”, heralded as the “manifesto” of the new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (“DESNZ”). As is so often the case in UK energy policy, DESNZ’s stated aims closely align with the three components of the energy trilemma, namely meeting decarbonisation targets, ensuring...

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  16.03.2023

  United Kingdom

  UK Spring Budget 2023: en­ergy and heat sec­tor im­plic­a­tions

  The UK government has made a number of announcements in its Spring Budget.  We have set out below the key measures that will impact the energy and heating sector. The full Spring Budget can be found here.The key announcements of measures in the energy sector are:£20 billion funding for early deployment of Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) projects The UK Government has allocated £20 billion over next two decades towards funding of CCUS (including BECCS) projects. The form that this support will take has not been specified.The Government has restated its support of the preferred...

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