Orcadian Energy, the low-emissions North Sea oil and gas development company,  is pleased to provide an update of its applications in the 33rd Offshore Licensing Round which closed last week.  The North Sea Transition Authority (“NSTA”) announced on 17th January 2023, that the 33rd Round had garnered 115 bids across 258 blocks or part-blocks, with bids having been received from 76 different companies.

As advised previously, Orcadian has participated in the 33rd Round. The Company made three licence applications, two in partnership with other companies and one on its own. It is anticipated that Orcadian will hear as whether its licence applications have been successful before the end of third quarter 2023 and a further announcement will be made at that time.

One of the applications builds upon Orcadian’s viscous oil experience whilst the other two applications are focused on gas opportunities, including a potential gas-to-wire project on an appraised discovery, with integrated carbon capture, which could deliver baseload electricity with minimal emissions. Net to Orcadian the P50 sales gas resource applied for, across the two gas focused applications, could amount to 114 bcf in a discovery, 153 bcf in a near drill-ready prospect and 377 bcf in leads and less mature prospects. These are management estimates of resources, are based upon seismic and well log data, are as presented to the NSTA in the Licence Applications, and are provided here for guidance purposes only.

Steve Brown, Orcadian’s CEO, commented:
“Licensing rounds are, by their nature, competitive processes, but we have focused on opportunities where we believe we have a competitive advantage.  We look forward to the NSTA’s evaluations of our and our competitors’ submissions.”

KeyFacts Energy: Orcadian Energy UK country profile