21 Bloomsbury
London WC1B 3HF
www.gov.uk/oga
Maureen Mills
By email to
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Our ref: FOI2016/13491,
30 June 2016
Dear Ms Mills,
Thank you for your email of 5 June 2016, in which you request:
“I request a copy of PEDL 164 and the Deed of Variation. Also please advise whether Aurora have
relinquished part of the license area as required by the terms of the license.”
We have considered your requests in accordance with the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs) as the information you have sought disclosure
of, does in our view, fall within the definition of ‘environmental information’ as stated
in the EIRs.
The Department wishes to be as open as possible in answering requests, and to
help people obtain the information they are looking for.
No surrender of acreage has been made on this licence. A 50% surrender of
acreage is only ‘required by the terms of the licence’ in the sense that the licensee is
only entitled to request the licence’s continuation after its Initial Term if such a
surrender (among other things) has been made. As OGA has stated on its website {
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/oil-and-gas-onshore-exploration-and-
production#licensing}, the Initial Term of PEDL164 has been extended and this
requirement will therefore not arise until 2018.
I attach the PEDL and the deed of variation for PEDL164.
Some of the information has been redacted under Regulation 13(1) of the EIRs
(Personal information). Regulation 13(1) provides an absolute exemption for
personal data, which falls to be dealt with under the Data Protection Act (DPA). In
particular, the first data protection principle requires that disclosure must be fair and
lawful and must comply with one of the conditions in Schedule 2 of the DPA. We do
not think that it is fair to release the names and contact details of third parties who
signed these documents and do not think that any of the relevant conditions apply.
Appeals procedure
If you are unhappy with the result of your request for information, you may request
an internal review within 40 working days of the date of receipt of the response to
your original letter. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact: The
Information Rights Unit, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 1 Victoria
Street, London, SW1H 0ET. Email
xxx@xxxx.xxx.xxx.xx. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information
Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe
House, and Water Lane, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Yours sincerely,
Policy, Performance and Economics Directorate
