Parental Guarantee

The request was partially successful.

Dear Oil and Gas Authority,

Would you please confirm what form of Parental Guarantee has been provided by Ineos Holdings Limited or other parts of the Ineos Group to underpin the liabilities and obligations of Ineos Upstream Limited, in respect of the various PEDL agreements currently in place. Please provide copies of relevant documentation or correspondence.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Bales

OGA FOI requests,

Dear Mr Bales,
 
Thank you for your email of 26 September, regarding " Parental Guarantee."
 
Your request will be treated as a request under the Freedom of 
Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
 
It will be taken forward by the Oil and Gas Authority, which vested as an 
independent Government company on 1 October 2016.
 
Your request has been allocated a unique identifier of FOI-2018-0054,
please quote this on all future correspondence with us concerning this
request.
 
FOI requests are normally subject to a 20 working day deadline of your
request being received at the OGA.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
FOI Officer.
 
 
Oil and Gas Authority is a limited company registered in England and
Wales  with registered number 09666504 and VAT registered number
249433979. Our  registered office is at 21 Bloomsbury Street, London,
United Kingdom, WC1B  3HF.
 
For information about how we process data and monitor communications 
please see our Privacy Statement and for terms of use please see our
Terms  and Conditions, both available on our website.
 
 

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OGA FOI requests,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bales,

Please find attached a letter from the OGA indicating that the time limit for responding to your request needs to be extended.

Yours sincerely

FOI Requests

Oil and Gas Authority is a limited company registered in England and Wales with registered number 09666504 and VAT registered number 249433979. Our registered office is at 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1B 3HF. For information about how we process data and monitor communications please see our Privacy Statement and for terms of use please see our Terms and Conditions, both available on our website.

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OGA FOI requests,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Bales,

Please find attached a response from the OGA to your FOI request.

Yours sincerely

FOI Requests

Oil and Gas Authority is a limited company registered in England and Wales with registered number 09666504 and VAT registered number 249433979. Our registered office is at 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1B 3HF. For information about how we process data and monitor communications please see our Privacy Statement and for terms of use please see our Terms and Conditions, both available on our website.

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Dear Oil and Gas Authority,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Oil and Gas Authority's handling of my FOI request 'Parental Guarantee'.

My complaint is as follows:-

You have chosen to neither deny nor confirm whether the OGA holds the information that I have requested, for which you provided the following justification:-

“Section 43(3) FOIA provides that the duty to confirm or deny whether the OGA holds the requested information does not arise if confirming the same would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of the OGA or a third party. Regulation 12(5)(e) EIRs provides that a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest.”
“Even confirming whether or not the OGA holds a copy of a Guarantee in this instance would likely provide Ineos’ competitors with information on their financial status and, by doing so, would likely undermine Ineos’ commercial position (for example by undermining Ineos’ ability to get credit, or making such credit more expensive, forcing Ineos to provide guarantees more widely, thus increasing liability, or not providing them, thus losing business).”

You will of course be aware that neither Section 43(3) FOIA nor Regulation 12(5)(e) EIRs confers an absolute exemption from the duties embodied in both pieces of legislation. Your failure to acknowledge that fact and provide active assistance to myself in pursuing my information request is in itself an unlawful obstruction, which I will not pursue at this point.

As you will be aware, the exemption will apply in either instance where the following applies:-

"FOIA 2000 Section 17(3) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is to any extent relying on a claim that subsection (1)(b) or (2)(b) of section 2 applies must, either in the notice under subsection (1) or in a separate notice given within such time as is reasonable in the circumstances, state the reasons for claiming—
(a) that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exclusion of the duty to confirm or deny outweighs the public interest in disclosing whether the authority holds the information, or
(b) that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information."

"EIR Regulation 12(1) Subject to paragraphs (2), (3) and (9), a public authority may refuse to disclose environmental information requested if—
(a)an exception to disclosure applies under paragraphs (4) or (5); and
(b)in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
(2) A public authority shall apply a presumption in favour of disclosure."

The application process and subsequent award of PEDL allocations is subject to clearly defined guidelines and appraisal methods, may of which are not disclosed to the public for reasons of confidentiality and commercial interest. A key part of that process is the assessment of the applicant company’s financial capability, comprising financial resilience and financial capability to meet future commitments. Your own guidelines include the arrangements to be employed when the applicant company has an insufficient track record to meet those financial criteria, including documentation to be supplied by guarantors, where applicable.

The majority of 2014 PEDL awards were made in favour of INEOS, in the guise of a newly incorporated company, INEOS Upstream Ltd. Latest published accounts of that company indicate their lack of current financial substance, to the extent that auditors have signed off as a going concern only based on a one-year promise of continued funding from the parent Group.

That promise, without written and legal undertaking, would have little significance in terms of guarantee to meet future obligations under the PEDL terms, It is therefore to be expected that a form of Guarantee would have been provided to the OGA or BEIS by the INEOS Group and to confirm that point would represent no significant release of commercial information that is not already expected in the public domain.

However, if the INEOS Group have not provided such a Guarantee or equivalent undertaking, the implication would be that the obligations incorporated in the relevant PEDLs are not protected to the extent envisaged by OGA and BEIS guidelines and that INEOS have been treated more favourably than other PEDL holders or unsuccessful applicants. The public interest in that information would be considerable, relating not only to the financial protection offered against future breaches of PEDL terms, but also to the conduct of the public authorities charged with managing the PEDL award process. Both of those aspects are of high importance to the wider public and would outweigh any commercial interest that INEOS might have in maintaining a secrecy that related to an abuse of the PEDL allocation process.

Your refusal to neither confirm nor deny the existence of the requested information is therefore not justified by reference to either FOIR 43(3) or EIR 12(5)(e) as the public interest in disclosure will far outweigh the commercial interest of the INEOS Group.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

Richard Bales

Dear OGA FOI requests,
Following your response dated 19th November, I sent a request for an Internal Review of this FOI Request on November 25th. My email was confirmed as delivered, but I have not received your normal acknowledgement. Please would you confirm receipt as is normal and give me an anticipated response date.

Many thanks,
Yours sincerely,

Richard Bales

Dear OGA FOI requests,

To: FOI Manager, Oil and Gas Authority, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3HF

Dear Sir,

Further to my request for information (your ref FOI-2018-0054) and your FOI Officer’s reply dated 19th November, I emailed your organisation on 25th November (via WhatDoTheyKnow.com) with a request for an Internal Review. The email was recorded delivered, but I have received no acknowledgement or indication of your expected response time, as would be normal.

I chased by email on December 2nd, again with no reply.

Would you please acknowledge receipt of my request for an Internal review and give me your anticipated date for a reply.

Many thanks

Yours sincerely

Richard Bales

(COPY SENT BY DIRECT EMAIL)

Richard Bales left an annotation ()

Reply received by Direct email on 5th December:-

Dear Mr Bales,

Please be advised that your internal review has been received and is being dealt with.

Please accept our apologies for not having emailed this confirmation before now.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Officer.

Dear OGA FOI requests,

To: FOI Manager, Oil and Gas Authority, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3HF
Dear Sir,
Further to my request for information (your ref FOI-2018-0054) and your latest reply dated December 5th which acknowledged my request for an Internal Review on 25th November, I note that 20 working days have now elapsed since that request was made.

If you have valid reason to require further time to complete such an Internal Review, I should be formally notified. I have received no such notification.

I assume that the Christmas holidays will now delay any immediate response, but I would be grateful for a reply on January 2nd to confirm the position.
Merry Christmas,

Yours sincerely,

Richard Bales

(COPY SENT BY DIRECT EMAIL)

Richard Bales left an annotation ()

Holding reply received on December 24th:-
Dear Mr Bales,

Thank you for your email of Sunday 23 December 2018, I am emailing you with a short update regarding your request for an internal review dated 25 November 2018.

Your request is still being progressed by the OGA.

While noting that there is no legal time limit in which to conduct an internal review under FOI legislation, the OGA are aware that the recommendation from the ICO is that an internal review should take no more than 40 working days under 11(4) EIR.

We anticipate having a response for you within that time.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Manager
OGA.

Dear OGA FOI requests,

(COPY OF DIRECT EMAIL)

Dear FOI Manager,

Further to your reply of 24th December, in which you indicated that I should anticipate a response to my request for an internal review within 40 days of submission, I note that you have now reached and passed that milestone. I have had no comment from the OGA as to why this request should take so long, nor indeed any indication of progress whatsoever.

My initial FOI request did not suggest substantial documentary searches, yet required an extension beyond the 20 day norm for me to be told that the OGA would neither confirm nor deny. My request for an internal review is similarly being delayed with no apparent justification or valid explanation, which is clearly unacceptable.

Would you please give me a substantive response within the next 24 hours, failing which I will have to consider my options to escalate this matter.

Yours faithfully
Richard Bales

OGA FOI requests,

Dear Mr Bales,

Thank you for your email of 24 January, regarding your internal review.

We apologise for not yet having responded to you. Your internal review continues to be progressed and we hope to be able to respond to you very shortly.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Manager
OGA

Oil and Gas Authority is a limited company registered in England and Wales with registered number 09666504 and VAT registered number 249433979. Our registered office is at 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1B 3HF. For information about how we process data and monitor communications please see our Privacy Statement and for terms of use please see our Terms and Conditions, both available on our website.

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Dear OGA FOI requests,

(COPIED BY DIRECT EMAIL)

Following your reply of 25th January, in which you indicated a 'hope' that a response to my request for an internal review would be forthcoming 'very shortly', I note that another full week has passed without an answer.

You are now well beyond the time which is considered reasonable for requests of this type, particularly as my request is not one that requires substantial detail to be compiled. You have not offered any justification or explanation for the delay, forcing me to conclude that this is a deliberate attempt to stall the process and avoid your legal obligations. Clearly that cannot be allowed to continue.

If I do not receive a full and satisfactory reply by close of play tomorrow, February 1st, this matter will be referred to the Information Commissioner at my earliest opportunity.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Bales

Richard Bales left an annotation ()

Reply received from OGA, Friday 1st Feb:-
Dear Mr Bales,

Thank you for your email of 31 January, regarding your internal review.

I would like to apologise that we have not responded before now.

However it may reassure you to know that your case is in the final stages of the process prior to sending you the outcome.

It is also important to note that searching for documentation is only one part of dealing with an FOI request (and internal review), there is also consultation with affected third parties and consideration of the legal applications of any exemptions that may, or may not, apply and consideration of the public interest.

While we are not able to reply today, we anticipate being able to do so next week.

There is no deliberate attempt to stall the process, we simply have a process which we need to follow.

I hope that this is helpful.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Manager
OGA.

Dear OGA FOI requests,
(COPY OF DIRECT EMAIL)
Dear FOI Manager,

Further to your response of 1st February, in which you stated “While we are not able to reply today, we anticipate being able to do so next week”, yet again a full working week has passed and you have failed to meet that commitment.

I know that you have to follow a process, but that process must take heed of the guidelines as to acceptable timescales for a response. You are significantly beyond the anticipated maximum 40 days expected for an Internal Review and have given me no substantial reasons as to why your deliberations should take so long.

For the record, I am not reassured that your process should include any significant time for “consultation with affected third parties”. I acknowledge that you will have wanted to re-examine the possibility of commercial prejudice, but this is a matter for the OGA to decide upon, rather than to negotiate with said third party. There has been more than ample time taken for consultation.

I would be grateful for a full response without further delay. This has gone on too long.

Yours sincerely,
Richard Bales

Yours sincerely,

Richard Bales

Dear OGA FOI requests,

COPY OF DIRECT EMAIL

Dear FOI Manager,

I regret that it now seems that you have reached a stage where my prompts are ignored and I do not receive the courtesy of an acknowledgement. It is now 58 working days since you received my request for an Internal Review and despite assurances that a reply was imminent, I have received nothing. This is far beyond the ICO guidance for response timescales and in contravention of your responsibility to inform and explain delays in your process.

Please would you give me a full response or detailed explanation as to why this request should take so long to action, with a commitment to when I might expect resolution.

Many Thanks
Yours sincerely

Richard Bales

OGA FOI requests,

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Bales,

Please find attached a response to the Internal Review of your Freedom of Information Request.

I apologise that this has taken longer than we would normally wish.

Yours sincerely,

FOI Manager.

Oil and Gas Authority is a limited company registered in England and Wales with registered number 09666504 and VAT registered number 249433979. Our registered office is at 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1B 3HF.

For information about how we process data and monitor communications please see our privacy statement and for terms of use please see our Terms and Conditions, both available on our website.

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