Qualifying oil fields datasets

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department of Energy and Climate Change,

Sections 352 to 355 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 provides the definitions of "Small oil field", "Ultra heavy oil field", and "Ultra high pressure/high temperature oil field" in terms of:

353(1) oil reserves in tonnes,
353(2)(b) gas reserves in cubic metres,
354(1)(a) API gravity in degrees
354(1)(b) oil viscosity in centipoise
355(a) pressure of reservoir in bar
355(b) pressure of reservoir in degrees celsius

The threshold values of 355(a) and 355(b) were recently altered by the Qualifying Fields Order 2010.

Obviously these thresholds must have been set on the basis of information about what is available in UK territorial waters.

Unfortunately I have not been able to identify these information assets from the Information Asset register:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/iar/index

Under the Freedom of Information Act, can you please send me:

(1) a list of all datasets which contain the above classes information for oil fields both authorised for development and unauthorised but likely to be proposed.

(2) the database field names and types for each record in each of these datasets

(3) the number of records in each of these datasets

(4) the full contents of the datasets, minus any information that is commercially confidential under Section 43 of the Act.

The purpose of this information is to make determinations as to implications of further Qualifying Field Orders, without which it would be impossible for any person to hold an informed opinion.

Yours faithfully,

Julian Todd

FOI Requests,

DECC Ref: 10/1725

Dear Mr Todd,

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 27 July.
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Department of Energy and Climate Change to deal with.

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Information Act 2000 and will be responded at the latest by 24 August.

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Carr Andrew (Energy Development), Department of Energy and Climate Change

3 Attachments

Reply attached

<<FOI 10_1725 reply to Julian Todd 23 Aug 2010.doc>>

<<2010 Reserves data set structure.pdf>>

<<HPHT_dataset_structure.pdf>>

Andrew Carr

Head of Field Development and Production, NNS and WoS

DECC Oil and Gas Office

Atholl House

86-88 Guild Street

Aberdeen

AB11 6AR

Tel: 01224 254071

Fax: 01224 254089

e-mail (GSI): [1][email address]

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Information

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please

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Dear Andrew Carr,

Thank you for your response on 23 August to my inquiries about the databases of High Pressure High Temperature wells.

I am unfortunately not able to understand how disclosure of the data could prejudice economic interests that appear to be predicated on the possession of licenses that allow for exclusive exploitation of specified territories. How could disclosure of their contents have any effect on revenues? How could the "extensive consultation with industry stakeholders"[1] over these tax amendments have been undertaken unless the oil companies had some awareness of each other's holdings? Perhaps I will learn about these matters some other day.

[1] http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa...

Meanwhile, as the information appears to be in a database format, I hope it will be easy to derive the following information from it.

(1) From the reserves data set (containing 470 entries), the number of entries marked as HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) (a) under the current rules (post Qualifying Oil Fields Order 2010), and (b) before the Order was made.

(2) From the list of High Pressure High Temperature wells (containing 507 data points), a table with just the following 6 columns: Formation Pressure, Pressure Gradient, Overpressure, Temperature, Temperature Gradient, and Calculated Temperature.

Note that the data I am requesting contains no information about ownership, date, location, or quantity, so it is impossible for disclosure to threaten anyone's commercial interests. On the other hand, I hope it will shed light on how the exact numbers in the Order were chosen.

I prefer the answer to (2) to be in a spreadsheet form so I can run my own numerical implementations of the Order against it.

Many thanks for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Todd

Carr Andrew (Energy Development), Department of Energy and Climate Change

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    FOI 10 1725 reply to request for additional information 22 Sep 2010.doc

    115K Download View as HTML

Dear Mr Todd
Reply to your request for additional information attached

Regards

Andrew Carr
Head of Field Development and Production, NNS and WoS
DECC Oil and Gas Office
Atholl House
86-88 Guild Street
Aberdeen
AB11 6AR
Tel: 01224 254071
Fax: 01224 254089
e-mail (GSI): [email address]

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Alex Skene left an annotation ()

They said:

"However, the datasets which you have requested contains detailed information on the technical properties of UKCS oil fields and discoveries. As such, the Department considers that to release this information provided to the Department in confidence *could* prove prejudicial to the commercial interests of the licensees involved, and *could* damage the relationship between the Department and the licensees"
(my emphasis)

The ICO's view for environmental information & 12(5)(e) is that the release *would* need to cause prejudice, so a there's a higher bar required to withhold information. See http://foiwiki.com/foiwiki/index.php/Lin...

"It is not enough that some harm might be caused by disclosure. The Commissioner considers that it is necessary to establish (on the balance of probabilities) that some harm would be caused by disclosure.

In support of his approach, the Commissioner notes that the implementation guide for the Aarhus Convention (on which the European Directive on access to environmental information and ultimately the EIR were based) gives the following guidance on legitimate economic interests: “Determine harm. Legitimate economic interest also implies that the exception may be invoked only if disclosure would significantly damage the interest in question and assist its competitors.”"

Francis Irving left an annotation ()

For some context, a paper from 2005 by Andrew Carr (including a photo of him) on maximising economic recovery in and around existing North Sea fields.

http://ior.senergyltd.com/issue10/articl...