Key to our role as the official archive and release mechanism for 2D and 3D onshore seismic data in the UK is ensuring that we work in close partnership with associated Governmental Bodies and other formal data release agents. The aim remains to provide an integrated resource portal in support of industry and academic research.
North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA)
On March 21st 2022 the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) rebranded to The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) to reflect its evolving role in the energy transition.
On 1 October 2016 the OGA became a government company, limited by shares under the Companies Act 2006, with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy the sole shareholder.
The NSTA is responsible for regulating onshore and offshore exploration and development operations. Onshore licensing and consents in Scotland are to be devolved to the Scottish Government from 9th February 2018 and in Wales to the Welsh Government from 1st October 2018.
Current Exploration Licence details are updated by the NSTA on a regular basis and published on our web map. The NSTA provides downloads of the Licences either as a GIS shapefile or as a PDF map, along with a number of other useful onshore information layers, such as Fields and Coastlines. The status of individual active Licences can be accessed through the NSTA interactive search facility.
The NSTA also monitors and publishes all onshore well locations, which can be accessed for download in spreadsheet form. UKOGL provides a display of all these well locations along with basic well information, including links to Well Tops, Logging Summary Information and Composite Log Headers.
For all the above and additional NSTA information, publications, regulatory guidance and data relating to onshore exploration and production please visit the NSTA website.
British Geological Survey (BGS)
The BGS is one of the world’s leading geoscience research facilities, promoting a better understanding of earth and environmental processes.
The UKOGL Interactive Map includes access to BGS and Coal Authority acquired seismic surveys, together with geological backdrops provided by kind permission of the BGS. A full range of BGS mapping products and can be found here.
The BGS archives hold a wealth of related onshore geoscientific information. A recommended first access point is through their Onshore GeoIndex, which provides additional information and further access to hardcopy scans, digital data and reports for UK onshore oil & gas wells that can be obtained free of charge from the NSTA collection here.
Well Data (Borehole) Release Agents (DRA)
UKOGL displays and provides basic well data, including tops and times, in support of its seismic archive. However, the following organisations acted on behalf of NSTA as formal release agents for UK onshore well data records and can be contacted in order to obtain value added data sets, including scanned images and digital well records.
| CGG Data Management Services | Web | |
| IHS Energy | Web | |
| TGS | Web | |
North Sea Transition Authority – UK National Data Repository
The United Kingdom’s offshore National Data Repository for petroleum-related information and samples (NDR) provides access to UK offshore data and regulatory information
For further details on the offshore services and data provided by the NSTA NDR, please visit the dedicated NSTA NDR website portal for more information and data access.