The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is the region of waters surrounding the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, in which the country has

mineral rights Mineral rights are property rights to exploit an area for the minerals it harbors. Mineral rights can be separate from property ownership (see Split estate). Mineral rights can refer to sedentary minerals that do not move below the Earth's surfa ...

. The UK continental shelf includes parts of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

, the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...

, the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

and the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

; the area includes large resources of

oil and gas A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geologi ...

. The UK continental shelf is bordered by Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Ireland. A median line, setting out the domains of each of these nations, was established by mutual agreement between them: - see the Continental Shelf Act 1964. Responsibility for the mineral rights of the UKCS rests with the

Oil and Gas Authority The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), known as the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) until March 2022, is a private company limited by shares wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. It is responsible for maximi ...

part of

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom Government, from July 2016 to Februar ...

(BEIS), which awards licences to

oil companies The following is a list of notable companies in the petroleum industry that are engaged in petroleum exploration and production. The list is in alphabetical order by continent and then by country. This list does not include companies only involved ...

to produce

hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and Hydrophobe, hydrophobic; their odor is usually fain ...

s from specific areas and regulates how much they can produce over what period. The UKCS is divided into numbered rectangular Quadrants, each one degree of latitude by one degree of longitude. Each Quadrant is further subdivided into 30 numbered Blocks (each 10 minutes latitude by 12 minutes longitude, thus each Quadrant has 5 blocks East-West by 6 blocks North-South), as shown below. {, class="wikitable" , +Key to block numbers , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , - , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , - , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , - , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , - , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , - , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 This numbering system then forms the identification for a particular oil or gas development. For example, the

Harding oilfield The Harding oilfield is a small oil field operated by TAQA, in the North Sea block 9/23b, approximately North-East of Aberdeen and in of water. Discovery and development The field was discovered in 1987, when oil was found in Eocene at a depth ...

, which is located in a fairly northern position, is in Quadrant 9, Block 23, denoted "9/23" (9/23b specifically to differentiate it from the

Gryphon oilfield The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk o ...

). The numbering of Quadrants follows several series: 1-58 (the original North Sea sequence); 71-75, 82-89, 91-113 (south-west of the UK and bordering France and Ireland); 124-135, 137-144, 147-155, 157-166, 168-176 (the Atlantic west of Scotland); 204-225 (the North Sea north of Shetland and bordering Norway); 337-339, 341-349, 351-359 and 362-369 (the Atlantic west of the 124-176 sequence). While the depth of the UK Continental Shelf varies significantly, the shallowness of the North Sea at an average depth of 95m has facilitated the development of

offshore oil drilling Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the ter ...

and

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

References

External links

Oil and Gas
- DECC website concerned with energy production on the UKCS

- DECC website marketing opportunities on the UKCS. Geology of the United Kingdom North Sea energy Continental shelves of Europe