Offshore production licences can be extended beyond their original expiry date if necessary to allow producing fields to fully exploit the associated reserves. 

The NSTA will not extend a licence until it is clearly necessary, so licensees expecting to need an extension should formally inform the NSTA 12 months before the licence’s expiry date. 

The NSTA may request an update to the field development plan to support a request for a licence extension and, where warranted, we may refuse to extend a licence. 

An extension will be implemented by a licence amendment that removes all acreage from the licence other than that related to currently producing field(s) or discoveries where there is a clear route to first production. The extension for producing fields will continue, subject to the provisions within the extension, for as long as the field is in production. 

Contact the NSTA at Offshore.Exploration@nstauthority.co.uk