NSTA Licensed and Unlicensed Blocks (BNG)

A Licence is a geographically defined area for prospecting, exploration or extraction of petroleum resources. The North Sea Transition Authority’s licensing system covers oil and gas within Great Britain, its territorial sea and on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).<br />The Petroleum Act 1998 vests all rights to the nation’s petroleum resources in the Crown, but the NSTA can grant licences that confer exclusive rights to ‘search and bore for and get’ petroleum.<br />Licences fall into several categories. The principal distinctions are between onshore and offshore licences, and between exploration licences (which cover exploration alone) and production licences (which cover both exploration and production). The NSTA has discretion in the granting of licences to help maximise the economic recovery of the UK’s oil and gas resources.<br />Licence data is represented by 3 different datasets; Licences, Licence Blocks and Sub Areas. Licence polygons represent the whole licence and have one polygon per licence. Licenced Blocks and Sub areas represent finer divisions of these licences and may have many polygons per licence. Most Licenced Blocks are split with several sub areas, sometimes with differing operators and beneficiaries.

许可证系指为勘查、勘探或开采石油资源而划定的地理区域。北海过渡管理局的许可制度涵盖了英国境内及其领海以及英国大陆架（UKCS）上的石油和天然气。根据1998年石油法，国家石油资源的所有权利归王室所有，但北海过渡管理局有权授予许可，赋予‘搜索、钻探及获取’石油的专有权利。许可证分为多个类别，主要区别在于陆上和海上许可证，以及勘探许可证（仅涵盖勘探）和生产许可证（涵盖勘探和生产）。北海过渡管理局在许可的授予上拥有酌情权，以帮助最大化英国石油和天然气资源的经济回收。许可证数据由三个不同的数据集表示：许可证、许可证区块和子区域。许可证多边形代表整个许可证，每个许可证对应一个多边形。许可区块和子区域代表这些许可证的更细分的部分，每个许可证可能有多个多边形。大多数许可区块被分割成多个子区域，有时由不同的运营商和受益人负责。