"To encourage production as quickly as possible, the NSTA...

"To encourage production as quickly as possible, the NSTA identified four priority cluster areas in the Southern North Sea, which have known hydrocarbons, are close to infrastructure and have the potential to be developed quickly - and will seek to license these ahead of others. Applicants were encouraged to bid for these areas so they can go into production as soon as possible."

https://www.nstauthority.co.uk/licensing-consents/licensing-rounds/offshore-petroleum-licensing-rounds/#tabs

UK's first offshore licensing round since 2019 has concluded with 115 license bids. Turns out that UK government is pushing hard for an increase in domestic production which will help diversification away from Russian energy. I have been saying for months that this would start to happen as "local" and "secure" O&G production becomes of major strategic importance.

All this is important to FDR for two reasons

1. Our bread and butter is acquiring prospects through tender and developing them, including in the UK where we already have 5 licences. Makes you wonder how many new licences our UK vehicle is bidding on
2. All FDR's UK projects are ILX (Infrastructure led exploration), which is now what the UK govt is pushing - they don't want stranded assets. https://www.nstauthority.co.uk/media/8425/sns-cluster-rationale-accessible-7-october.pdf

We are in a great position here with these prospects becoming more desirable by the day

GLTA