Competition and Collaboration

Throughout Sir Ian Wood’s UKCS Maximising Recovery Review, emphasis was placed on the need for industry’s existing collaborative approach to be extended right across all activities - whether in areas such as production efficiency, rig sharing, more effective deployment of new technology, improved shutdown coordination, sharing access to key spares or decommissioning.  Through the Maximising Economic Recovery (MER) UK Strategy, collaboration was elevated from being a matter of general practice to a statutory obligation with a  very specific aim. 

Collaboration between those in industry is a regular occurrence and, in many ways, can have a beneficial impact.  It is primarily of a concern where the outcome of the collaboration is anti-competitive, and the EU and UK competition law regimes set out certain legal rules for evaluating that.

The OGA’s note on 'Competition & Collaboration' describes matters for industry to consider related to collaboration and competition law in the relevant oil and gas markets. While it is not the OGA’s place to advise persons whether their involvement in respect of a particular activity may be in breach of competition law, it is the OGA’s view that such considerations should not be used as an excuse not to comply with the obligations set out in the MER UK Strategy, unless they are well founded.