Valerie Allan

Maximising Economic Recovery: A New Approach to Regulating the UK’s Offshore Oil and Gas Industry was co-authored by Judith Aldersey-Williams, of counsel, and Valerie Allan, partner at CMS, who are based in the firm’s Aberdeen office.

Administered by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), MER was introduced in 2015 following a government-commissioned report by Sir Ian Wood recommending the introduction of a new tripartite strategy involving HM Treasury, the oil and gas industry and a new regulator at arm’s length from government. This approach required operators within the UK continental shelf (UKCS) to engage in unprecedented levels of collaboration with others in the sector to maximise economic recovery from their own assets and across the wider basin.

Maximising Economic Recovery, written as a helpful guide for lawyers, UKCS operators, global energy industry regulators and academics with an interest in energy regulation, describes the legislative changes introduced under the regime. The book sets out how, under the governance of the new, hands-on regulator using ‘soft power’ to achieve many of its key aims, MER has radically altered UKCS culture and has been recently amended to align with the ongoing transition towards Net Zero.

Co-author Judith Aldersey-Williams, said: “We felt it was both important and timely to document how this regime, which is really radical within the global oil and gas sector, has tried to address the problems of an ageing basin.

Judith Aldersey-Williams

“Maximising Economic Recovery sets out how the innovative MER regime works in the UKCS. It explains how smaller discoveries meant new fields were more marginal and interdependent than in the past requiring increased collaboration between operators to ensure economic viability.

“It also discusses how the regime tries to reconcile the need to maximise production from the remaining assets while placing an increasing onus on the transition to a low carbon energy system.”

Fellow co-author, Valerie Allan, said: “The book is intended as a practical resource to support legal practitioners, those operating in the UKCS and others with an interest in energy regulation and regulators generally.

“While some of the factors which resulted in the introduction of MER are specific to the North Sea basin, the broader challenge of maximising economic recovery of energy resources while supporting the move towards Net Zero is one that arises across many other regions.

“The UK’s regulatory regime s therefore of broader international interest in demonstrating the effectiveness of its approach in achieving that balance.”

Maximising Economic Recovery: A New Approach to Regulating the UK’s Offshore Oil and Gas Industry has been published by Globe Law and Business. More details about the book can be found here.