THE head of the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has said the big questions facing the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) had been answered with its latest offshore auction of more than 120 licences to 60 companies.

A total of 813 blocks in the southern, central and northern North Sea, west of Shetland and the East Irish Sea were put up for grabs when the 30th licensing round was announced last July.

Some areas were last made available more than 40 years ago and a large number of potential prospects and undeveloped discoveries were included in the sale.

The OGA said it expected companies to act “very quickly”, providing a much-needed boost to oil exploration – which has been in the doldrums for some time.

Its chief executive, Dr Andy Samuel, said: ‘The UKCS is back. Big questions facing the basin have been answered in this round.

“Exploration is very much alive with lots of prospects generated and new wells to be drilled.

“The results show a great diversity of active players from super-majors to new entrants, and the hard work promoting undeveloped discoveries is starting to pay off. I’m looking to industry to rapidly press ahead with these activities and maximise recovery from these great opportunities.

“Together we are building on the good momentum and collective efforts of industry, OGA and government over the last three years, with four projects already sanctioned this year and a healthy pipeline of 50 projects under consideration.”

However, Scotland’s most outspoken oilman – and one of the most respected – said the result of this licensing round again made the case for Holyrood to take control of North Sea oil and gas.

Professor Alex Russell, who chairs the Oil Industry Finance Association, told The National: “At the time of the referendum we didn’t have any of this upbeat talk and the oil industry was very scathing about its future prospects and the Office for Budget Responsibility were downplaying the potential of the North Sea.

“Andy Samuel has every right to be upbeat because while oil prices are high there’s every possibility that exploration will increase and even production will increase.

“However, it’s the wrong targets. [OGA chief executive] Deirdre Michie, has also commented on it being good news and part of her comment was it’s because the North Sea has a ‘very competitive fiscal regime in place’.

“That means it’s cheaper – companies pay less tax in the very expensive North Sea area than if they go for rich pickings somewhere else.”

Russell said it was time to see targets set for the tax takings that would come to Holyrood if it had control over the North Sea oil and gas sector.

“Why are we not seeing figures for the increase in taxation that will come to Holyrood, in particular, given that most of this activity is taking place in Scotland?

“Why are we not seeing target figures for the number of people employed in the oil industry and the knock-on effect that would have on jobs that depend on it”

“We are still seeing an incredibly high number of jobs losses – there’s talk of big companies reducing bonuses, but who knows if they’ll remain in Aberdeen?” he added.

Russell asked if yesterday’s announcement would reduce job losses in the industry and, if so, what were the targets.

“Why don’t we have hard targets set by the OGA – not for production or exploration activity, but for jobs and increasing the revenue to Holyrood and/or Westminster.”

He added: “Surely it’s time for control of all North Sea activity to be handed to Holyrood and taken away from Westminster.

“We’re being messed about so much by Brexit, it’s time that proper control of what is basically a resource belonging to Scotland should be in the hands of Scotland and the Scottish Parliament.”