Mr C Rose Greenpeace Ltd Canonbury Villas London N1 2PN 26th March 1997

17TH SEAWARD LICENSING ROUND

Thank you for the information you submitted on 25 March 1997 as an application for acreage offered in the above round.

A Notice published in the Official Journal (C390/28 of 24 December 1996-copy attached) set out the criteria against which applications would be judged; this Notice also specified that applications would be judged against the background of the continuing need for expeditious, thorough, efficient and safe exploration to identify oil and gas resources of the UKCS, with due regard to environmental considerations. Schedule 3 to the Petroleum (Production) (Seaward Areas) Regulations 1988, as amended (also attached), sets out the form of application for a licence and, at Part III, the information and evidence required.

On examination, the documentation you have provided does not comply with these requirements. In particular, you have not provided the following:

• an analysis of the geology of the area to which the application relates, identifying, in particular, petroleum prospects;

• the technical data on which the analysis is based;

• the work programme for evaluating the potential petroleum production for the area to which the application relates which you would be prepared to undertake in the initial term of the licence applied for;

• evidence of your technicaI capacity to carry out such a work programme, including the number of staff you would assign for that purpose and any relevant technical qualifications held by those staff;

• a statement of your general environmental policy in respect of activities licensed in seaward areas together with a summary of your management systems for the implementation of that policy and a summary of how those management systems would be applied to a work programme to evaluate the petroleum potentlal from the area applied for.

I think you will see that in the absence of this information, we are not able to judge your technical capability to carry out activities which would be permitted under a licence. To do so, we need to know how you would carry out work such as seismic surveying and drilling to evaluate the hydrocarbon potential of the area applied for and your assessment of how this work could affect the environment, and what steps you would take to mitigate this. You may provide further information to bring your submission up to meet the requirements relating to applications, but that this must be delivered to this address no later than noon on 3 April 1997.

We also note that the financial information you have provided appears to indicate that you may not have the financial capability to finance the activities which would be permitted under the licence in the initial term. Again, any further information you wish to provide can be considered but again I stress this must arrive here no later than noon on 3 April 1997.

I hope this is helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.

Yours faithfully