Licensed Blocks BNG is a geospatial dataset detailing areas granted for petroleum prospecting, exploration, and extraction in Great Britain and the UK Continental Shelf. The data is managed by the North Sea Transition Authority under the Petroleum Act 1998 and includes three related datasets: Licences, Licence Blocks, and Sub Areas. It was last updated on November 16, 2025.
Use Cases
- Map petroleum licence boundaries based on the described geospatial polygon data.
- Analyze the distribution of exploration and production licences based on the distinction between onshore and offshore categories.
- Track changes in licence operators and beneficiaries based on the subdivision of blocks into sub areas.
- Support economic recovery planning for UK oil and gas resources based on the NSTA's discretionary licensing framework.
Strengths
- Data is structured into three distinct geospatial datasets (Licences, Licence Blocks, Sub Areas) for different levels of granularity.
- Includes multiple file formats (KML, HTML, GEOJSON, CSV, ZIP) for flexibility in use.
- Managed by a government authority (North Sea Transition Authority) under a specific legal framework (Petroleum Act 1998).
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Data may reflect geographic and regulatory bias inherent to the UK's petroleum licensing system.
Provenance
- Source
- North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), via Government Digital Service.
- Collection Method
- Likely compiled from official licensing records and geographic information systems.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2025-11-16 13:35:15.045000; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Great Britain, its territorial sea, and the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).