A geospatial dataset from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) details the sub-areas of petroleum exploration and production licences on the UK Continental Shelf. It is part of a three-dataset system alongside Licence and Licence Block polygons, providing finer geographical divisions for licensing. The data is published by the Government Digital Service and was last updated on 2025-11-16.
Use Cases
- Map petroleum licence boundaries based on the described geospatial polygon data.
- Analyze the distribution of oil and gas exploration rights based on the described licensing system.
- Cross-reference licence operators and beneficiaries based on the description of sub-area divisions.
Strengths
- Data is part of a structured three-dataset system (Licences, Licence Blocks, Sub Areas) for hierarchical representation.
- Published by the authoritative Government Digital Service and the North Sea Transition Authority.
- Available in multiple geospatial formats (KML, GEOJSON, CSV, ZIP) for interoperability.
Limitations
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) / Government Digital Service
- Collection Method
- Administrative data from the UK petroleum licensing system.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2025-11-16 17:57:12.789000; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), Great Britain, and its territorial sea.