Get the licences, permits and meet major-hazard duties for petroleum extraction

This guide covers the gating requirements, site-specific permits and major-hazard controls that sit on top of the workplace spine. Whether you extract crude oil (06.10) or natural gas (06.20), the regimes are the same — they apply by installation type, location (onshore or offshore) and inventory threshold, not by commodity.

A. Hold a petroleum production licence

Rights to the UK's petroleum are vested in the Crown. You must hold a licence to search and bore for and get petroleum. This is the gating requirement — without it, extraction is unlawful.

B. Offshore: prepare and maintain an accepted safety case

Operators and owners of offshore oil and gas installations in UK waters must prepare and have accepted a safety case demonstrating control of major-accident hazards. This is the offshore equivalent of the onshore COMAH regime. Onshore extraction does not engage it.

C. Onshore: meet your COMAH duties if you hold qualifying inventories

Onshore oil terminals, gathering stations, well sites and gas-processing facilities holding qualifying quantities of named dangerous substances become lower-tier or upper-tier COMAH establishments. Upper-tier operators must prepare a safety report and on-site and off-site emergency plans and notify the Competent Authority (HSE jointly with the relevant environment agency — the Environment Agency in England, Natural Resources Wales in Wales, SEPA in Scotland). COMAH does not apply offshore — the safety-case regime covers major-accident hazards there. In Northern Ireland, the COMAH Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 apply.

D. Onshore: hold an environmental permit for your installation

Onshore oil and gas extraction and associated processing — including any shale-gas operation and its mining-waste and groundwater activities — require an environmental permit. This is distinct from the mining-waste permits for solid-mineral extraction: upstream installations are regulated as permitted installations.

E. Offshore: hold an OPRED oil-pollution permit

Discharges of oil (including condensate and produced water) from offshore installations and wells require a permit from OPRED. This regime is engaged only by offshore activity; onshore installations are permitted under the Environmental Permitting Regulations instead.

F. Meet your upstream petroleum taxation obligations

Companies extracting UK and UK Continental Shelf oil and gas are taxed on ring-fenced upstream profits. The regime is administered by HMRC.

What to do next

With the licences, permits and major-hazard duties in place and the workplace spine operating, confirm the whole picture with the petroleum extraction compliance checklist. Start from the router if you are not sure which guides apply to you.