Q - How is the annual membership fee derived and why has it increased for 2023?? 

A – OPOL is a not-for-profit organisation and the annual membership fee is used solely to pay for the costs and expenses of OPOL incurred in the administration of the OPOL Agreement (mainly salary costs and third-party professional service provider fees). The costs to administer the OPOL Agreement are largely fixed and do not fluctuate significantly with member numbers. Those costs are shared equally across the membership. In 2023, OPOL will have 10 fewer OPOL members than in 2022. The increase in fee has been agreed by the Board of OPOL to enable it to cover its running costs in 2023. The decrease in membership is due to Licensees completing decommissioning of assets and leaving the UKCS or acquisition and merger activity which has led to fewer ‘Licence Operators’. 

Q – We have plugged all our wells, do we still need OPOL membership? 

A – OPOL membership is not required if the installations comprising the Offshore Facility (as defined in the OPOL Agreement ) have been decommissioned, or if remaining in situ pending removal are hydrocarbon free, and all wells under your operatorship have been permanently abandoned as defined in the OPOL agreement;  

“Permanently Abandoned” means, in relation to a well: (i) the removal of the wellhead and conductor with the intention that the well will never be used or re-entered again; and (ii) the well having been removed from the examination, maintenance and testing scheme required to be put in place pursuant to part 4.1 of Part A of the Annex to Directive 92/91/EEC (the “Directive”) or, in respect of a well located within the jurisdiction of a Designated State which is not required to give effect to the Directive, such well having been removed from any equivalent or similar scheme in that Designated State. Both limbs of the definition must be satisfied. In practice this will normally mean that the well will have been granted AB3 Status under the OGA’s Well Operations and Notifications System. 

Q – We are already an OPOL Member and have recently acquired an existing licence from another operator, do we need another OPOL membership? 

A – Each and every legal entity which is a ‘Licence Operator’, as set out in the Licence for any particular field and designated as such by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), and which has operations requiring OPOL membership, must be or otherwise become an OPOL member and as appropriate provide evidence of financial responsibility using the relevant FR forms. Therefore, on an acquisition where existing licences are acquired by an asset sale and purchase, the acquiring legal entity, if not already a member of OPOL, will need to take out OPOL membership for those licences. If the Licenced Operator is itself acquired by purchase of its share capital by a third party, the obligations of that Licenced Operator for OPOL membership would continue notwithstanding the change of ownership of that legal entity.   

Q – If we terminate our membership, do we get a pro-rata rebate? 

A – All fees are based on an annual membership so rebates are not provided for. 

Q – How do we terminate? 

A – In order to terminate the membership of OPOL within a calendar year, a Notice of Termination form must be completed and returned to admin@opol.org.uk before 30 September in that year i.e., if membership is not required in 2024, notice must be given by 30 September 2023 (this is because termination of OPOL requires 3 months’ notice). A Notice of Termination can be downloaded here Notice+of+Termination+2016+02. If notice of termination is not received by that date, membership of OPOL will continue into the following year and as a result, the annual subscription will be payable IN FULL, notwithstanding that membership may only be for a short period in that following year. If the member ceases to be an Operator in terms of the OPOL Agreement and its evidence of financial responsibility has expired, or is time-limited, but it does not wish to terminate its membership of OPOL then it must complete and submit a Form D to notify  OPOL accordingly. A Form D can be downloaded here