Maximising Economic Recovery: A New Approach to Regulating the UK's Offshore Oil and Gas Industry

The regulatory regime encapsulated in the term ‘maximising economic recovery’ or MER, now administered by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), was introduced in 2015. It emerged from a government-commissioned report by Sir Ian Wood, published in 2014, which recommended the introduction of a new tripartite strategy for MER from the UKCS involving HM Treasury, industry and a new regulator at arm’s length from government. This was intended to address the problems of an ageing basin in wh...