UK Norway Consultation Group Meeting Agenda

UK-Norway Co-operation Implementation Group

Joint UK Consultation Group Meeting

Agenda, 12.30-16.30, 7th February 2003

BP Greenridge, Aberdeen

Attendees:

UKNorway

Simon Bennett (Chair) / BP / Per Albert Kongshaug / ExxonMobil
Dave Farthing / ConocoPhillips / Geir Lindholt / Norsk Hydro
Christian Giudicelli / TFE / Gunnar Olsen / TotalFinaElf
Andrew Hadjitofi / BP / Øystein Roti / Norske Shell
Mark Hives / ExxonMobil / Birger Pedersen / Gassco
Andrew Hogg / BP
Maurice Jenkins / Paladin
Phil Murphy / BG
Dik Paul / Shell
Phil Shute / TFE
Rachel Turner (alternate) / Agip
Roger Wilson (alternate) / Marathon

1. Simon Bennett opened the meeting and welcomed the Group to the first meeting of the Joint UK-Norway Treaty Consultation Group. Apologies were noted from Per Torfinn Knudsen (Statoil), John Michell (Agip), Ben Taylor (Shell) and Les Thomas (Marathon) and their alternates were welcomed to the meeting. Phil Shute (TFE), Gas & Infrastructure Action Team Lead, joined the meeting to ensure co-ordination with the work of his team.

2. The Joint Terms of Reference of the UK-Norway Consultation Group were approved. The final version can be found along with all the other UK-Norway Co-operation related paperssince September 2001 on the Pilot Websiteat Pilot Activity Areas/UK-Norway Collaboration.

3. The UK & Norwegian Teams presented their outline proposals for structuring the development of Treaty Guidelines. It was agreed that:

The work of the Joint Consultation Group will focus initially on developing guidelines to the 1998 Framework Agreement (
Work on Guidelines to the new Treaty will follow once the Treaty negotiations are more advanced. This recognises that the UK and Norwegian Governments have primacy on Treaty matters. DTI and MPE will advise when it is appropriate to begin work on the Guidelines to the new Treaty.
Guidelines should take into account the existing Memoranda of Understanding and other relevant UK-Norway Treaties.
The Guidelines to the existing Framework Agreement and the new UK-Norway Treaty will be published either as two separate documents or subsequently as a compendium, depending on when the new Treaty is finalised.
Guidelines relating to the articles in the existing 1998 Framework Agreement would be developed around the issue groupings shown in Table 1 below. The same joint UK-Norway Consultation Group should develop the guideline for the new Treaty.

Group no / Group
Name / Group
Issues / Related Articles in 1998 Framework Treaty*
1 / Authorisation / Authorisations, approvals, routing, Operator, arbitration / 1,2,3,4,5,11,17,18,19
2 / Priority & Access / Access, third party use, arbitration, dispute resolution / 6
3 / Technical standards / Engineering Standards, Metering, Inspection, Safety, Construction codes, Telecomms / 8, (9), 10,13,14
4 / Environmental issues / EIAs, Waste management, Discharge, Decommissioning, continued use / 7,15,16
5 / Tax / Double Taxation / 12

Table 1: Joint UK-Norway Treaty Consultation Group - issue grouping for Treaty Guidelines. (*To be confirmed by sub-teams).

Sub-teams will be established to progress development of outline guidelines in each of the issue groupings shown above. The UK and Norwegian sub-teams should come together to review the relevant articles and develop Joint Guidelines for their issue Grouping. The groups will create an inventory of existing field treaties, MOAs (e.g. on Inspection and Metering) and from these distill the issues and provide guidance on their use. Field specific Treaties would not be addressed in the guidelines. This work will allow problem areas with existing treaties to be identified to assist with development of the new Framework Treaty.

The UK Consultation Group members agreed their representation on the sub-team as follows:

UK
Participating Companies / Lead
ConocoPhillips, Shell / Joint
Agip, BG, BP, TFE / TFE
Marathon, Paladin / Marathon
BP, ChevronTexaco / BP
UKOOA / UKOOA Fiscal Group

Table 2: UK Sub-team participating companies and leads.

The Norwegian Team undertook to confirm the names of their sub-team representatives by end-February 2003.

The DTI and MPE would be invited to provide advice and input to the groups based on their knowledge of the content and intention of existing treaties and MOAs.

A suggested timeline for delivery of the Joint Consultation group was presented as shown in the diagram below:

The schedule was agreed subject to progress at Implementation Group level and advice from the DTI and MPE as to when it is appropriate to begin work on the Guidelines to the new Treaty.

A review of sub-team progress will take place at the next Joint UK-Norway Consultation Group Meeting to be held in Stavanger on 13th or 14th March 2003.

4. The legal status of the Guidelines was discussed. The meeting learnt that the view expressed by DTI at the am UK Consultation Group was that the Guidelines would not have legal status but the DTI would be willing to endorse them if they were content with the text.

5. It was agreed that the next meeting of the Joint Consultation Group would be held in Stavanger on the 13th or 14th March, 2003

Actions

1. Sub-teams to confirm the articles in the existing Framework Agreement they plan to work on are as shown in Table 1 above. Action – Sub-teams

2. Sub-teams to create outline guidelines for progress review at next Joint UK-Norway Consultation Group Meeting. Action – All Sub-teams.

3. Norwegian Consultation Group to agree the membership of their sub-teams and advise UK colleagues. Action – Per Torfinn Knudsen to advise UK Consultation Group by 28th February 2003.

4. Provide group access to copies of key references - existing Treaties, Framework Agreements and MOUs to ensure guidelines are consistent with existing agreements – Action - Andrew Hogg & Per Torfinn Knudsen. Done.

4. Confirm date of next Joint UK-Norway Consultation Group Meeting. Suggested dates are 13th or 14th March 2003. Action - Andrew Hogg & Per Torfinn Knudsen.

AJCH

18th Feb 2003