About Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data
The Department of Trade and Industry (now DECC) began a sequence of sectoral SEAs of the implications of further licensing of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) for oil and gas exploration and production in 1999.
The SEA Process subdivided the UKCS into eight areas shown on the adjacent map and listed below; beginning in 2008, integrated Offshore Energy SEAs have been undertaken that cover the whole UKCS.
An integral part of the SEA programme has been a series of research and monitoring surveys commissioned to acquire new data about the offshore environment and used to help inform the relevant SEAs.
Technical reports describing the surveys are available from DECC Offshore SEA and also from this site.
To enable free and open access to data collected during the SEA surveys, DECC has commissioned BGS to develop and maintain this data portal with the aim of providing all reports and datasets associated with each SEA.
| Name | Area | Sector | Licensing/Leasing Round | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA 1 | The deep water area along the UK and Faroese boundary | Oil & Gas | 19th Round | 2001 |
| SEA 2 | The central spine of the North Sea which contains the majority of existing UK oil and gas fields | Oil & Gas | 20th Round | 2002 |
| SEA 2 Extension | Outer Moray Firth | Oil & Gas | 20th Round | 2002 |
| SEA 3 | The remaining parts of the southern North Sea | Oil & Gas | 21st Round | 2002 |
| R2 | Three strategic regions off the coasts of England and Wales in relation to a second round of offshore wind leasing | Offshore wind | R2 | 2003 |
| SEA 4 | The offshore areas to the north and west of Shetland and Orkney | Oil & Gas | 22nd Round | 2004 |
| SEA 5 | Parts of the northern and central North Sea to the east of the Scottish mainland, Orkney and Shetland | Oil & Gas | 23rd Round | 2005 |
| SEA 6 | Parts of the Irish Sea | Oil & Gas | 24th Round | 2006 |
| SEA 7 | The offshore areas to the west of Scotland | Oil & Gas | 25th Round | 2008 |
| OESEA | UK offshore waters and territorial waters of England and Wales | Offshore wind Oil & Gas |
R3 26th Round |
2009 2010 |
| OESEA | UK offshore waters and territorial waters of England and Wales | Oil & Gas, Marine renewable, gas storage | N/A - in consultation | |
Data types
The following data types are available:
- data files (in a variety of specialist formats)
- maps
- processed data
- processed images
- raw data
- raw images
- still images – photographs
- reports
- video
Data access
The data available from this website were produced as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme; Crown Copyright, all rights reserved. The DECC SEA must be acknowledged in any maps or publications that make use of the data. All the data files are freely available to the public.
Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS.
IPR
BGS (NERC) has been contracted by DECC to publish SEA datasets on its behalf.
All intellectual property rights (including , without limitation, copyrights, database rights and all other rights which subsist or may at any time in the future subsist in the Dataset(s)) in the Dataset(s) ('Intellectual Property Rights') are owned by DECC (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform).
BGS has been authorised by DECC to use SEA datasets for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit basis'.
BGS has been authorised by DECC to pass on SEA datasets to third parties so that they can use them for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit' basis.
Contact
Contact Jonathan Lowndes for further information
