A four-month extension has been granted to a company searching for oil and gas in Manx territorial waters.

The Department of Infrastructure originally issued Crogga Limited with a Seaward Production Innovative Licence in October 2018.

Such licences are divided into three exploration phases. The first is geotechnical studies and geophysical reprocessing, the second being seismic survey and acquiring other geophysical data and the third involves exploratory drilling.

Infrastructure Minister Tim Crookall MHK said: ‘The department has agreed to extend the licence for four months to enable work to take place by both ourselves and Crogga. I’m pleased the company has agreed to this arrangement and look forward to working with them over the coming months.’

The licence term began on January 1, 2019, at the second phase and allowed Crogga three years to complete the relevant work. The conditions of the licence require satisfactory completion of the second phase before moving to the third.

With the current licence due to expire on December 31, 2021, Crogga originally requested an 18-month extension to undertake the necessary work to complete the second phase.

The Department has, however, agreed to an initial four-month extension.

While this will provide the company with extra time to work towards meeting certain conditions, it will also enable the Department to take into consideration the Isle of Man Government’s wider policy on offshore energy production as part of the decision on the longer licence extension request.

In addition, the department will work with Crogga to determine how the company intends to mitigate emissions from the proposal to ensure that the island is able to meet its commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Crogga Limited chief executive officer Diccen Sargent said: ‘We look forward to providing the government and the public with the factual information and details of our business plan, so they can be reassured about the environmental, financial and energy benefits, which we believe will transform the future of our island.’What do you think? Email [email protected] you'd like us to publish your views in one of our newspapers, please include your name, address and phone number.We don't print phone numbers or full addresses and respect anonymity if the author requests it.But we do need to be able to verify the identity of the authors of letters we publish.