Corporation Tax Act 2009 section 809

Oil licences

Section 809 excludes oil licences and interests in oil licences from the intangible fixed assets regime in Part 8 of the Corporation Tax Act 2009.

• Oil licences, interests in oil licences, and any related goodwill or intangible assets are entirely outside the scope of Part 8
• The exclusion covers both UK oil licences (granted under the Petroleum Act 1998 or the Petroleum Production (Northern Ireland) Act 1964) and foreign oil concessions
• An interest in an oil licence includes any pre-extraction agreement entitling a party to oil, or a share of oil or its sale proceeds, from all or part of a licensed area
• Oil licences are excluded because they are potentially transitory intangible assets that may later be reclassified as tangible assets representing successful exploration costs, and they are subject to their own industry-specific accounting standard