The UK Government has committed to £15m funding to help kick-start a national offshore oil and gas regulator.
The money will be invested over the next five years in response to Sir Ian Wood’s Wood Review.
The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), which will be based in Aberdeen, will receive £3m a year for five years from 2016-17.
The government said it was providing the short-term funding to show commitment to the OGA and help ensure it is set up as soon as possible.
The OGA will however be fully funded by the industry in the long-term.
UK Secretary of State Ed Davey said: "The Wood Review is good for our energy security, good for the economy and good for jobs.
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By GlobalData"We’ve made a lot of progress in a short amount of time; in six months we have announced the new body will be located in Aberdeen, we’re recruiting for a world-class CEO and we already have the legislative framework for the new body underway.
"This pace shows how determined we are to maximise the future potential of the UK’s offshore oil and gas industries, which currently employ 450,000 people in the UK.
"As our Carbon Plan shows, the UK will need oil and gas in the decades ahead as we decarbonise, so it makes economic and energy security sense to produce that domestically."