Maersk, Nexen, Centrica and Encore were also successful in the latest round of offers which was originally announced in October 2010 when 144 licences were dished out.

The blocks which were awarded on Friday had been held back in the first tranche of offers "due to the need for further assessment on Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs)," the DECC wrote on Friday.

Amongst the latest receipients of awards were also RWE Dea, Infrastrata, Elixir, Dana, Suncor and Volantis. They were joined by Sendero, Echo, Stratic, Sterling, Holywell, Trap Exploration and Fairfield. Hansa, NP Solent, Burlington Resources, Serica, Stelinmatvic, Bridge Energy, NWE Mirrabooka were also given awards with Hydrocarbon Resources, Volta Energy and P R Singleton rounding off the list.

Announcing the awards, UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry said he was looking forward to a "prosperous year" for the country's oil and gas industry.

“Oil and gas remains crucial to the UK economy – contributing around 2% to the country’s GDP. Our innovative licensing system continues to make the UK one of the most attractive places to do business," he wrote in the DECC statement.

“These further licenses have been subject to rigorous examination, and we are now satisfied that initial exploration can go ahead.

“These continued high levels of interest, and the award today of these licenses, gives me yet more reason to be optimistic for a prosperous 2012 for the UK oil and gas sector.”