UK oil and gas output shows greatest rise in 15 years

According to Reuters, despite oil prices trading at a seven year low, UK oil and gas output rose last year for the first time since 2000, reversing a declining trend in production.

Oil & Gas UK, the industry group representing key North Sea oil producers such as BP, Shell and ExxonMobil believes there has been a 7 - 8% increase in production as opposed to the 3 - 4% increase it predicted in September.

Britain’s oil and gas output has more than halved during the past 15 years due to resources becoming increasingly difficult to reach and there being a lack of investment in new areas.

Increasing exploration

However, a renewed push for exploration projects encompassing new areas of the North Sea has led to a surge in new fields during 2015, including Taqa’s Cladhan oilfield in resource-rich waters near the Shetland Island, and boosted output year on year.

"The industry-wide focus on improving production efficiency coupled with investments of more than 50 billion pounds over the last four years to bring new fields on stream across the last twelve months is paying off and yielding a better result," said Oil and Gas UK chief executive Deirdre Michie in a statement.

Finalised production figures are as of yet unavailable, but Oil and Gas has said that it based its estimate on data for the first 10 months of 2015 and average production assumptions for November and December.

Britain is estimated to have another 200 billion pounds worth of gas trapped in the North Sea and in order to help access these resources the government has issued tax incentives and tasked a new regulator with helping companies extract as much as possible from the ground.

Sources: Reuters

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