UK entering critical phase of its oil and gas history

The evolution of the mature UK Continental Shelf oil and gas province has reached an important crossroads, according to the 2007 Economic Report by Oil & Gas UK, the trading name for the new expanded UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA). We publish here some of the highlights. The UK continues to produce very large volumes of oil and gas from its continental shelf (UKCS). During 2006, some 1.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) were recovered, making a total of just over 36 billion boe over the last 40 years. These volumes satisfied the vast majority of domestic demand. In the case of oil, production contributed 588 million barrels (i.e. 96%) of the 615 million barrels consumed. For gas, 80 billion cubic metres (bcm) were produced, or 92% of the 87 bcm consumed; the remainder was met by imports.