Company News
UK's Petroleum Reserves 'Will Sustain Production', Say Experts
Wednesday 8th November 2017
Ravid
The use of Hy Lok fittings in the UK's petroleum production industry has been given a boost by the experts at the Oil and Gas Authority, who have revealed that the UK's reserves will safeguard production for at least the next two decades.
According to The Independent, recoverable reserves and resources range between 10 and 20 billion barrels of oil (BOE), with 5.7 billion barrels of proven and probable UK reserves.
Based on this alone, and not withstanding any future exploration for resources, production in the UK is safeguarded for another 20 years at least, yet the Oil and Gas Authority believe that there are 7.4 billion more BOE which have been discovered, have not been developed, but are in matured areas which could be considered for development soon.
However, according to Oil and Gas Authority operations director Gunther Newcombe, the industry cannot sit on its laurels: "Future success of the basin requires attracting additional investment, implementing technology and company collaboration on new and existing developments."
Substantial investments into the development of new fields and incremental projects must be considered to ensure the security of the industry in the more distant future, as in spite of the large reserves the UK boasts, replacement of reserves remains a concern. For example, in 2016, 600 million BOE were produced, yet new fields matured in the same time only replaced 80 million BOE - just 13 per cent.
The report suggests that £9 billion will need to be invested to meet a replacement ratio of 25 per cent - a cost of £12 per barrel.
