Activity Survey 2014

The ‘yet-to-find’ (YTF) opportunity remaining on theUKCS is inherently difficult to assess. Currently, theDepartment of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) carries a range of estimates of YTF varying from just below six billion boe of oil and gas resources in the low case to just over nine billion boe in the central case. Clearly not all of these potential barrels will be discovered, developed and produced unless exploration activity steps up from the current low rate (see Section 4), but the figures provide an indication of the scale of the opportunity.

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Comparison by Region

To provide an indication of the distribution of the overall opportunity by region across the UKCS, central numbers provided by DECC for ‘potential additional resources’ (PARS) and YTF, together totalling 13 billion boe, have been overlaid on top of the existing reserves profiles (see Figure 4). Whilst the overall figures should be taken with caution due to their inherent uncertainty, they do illustrate the potential of each region. With nearly four billion boe, the central North Sea has the largest base of sanctioned and probable reserves, 65 per cent of which are currently in production. However, the west of Shetland is shown to be a much less mature region. Only a tenth of the 2.6 billion boe of sanctioned and probable reserves are currently in production, emphasising the need to increase the pace of development in that region.

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Figure 4: Reserves and Resource Growth by Region

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Yet To Find Resources Potential Additional Resources

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Possible Reserves Probable Reserves Ongoing Investments In Production 01.01.2014

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8

8

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9

4

Reserves / Resources (Billion boe)

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10

0

W of S

NNS

CNS

SNS, IS, West of Scotland

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Source: Oil & Gas UK, DECC

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