Oil & Gas UK Economic Report 2014

Figure 33 indicates the potential rewards from applying EOR to the top 20 opportunities in UKCS fields. It should be noted, though, that implementing such techniques on existing installations is less easy than making provision for themduring thedesignof anew installation, because of space and weight limitations. PILOT’s Exploration Task Force was established in 2012 to address the decline in exploration drilling and poor discovery rates on the UKCS, outlined in Section 4. As mentioned, exploration activity has fallen significantly over recent years from an average of 35 wells a year in the five-year period 2004 to 2008 to only 20 wells a year during2009 to2013 (seeFigure34opposite). One aspect being investigated by the task force is the extent of understanding of the UKCS’ Exploration Task Force

geology and the potential for using advanced seismic acquisition technology. Associated with this is a project to develop a digital map to promote unexplored areas and neglected parts of explored areas of the UKCS to existing and new operators. This will be known as the 21st Century Exploration Road Map. Production efficiency (PE) is a measure of actual production as a percentage of the maximum production potential, after allowing for the natural decline of a reservoir, the reliability of infrastructure, the effects of shutdowns and major maintenance, and the like. A Production Efficiency Task Force was established by PILOT in May 2013 in response to declining PE across the UKCS. The objective is to restore PE from the low 60s per cent to 80 per cent, where it was ten years ago, by 2016 (see Figure 35 opposite). Production Efficiency

Figure 33: Top 20 Enhanced Oil Recovery Opportunities on the UK Continental Shelf

100

Low Salinity

90

Miscible Gas

80

Chemical

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

Enhanced Oil Recovery Opportunities (Million boe)

0

Low Salinity

MiscibleGas

Chemical

Low Salinity

Chemical

MiscibleGas

Chemical

Chemical

Chemical

Low Salinity

Chemical

Low Salinity

MiscibleGas

MiscibleGas

Chemical

Chemical

MiscibleGas

Chemical

MiscibleGas

Chemical

Field

Source: BP

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ECONOMIC REPORT 2014