WIRELINE ISSUE 33 AUTUMN 2015

TASK FORCE

EFFICIENCY

Business process

Co-operation, culture and behaviours

Standardisation

Seizing the cost efficiency challenge The significant fall in production and sharply rising costs in recent years have left the UK sector particularly exposed to the drop in oil price. However, even before prices slumped, the industry was developing a coherent response to the challenges it faced while upholding the imperative to maintain safe production. Now, Wireline reveals how Oil & Gas UK has stepped up this activity with the formal launch of the Efficiency Task Force. A s the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) evolves, it is inevitable that the costs of operating from maturing fields and the size of new discoveries get smaller over time. Cost growth on the UKCS has been significantly higher than in other oil and gas provinces, including those around the North Sea. Since 2011, operating expenditure on the UKCS has risen by one third to £9.7 billion in 2014. Even with oil prices above $100, it had become apparent that the basin would become an increasingly uncompetitive the basin will become an increasingly significant factor in its competitiveness, particularly as production declines

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