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ECONOMIC REPORT
2016
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Due to the perceived lack of prospectivity on the UKCS, companies that do have budget to explore are choosing to
carry out such activity in other basins. Those targeting larger opportunities will undoubtedly be influenced by the
lack of such discoveries on the UKCS in recent years – the last discovery with recoverable reserves estimated at
greater than 100 million boe was the Culzean field, discovered in 2008, which is now under development.
Figure 18: Discovered Reserves
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Discovered Reserves (million boe)
Technical
Commercial
Source: Wood Mackenzie
Concerted action is being taken by the government, the regulator and industry to stimulate E&A activity and
replenish production with new projects. The positive measures being taken are outlined below, although scarcity
of funding and severe competition for capital undoubtedly require further attention.
• UK Government-funded seismic surveys
– over the last two years, the UK Government has committed
£40 million to fund fresh seismic surveys using the latest technology in areas that would otherwise have not been
surveyed. This initiative is already proving successful in generating interest in these areas. Data have been released
from the first round of seismic surveys of the Rockall Trough and Mid North Sea High regions. Available freely
throughCommonDataAccess Limited’s (CDA) online repository, the information improves thequantity andquality
of subsurface data available for these under-explored areas of the UKCS. There have been over 8,000 downloads
of the smaller data packages so far with individuals and companies from over 22 countries requesting the data.
PGS and WesternGeco have, meanwhile, been awarded contracts to acquire seismic data from the East Shetland
Platformand SouthWest Britain, respectively, in round two of the seismic acquisition and processing programme.