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ECONOMIC REPORT
2016
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Figure 23: New Field Approvals
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015 2016 to date
Total Capital Investment by Field
(£ Billion - 2015 Money)
Year of Field Approval
Source: OGA, Oil & Gas UK
The lack of discretionary capital investment being committed to the UK is perhaps the biggest threat to the
long-term future of the basin, as it has the potential to accelerate abandonment of infrastructure and diminish the
scale of the UK’s supply chain. If no new investments are secured over the next few years, investment will fall to
as low as £2 billion per year by 2020.
Furthermore, the lack of material exploration success and decline in E&A activity over the last seven to eight years
(see section 5.2) means that the pool of new development opportunities in the UK has also fallen. There are now
just 26 pre-sanction greenfield opportunities in company plans and only four of these potential projects contain
more than 100 million boe.
For the long-term future of the basin, it is important that exploration activity improves and new investment rapidly
begins to recover. In the current climate, it is more likely that smaller near-field and brownfield opportunities
with faster payback will provide short-term stimulus to investment. However, a continuum of new large field
developments is also needed to stabilise the future of the industry.