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ECONOMIC REPORT
2016
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5.4 Production
The latest provisional production data, published by the Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), confirms strong performance on
the UKCS over the last 18 months. Last year saw the first annual increase in
production for 15 years. The start-up of new fields and restart of existing fields
have contributed to the rise in production, as well as increased uptime from
existing assets due to an improvement in production efficiency from 65 per cent
in 2014 to 71 per cent
24
.
2015 Production
Figure 30 shows how the traditional period of summer maintenance was less
pronounced in 2015 after years of significant integrity work from 2011 to 2014
successfully improved asset reliability and performance. Furthermore, operators
have postponed non-essential maintenance to focus on maximising asset uptime
to support revenues at lower prices.
Figure 30: Monthly Production
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Jan-05
Jul-05
Jan-06
Jul-06
Jan-07
Jul-07
Jan-08
Jul-08
Jan-09
Jul-09
Jan-10
Jul-10
Jan-11
Jul-11
Jan-12
Jul-12
Jan-13
Jul-13
Jan-14
Jul-14
Jan-15
Jul-15
Jan-16
Production (Million boe)
Source: BEIS, DUKES
24
Production efficiency is the total annual production divided by the maximum production potential
of all fields on the UKCS.
Last year saw
the first annual
increase in
production for
15 years.