London-The UK’s North Sea oil production will remain flat for the rest of the decade, the country’s official economic forecaster said Wednesday, reversing its previous forecast of an 8% fall by 2020. In an Economic and Fiscal Outlook that coincided with the government’s latest budget statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said UK oil output would remain at 47.1 million mt/year (roughly 974,000 b/d) for the current and next three fiscal years, before falling to 44.8 million mt in 2020-21. It said it had changed its view based on higher-than- expected production this year, which it attributed partly to high capital expenditure in the run-up to the 2014 oil price crash.
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