DICING WITH DANGER

摘要

The next 12-18 months will pose a myriad of challenges to the North Sea offshore industry, as the oil price remains sluggish and investment slows. Some critics even argue that the sector has reached a crossroads where it faces either wide-ranging cultural change or inherent failure. Andrew Reid, MD at market analyst Douglas Westwood, believes that the oil price collapse can be viewed as a 'good thing' and an 'opportunity for real change' within the industry. "Oil companies will only make changes when they really have to, when it gets to a point where they either have to act or die, and we have now reached that stage," he says. There are no obvious external factors that will provide a get out of jail free card to the industry if it choses to dodge change in the current climate. The oil price is thought unlikely to rise in the short term and external investment in the North Sea currently seems unlikely.