Buzzard soars as UKCS oil and gas production slumps

摘要

The UK sector of the North Sea could quite reasonably be described as the sea of paradoxes.Activity is high,companies are racing to bring new flows onstream,virtually all contractors have more work than they can immediately cope with and yet output continues to fall.Gas production from the UKCS in 2006 was 9% below year earlier levels while liquids production fell by 9.5%(see Tables 1 and 2).Although the effect was most intense on the UKCS,falling production is now the norm for all North Sea hydrocarbons apart from Norwegian gas.This year,2007,was to be the year in which UKCS oil production was to stabilise and all the indications are that this will be achieved,even if the International Energy Agency(IEA)anticipates a mar-ainal decline(see Table 1).