The UK government, which has pledged not to issue new oil and gas exploration licenses, plans to offer operators flexibility and allow them to explore the potential of tiebacks to link adjacent resources to existing oil and gas hubs in the North Sea, a senior figure in Scotland from the ruling Labour party told the Financial Times.
“Even if it is only a marginal increase [in production], why wouldn’t we give it to them,” the Labour official told FT.
The UK government, earlier this year, launched a consultation on the clean future of the North Sea industry, which included delivering the Labour commitment not to issue new licenses to explore new oil and gas fields in the UK. The consultation also engages with industry on how to manage existing fields, which will continue to make an important contribution during the clean energy transition, for the entirety of their lifespan.
Industry, however, says that more exploration and investment would reduce the growing need for imported oil and gas and would strengthen the domestic supply chain and help it transition to providing clean energy solutions, such as offshore wind, for example.
OEUK, the leading offshore industry body, said in June that an independent study it had commissioned from analysts Westwood Global Energy Group showed that over 7.3 billion barrels of oil and gas are “within reach of existing infrastructure – making them viable as tiebacks to existing platforms.”
The proximity to existing hubs will be key because developing fields as tiebacks reduces costs, lowers emissions, and extends the life of existing critical infrastructure, OEUK said.
However, many of these hubs are approaching end-of-life, and without timely investment, the opportunity to develop these resources could be lost, the industry body added.
“The geology has not changed – just the mindset,” Westwood Global Energy Group said in its study.
“While political rhetoric paints UK production in terminal decline, the subsurface still holds untapped potential. What is needed is a new perspective.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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