Outlook for the UKCS in 2007

New Developments

There were 29 projects given development approval in 2006, up from 22 in 2005. They comprised 13 new field developments (six liquids and seven gas) and 16 incremental projects on existing fields (15 liquids and one gas).

Significantly fewer fields were brought into production in 2006 than had been expected, mainly due to technical difficulties and project delays which were largely caused or exacerbated by the pressure on resources. Given underlying decline rates of mature fields, it is believed that one new development needs to come on-stream every 3 weeks to maintain current production rates, but in 2006 this happened only every 5 weeks. Half of the new developments used subsea technology, an approach which has grown in popularity as technology has advanced and as a means to reduce infrastructure requirements and hence development costs.

Figure 40 summarises the new fields that are expected to come on-stream in 2007 and 2008, 70% of which will be subsea developments. As has been the case in recent years, the vast majority are located in the southern and central North Sea.

Figure 40: UKCS Field Developments 2007-2008