Infrastructure utilisation

The majority of offshore infrastructure is now only partly full and being increasingly utilised for third party business. Extending the life of infrastructure allows more reserves to be recovered from existing fields and encourages new exploration and development activity. Once infrastructure is removed, nearby discoveries become more expensive to develop (potentially reducing ultimate UKCS recovery) and any utilisation for other opportunities, such as gas storage or carbon sequestration, is lost.

Figure 26: UKCS Pipeline Utilisation – Gas

Figure 27: UKCS Pipeline Utilisation - Oil