Production efficiency in the mostly-Scottish offshore oil and gas sector in the North Sea has risen for a fifth consecutive year – increasing to 74% in 2017, showing industry is sustaining production performance.
This continuous improvement is estimated to have contributed to an additional 11.8 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) during 2017.
Production efficiency is an important indicator for the industry and its OG regulator as a key performance indicator (KPI) of production optimisation and asset stewardship performance.
It is also a key focus area for the Maximising Economic Recovery (MER) UK Asset Stewardship Task Force, which identified PE as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for industry, and established a target of an average of 80% PE to be achieved by end of 2018.
The positive news was announced at a recent meeting with oil and gas operators, as part of the OGA’s asset stewardship process.
Gunther Newcombe, head of operations at the Oil and Gas Authority, said: “This is very welcome and deserved progress.
“Industry is sustaining efficiency improvements and seeing the rewards of their hard work in maximising economic recovery. It’s likely PE would have been slightly higher without the Forties pipeline closure at the end of 2017.”
8 May 2018
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