New Developments – Introduction and Background

Despite the UKCS’ maturity as an oil and gas basin, exploration and appraisal activity is ongoing, and as a result new developments are still being granted approval and brought on-stream. The UKCS is seeing increasing numbers of new-entrant companies developing these new, smaller discoveries and, as a result, helping to maximise recovery from the basin and the economic sustainability of the UKCS.

New Developments – Key Statistics and Commentary

A total of 29 new developments were given approval in 2006, compared with 22 in 2005. However, significantly fewer fields were bought on-stream than expected, mainly due to technical difficulties and project delays which were largely caused or exacerbated by the pressure on resources. 40 new fields are expected to come on-stream in 2007 and 2008, the majority of which will be subsea developments.

UKCS Field Developments 2007-2008

New Developments – Supplementary Statistics and Commentary

For further information on new developments and the codes of practice which have been developed to facilitate these processes, please see www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/issues/operations/field_development.cfm

Further information can also be found in the 2007 Oil & Gas UK Economic Report found at www.oilandgasuk.co.uk