Oil & Gas UK Director Comments Q3 2011 Production

Oil & Gas UK’s Economics Director, Mike Tholen, said: “Production through to September 2011 has fallen dramatically, by much more than had been anticipated by either industry or Government immediately prior to the March Budget.

“The drop can be attributed to a combination of factors including extended shutdowns for maintenance and lower gas demand. However, looking further back, fiscal instability since 2002 resulted in fewer new fields coming onstream over the last few years and it appears that this may have been compounded by a direct commercial impact on production following the tax increase in March. These production figures demonstrate the importance of sustaining investment throughout the price cycle, which is made much more difficult in a fiscal environment without long-term certainty.

“For the sake of the UK’s economy and its energy security, the UKCS must, and can, recover from this production fall. In this, the ongoing work of Oil & Gas UK’s members and the Government to improve the business environment for investing companies and deliver long term certainty is hugely important.”

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Offshore Nieuws Staff , December 27, 2011