Hurricane Energy triples estimate of North Sea oil recovery

More than 2.3 billion barrels of oil could recovered from an oil field west of Shetland, an exploration firm has announced.

Oil bosses said the discovery 'demonstrated the significant remaining potential of the UK continental shelf'

Hurricane Energy has tripled its estimate of how many barrels it will recover from the Greater Lancaster Area.

The company announced today that one billion barrels of recoverable oil could be contained within the field, 60 miles west of Shetland, with production beginning in 2019.

Hurricane Energy CEO Dr Robert Trice said; “This is a highly significant moment for Hurricane.

“We believe that the Greater Lancaster Area is a single hydrocarbon accumulation, making it the largest undeveloped discovery on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).”

The discovery is significantly larger than the average find in recent times, which has been about 25 million barrels.

Lancaster and Halifax lie between the Schiehallion and Solan fields, west of Shetland, and to the south-east of Foinaven.

Hurricane Energy claims to have found more oil in UK waters than any other exploration company over the past 10 years.

“This is extremely exciting and welcome news for the UK Continental Shelf,” said Deirdre Michie, chief executive of industry body Oil and Gas UK.

“Hurricane Energy’s announcement - coming just days after the Oil and Gas Authority awarded new licences to companies to explore for oil and gas in frontier areas - demonstrates the significant remaining potential of the UKCS.

“Signs of optimism, mainly led by exploration and production companies, are returning to the basin, which has worked hard to reduce its costs and improve efficiency.

“However, the UKCS needs fresh investment so it can capitalise on its potential, whether that be from new geological plays, or from enhanced recovery from existing fields.

“There are still up to 20bn barrels of oil and gas to go after in the UKCS and we believe that makes the basin a very positive investment prospect indeed.”

The discovery follows the news earlier this week that the North Sea oil and gas sector was a net drain on UK finances for the first time in 2016, as the industry recovered from the collapse in oil prices.