Radical new thinking call in search for last oil drops

A NEW and radical approach to the recovery of Britain’s remaining oil and gas reserves will be needed if the full potential of the “black gold” remaining in the North Sea and the waters west of Shetland is to be realised, the Oil & Gas UK report states.

The equivalent of more than 40 billion barrels of oil and gas have already been recovered from the UK’s continental shelf (UKCS).

And between 14 and 24 billion boe (barrels of oil equivalent) have still to be recovered .

But the report warns: “To recover volumes approaching the 24 million boe – the top of Oil and Gas UK’s range – will require a radical approach to the UK continental shelf (UKCS) embracing a whole range of new technical and commercial innovations to be applied to both new and existing fields.

“It is currently predicted that an increase in overall recovery rate for existing fields of 2.5 percentage points would cause another one billion barrels of reserves to be recovered.

“This could ultimately see new forms of technology being used offshore which have until now only been deployed onshore, such as chemical, polymer or CO² flooding, as well as so-called ‘tight’ gas production.

“These technologies are still deemed to be uneconomic for tertiary techniques of enhanced oil recovery. Oil and gas prices will have to increase significantly, combined with a radical change in the fiscal regime, if such technologies are to be applied to the UKCS.”