A KEY offshore industry indicator has risen for the fourth consecutive year, representing additional production of 12 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) last year compared to 2015.
A report from regulator the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) shows production efficiency (PE) on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) at 73 per cent. The document compares actual production in 2016 to the theoretical maximum economic potential of the oilfields and infrastructure against previous years.
In its activity plan for 2017 and 2018, the OGA identified PE as a key performance indicator (KPI) for industry, with a target of 80 per cent for the UKCS by the end of 2018.
In recent years, the UKCS has reversed the declining trend in PE and overall production – between 2012 and 2016 losses have fallen by 157 million BOE while production has risen by 34 million BOE.
OGA operations director Gunther Newcombe said: “The industry’s combined persistence and focus on increased production efficiency in the UKCS has delivered an additional 12 million barrels in the past 12 months. This is playing an important role in delivering [Maximising Economic Recovery] MER UK. There remains more work to be done to meet the OGA and industry’s joint PE target of 80 per cent. In 2016, there was the potential to increase UKCS production by 29 million barrels. If these projects were completed, this would have increased UKCS PE by another three per cent.
“Operators in the UKCS today are working in a diverse landscape, many operating mature assets in increasingly interdependent fields with vastly differing scales of production and ranges of efficiency.
“This report highlights no correlation between total size of production and efficiency, with examples of highly efficient large producers, less efficient small producers and vice versa.
Newcombe added: “We will continue to support all operators in their efforts to further increase PE through the OGA’s tiered reviews and through the MER UK Asset Stewardship Task Force and its Production Efficiency Task Force, focusing on gas compression, shutdown and terminal infrastructure losses.”
Matt Nicol, who chairs the Production Efficiency Task Force (PETF) said: “This is great progress but we still have more to do to achieve the 80 per cent target Plant losses have reduced significantly again, and the PETF’s TAR and Gas Compression work groups have helped industry in these key areas. Export system losses are a concern, and the PETF formed the terminals work group in 2016 to focus on this issue. I’d like to thank all the industry volunteers who provide their time and knowledge to support the PETF, and it’s great to see their hard work making a real difference.”
Mike Tholen, of industry body Oil and Gas UK, added: “Improving production efficiency has been a firm priority for the industry over recent years.
“Oil and Gas UK set up a special task force to improve performance and to ensure good practice is shared and it is encouraging to see these efforts over the past four years have helped to improve production from existing assets.
“The PETF is concentrating on improving hub shutdowns, gas compression and terminals’ performance to safely minimise operations downtime and maximise flow rates to achieve the target of 80 per cent PE in 2018.”
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