OE 2017: OGA report outlines how UKCS oil recovery rates can be improved

Offshore staff

ABERDEEN, UK– An estimated 900 MMbbl of oil could be extracted from the UK continental shelf (UKCS) by increasing the recovery factor (RF) of a prioritized selection of large oil fields, according to a new report from the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA).

The OGA’s Recovery Factor Benchmarking report presents an estimate of the current expected recovery factor for UKCS oil fields and highlights the ongoing work the OGA is undertaking with industry to identify how economic recovery can be increased. Recovery factor is the overall proportion of oil expected to be extracted from the UKCS.

The current forecast RF of the UKCS is around 43%, which means that more than half of the oil that has been discovered is left within the reservoir. Over time, average benchmarked RF performance has increased; but with field complexity also increasing over time, the result is that the overall RF has not significantly changed. Small improvements to these rates could make a major difference to overall reserves, fully aligned with maximizing economic recovery.

By looking at the potential of a number of prioritized fields, the OGA estimates that an additional 900 MMbbl of oil could be produced through increases to RF as a result of improved asset stewardship.

OGA chief executive Andy Samuel said: “This new benchmarking analysis further underlines the significant prize remaining across the UKCS, in this case across a number of producing fields. The OGA will be sharing our results with operators to highlight and quantify opportunities where increasing recovery factor should lead to increased value in line with MER UK. These data help us understand RF performance across the basin, prioritize our asset stewardship reviews with operators, and identify new opportunities for improvement and sharing good practices.”

Dave Lynch, BP’s vice president reservoir development, said: “The recovery factor benchmarking analysis produced by the OGA will be of huge value to highlight and develop the potential in existing, producing fields. We will be using this benchmarking work within BP to maximize economic recovery from our assets.”

As part of the OGA’s Asset Stewardship Strategy, Belltree, a specialist upstream oil and gas consultancy, was appointed by the OGA to develop recovery factor benchmarks for oil and gas fields on the UKCS. The company’s proprietary oil and gas benchmarking software tool, bMark, was adopted by the OGA to help maximize economic recovery for the UK.

09/07/2017