Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Production efficiency (PE) across the UK continental shelf (UKCS) has risen for a fifth consecutive year, according to a report from the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA).
PE across the shelf was 74% in 2017, 1% better than in 2016, and this helped lift overall production by an additional 12 MMboe, or 32,000 boe/d.
The report compares actual production to the theoretical maximum economic potential of the various fields and their associated infrastructure to previous years’ performance.
Total UKCS production potential in 2017 (if each field produced to its maximum capability 100% of the time) was 800 MMboe, slightly higher than in 2016, due to newly onstream fields coming online, counteracting natural decline in maturing fields.
The figure for well losses, which represented 10% of total potential lost in 2012, fell to 4% in 2017, although the recent trend in well losses has been relatively flat, the report said.
Reduced plant losses were the greatest contributor to improvements PE, down to 15% in 2017 against 26% in 2012.
However, export losses did increase in the intervening period and have overtaken wells as the second largest loss category.
Regionally, PE improved by 7% across operations in the Southern North Sea (compared with 2016), after a dip the previous year.
07/18/2018
