From stranded assets to active production: Making mature fields work harder
Cannell, W.L.B. (2025). From stranded assets to active production: Making mature fields work harder, in: SPE Offshore Europe 2025. Accelerating the transition to a better energy future, 2–5 September 2025, Aberdeen, Scotland. pp. SPE-226778-MS. https://dx.doi.org//10.2118/226778-MS
In: (2025). SPE Offshore Europe 2025. Accelerating the transition to a better energy future, 2–5 September 2025, Aberdeen, Scotland. Society of Petroleum Engineers: Surrey. , more
|
| Available in | Author |
|
Document type: Conference paper
|
| Abstract |
The UK North Sea has historically been a cornerstone of the UK's energy security, providing a significant portion of the nation's oil and gas production. However, as many fields in the North Sea reach maturity, production has begun to decline, resulting in increased technical challenges, ageing infrastructure, and the high cost of maintaining and operating offshore facilities, means that wells with ongoing production potential are progressively being shut-in, as shown in Fig. 1. The proportion of shut-in wells is significantly above the North Sea Transition Authorities (NSTA) target of 10% of well stock and is trending upwards, as shown in Fig. 2. Without significant investment in intervention activities, these reserves are destined to be left unrecovered. It is estimated that £10 billion (Woodmac, 2024) in pre-tax value remains locked within existing assets in the UK North Sea, offering substantial opportunities for those able to implement effective intervention strategies. |
|
