BP and Shell’s recent North Sea asset sales do not mark the beginning of an exodus from the basin by the oil majors, the head of the Oil and Gas Authority said yesterday.
OGA chief executive Andy Samuel said the region’s landscape had changed dramatically in the past two years and efforts to remove barriers to investment were paying off.
A month ago, Shell announced it had agreed to sell assets that contributed more than half of the company’s 2016 UK North Sea production for £3billion to Chrysaor.
It came one week after EnQuest snapped up a 25% stake in BP’s North Sea Magnus field and a 3% interest in the Sullom Voe Terminal.
Read: North Sea majors doing the right thing, says Premier Oil CEO
“A lot has happened in the last two years − we are seeing a real change in ownership,” Mr Samuel said at Southern North Sea Conference and Exhibition in Norwich.
“We’ve seen BP and Shell doing a lot of work on their portfolios. But they’re not exiting the basin. They’re exiting some parts so they can focus on others and continue to invest very heavily in a way that we very much encourage in areas such as west of Shetland.
“So we really are seeing a change in the landscape, a bit of diversification and some new money coming in.”
Read: BP boss hails west of Shetland North Sea’s next chapter
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