Official figures published yesterday show UK oil and gas production grew by 4.8% during 2016, driven by new field start-ups.
It is a welcome boost for the beleaguered offshore sector which has suffered during the oil downturn, although the longer term trend for the North Sea is of declining output.
Adam Davey, market intelligence manager at industry body Oil and Gas UK, said: “It’s good to see the latest production figures released today support the 5% increase that we recently reported in our Business Outlook.
“The data also shows promising provisional figures for January, providing an early sign that the upward trend in production will continue into this year.
“These figures are a great testament to the work that has gone into improving production efficiency and unlocking new developments on the UKCS (UK continental shelf) over the past few years.”
Renewable electricity generation totalled
82.8 terawatt-hours last year, a decrease of 1% on 2015.