North Sea oil production has slumped by more than 8%, the Press and Journal can reveal.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change said yesterday that indigenous UK crude production was 8.1% lower in Q3 of 2013 compared with the same quarter a year earlier. Gas production is also down 3.8%.
The figures mount further pressure on Chancellor George Osborne, who is under increasing pressure to give the industry new tax breaks to stimulate exploration.
Oil and Gas UK boss Malcolm Webb said last week that “urgent action” was needed from the Treasury and energy firms to prevent a “collapse in spending”.
There has been a huge slump in the number of exploration wells being started in UK waters.
In 2006 and 2007, the number of new wells opened up reached 48, and the total was still as high as 47 in 2008.
But since then, exploration has fallen back and in 2013 just 15 wells were drilled.
“This clearly illustrates the parlous state of exploration on the UK Continental Shelf,” Mr Webb said.
Yesterday DECC put the fall in UK production down to a “general decline” in the North Sea.
“In particular, crude oil production in August 2013 was around a fifth lower, this is partly due to an unplanned closure at the Buzzard oil field,” DECC said in a statement.
“Oil production over the last 18 months has been impacted by maintenance and other production issues over and above the general decline in North Sea production.”
A spokesman added: “Despite a decrease in indigenous production, imports of crude oil and NGL’s decreased slightly compared with the same quarter a year earlier, this was driven by a decrease in demand. Imports decreased by 4.2% compared with the same quarter a year earlier.”
Exports decreased by 1.1% to 6.7million tonnes.
Prime Minister David Cameron has hinted that new tax breaks could be offered to stimulate North Sea exploration and help safeguard thousands of jobs.
He signalled that measures would be considered to boost the offshore industry, telling MPs that Chancellor George Osborne had been listening “very carefully” to calls for a tax system to maximise oil and gas recovery.
The Treasury has refused to be drawn on any measures to boost exploration, saying: “We don’t give detailed commentaries on what we are or aren’t looking at around the Budget.”
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