North Sea Alex Kemp used a celebration of his 50 years with Aberdeen University to remind guests there was still a major oil and gas bounty to plunder in UK waters.
Last night’s anniversary bash in the university’s King’s College Conference Centre was attended by some of the key players in the offshore industry.
Oil and Gas Authority chief executive Andy Samuel and BP North Sea regional president Mark Thomas were all there to mark Professor Kemp’s half century.
Aberdeen University principal and vice-chancellor Sir Ian Diamond gave the welcome speech.
But it was left to the star of the show to explain why he believes the North Sea is far from finished in terms of oil and gas production.
In a presentation comparing the current downturn with past oil price crashes, Prof Kemp said there were nearly 2billion barrels of oil equivalent waiting to be tapped in “a whole lot of small fiends.”
Stronger oil prices, further progress in reducing operating costs and a bigger commitment to research and development could see more of this resource becoming economically worthwhile to extract, he said.
He added: “Costs still need to come down a fair bit more. If that can be done, it raises the prospects for a lot of new field developments over the next few decades.”
Prof Kemp, now in his 70s, has penned more than 200 papers and books on oil and gas licensing and taxation. His two-volume The Official History of North Sea Oil and Gas was published in 2011.
He has also carried out consultancy work for oil and gas companies, governments, the World Bank, the United Nations, oil companies and the European Commission.
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