BP’s two new oil discoveries prove there is still life in the “old dog” that is the North Sea, an analyst said yesterday.
Fiona Legate, of energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie (Woodmac), also said the development showed BP was “clearly still committed” to the UK, despite recent asset sales to EnQuest and Serica.
The discoveries were made at Capercaillie in the central North Sea and Achmelvich, west of Shetland.
BP owns 100% of Capercaillie and 52.6% of Achmelvich. The company is evaluating the well data and weighing up options for developing the fields.
Ms Legate said: “This is great news for the UKCS but the materiality of these discoveries is unknown at this stage.
“It’s early days in terms of assessing development options for the two discoveries and further drilling may be need to firm up future plans.
“Both fields are near producing infrastructure and could be fast-tracked into production in the near term.”
BP also said it expected to double its North Sea production to 200,000bpd by 2020.
Woodmac has estimated BP’s UK output will be closer to 180,000bpd by that time, but Ms Legate said future investments could help plug the gap.
Ms Legate also said the UK should adopt the Norwegian model of announcing reserves at the time of discovery.
UK companies have up to five years to reveal well results once the discovery has been made.
Ms Legate said the lack of transparency on new oil and gas finds was a “blocker to investment”.
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