Aberdeen Journal: Prof Alex Kemp talks about North Sea oil projections

Alex Kemp, professor of petroleum economics at the University of Aberdeen, sifts through the political spin to explain why there has been such wildly varying projections on remaining North Sea oil reserves.

The debate on Scottish independence comes at a time when the North Sea oil and gas industry is arguably at a crossroads in its historical evolution.

Currently, the sector reveals major paradoxes. Thus field investment is at all-time high levels with the supply chain being extremely busy.

But production has been falling at a brisk rate for some time and production efficiency (the ratio of actual production to the maximum efficient rate) has fallen from 81% in 2004 to 61% in 2012.
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