UK to Lead New Gas Projects: GlobalData

Despite the low cycle that the market is facing, a total of 30 crude and natural gas projects are expected to start operations in the North Sea by 2020, according to a report by research firm GlobalData.

It said April 11 that the UK will lead with a total of 19 projects, followed by Norway with 10 and Denmark with a single project.

Upstream analyst for GlobalData, Luis Pereira, said: “Of the 30 upcoming North Sea projects, 22 are crude oil projects and eight are gas projects. Norway will dominate oil production, while the UK will dominate gas production. The key planned projects in the North Sea are expected to contribute around 690,000 barrels of oil/day to global crude production and about 1.255bn ft³/day to global gas production in 2020.”

The planned projects in the North Sea are expected to require a total capital expenditure of $56.7bn, of which over half (54%) is expected to be spent between 2017 and 2020.

(Credit: Statoil)

Norway will lead in terms of capex, spending about $19.3bn during the forecast period, of which nearly $12.9bn will be spent on Johan Sverdrup (pictured above). At the company level Statoil will have the highest capex spending and is expected to spend a total of $19.1bn on key planned projects through 2020.

According to Pereira, ten more fields are lined up to start production in the North Sea between 2021 and 2023. This will represent a further capex investment of $7.5bn in the region, and will add 1bn boe to the recoverable reserves.

In all, 38 key planned projects in the North Sea are expected to contribute around 880,000 barrels/day of oil production and around 1.3bn ft³/d of gas production in 2025. The UK has more than 25 planned projects, the highest in the region, followed by Norway and Denmark.

William Powell