Industry rebuffs Edinburgh uni's pessimistic UK oil and gas report
20 Dec 2017
UK oil and gas industry leaders have reacted strongly to an academic report that claimed the UK’s key energy reserves could expire within a decade.
Professor Roy Thompson of the University of Edinburgh Geosciences school suggested that just 10% of the country’s original recoverable oil and gas reserves remain.
Deirdre Michie, Oil & Gas UK chief executive, replied: “There are up to 20 billion barrels of oil and gas resources still to be recovered on the UK Continental Shelf, based on production forecasts provided by the Oil and Gas Authority.
“Production has increased over the last two years and we expect that to continue to rise.”
Professor Thompson had also questioned the viability of domestic fracking, stating that the geological composition in English and Scottish sites was unsuitable for extraction at scale.
There are some poor assumptions made in the research around revenue per well
Ken Cronin, chief executive, UK Onshore Oil and Gas
Not only are the sites close to populated areas, they also failed on the eight geological prerequisites for digging, warned Thompson.
While he emphasised his finding were data-driven, the comments drew further criticism from those representing the onshore industry.
Ken Cronin, chief executive of UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG) chief executive responded:
“There are some poor assumptions made in the research around revenue per well. The 1.8 billion cubic feet (bcf) estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) assumption includes some of the poorer performing wells of the US.
“Analysis of the top six performing shale gas plays of the US reveals an average EUR of 5bcf, over double the estimate. The use of this data noticeably reduces the inflated percentage cost projections conducted in this study.”
