The UK continental shelf in the North Sea has recently drawn attention with several significant asset sale deals that have seen Chevron reduce its exposure to the legacy production area and small independents gain more ground. Now an academic study has estimated there may be between 15 and 17 billion barrels of oil equivalent still to be pumped from the North Sea over the next three decades although overall production is set for a steady decline. Professor and Alexander Kemp and Dr Linda Stephen from the University of Aberdeen, on request from the Oil and Gas Authority, recently completed a study involving economic modeling based on two scenarios featuring crude oil prices at US$50 and US$60 a barrel, respectively. Nothing the favorable effect of lower production costs in the area, the authors of the study report the development of these resources would cost a few hundred billion dollars, assuming […]