At 13:33 21/10/2011, you wrote:
Interesting discovery in the North Sea.... May
have implications for some of us.
Barry
It will certainly have implications for Norway in
20/30 years' time, whose old folk are likely to
be the only ones in the advanced world to benefit
from a real, fully-invested social security fund
purposely put aside from oil revenues, unlike the
notional funds of other countries which will
depend, on average, on one worker paying for
between two and three old folk. Some hope!
Keith
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15402145>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15402145
21 October 2011 Last updated at 07:50 ET
Statoil doubles estimated size of North Sea find
A Norwegian oil rig
North Sea oil has been declining rapidly
* Norwegian oil firm Statoil has said there
are twice the oil reserves it previously
estimated in its newly discovered North Sea field.
Statoil now says the Aldous Major South field
contains between 900 million and 1.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
The find is linked to the Avaldsnes field
operated by Swedish firm Lundin Petroleum.
The fields mark one of the largest ever
discoveries in the North Sea, which has seen declining output in recent years.
"Aldous/Avaldsnes is a giant, and one of the
largest finds ever on the Norwegian continental
shelf," said Tim Dodson, executive vice president for Exploration at Statoil.
Much of the discovery is in shallower water,
making the oil potentially easier to extract and at lower risk.
"This giant discovery has been made in shallow
waters in the North Sea. Because of this the
value is particularly high," said Erik Haugane,
chief executive of Det Norske Oljeselskap, who
are partners with Statoil on the Aldous field.
The other partners in the project are Lundin
Petroleum and Norwegian state-owned Petoro.
Analysis
Damian Kahya Business reporter, BBC News
The huge Aldous and Avaldsnes discoveries have
come as a big surprise to the industry.
It is rated as one of the five largest
discoveries in the North Sea yet - with previous
big ones all dating back decades.
Investments in these fields could spur an
increase in activity in the North Sea, boosting
tax revenue not only for Norway but for the UK as well.
New technology and the developed infrastructure
of the North Sea has already allowed smaller
firms to take over existing UK fields and
extract more oil than previously thought possible.
But new drilling in the UK is likely to be in
far deeper water and so more expensive.
And whilst drilling in the Norwegian part of the
North Sea has already picked up, analysis from
Deutsche Bank suggests the recovery in the UK will be slower.
Falling production
The North Sea has seen oil production fall
sharply in recent years as old fields are exhausted.
Figures from the BP statistical bulletin for
2010 show UK oil production was down 7.7% and UK
gas output 4.3% lower. Norwegian production fell even faster.
But recent finds may help reduce the rate of
decline - even if they are unlikely to increase
production back to previous levels.
In the UK the new drilling has been concentrated
in the deeper water West of Shetland area.
Earlier this month, BP announced a £4.5bn
investment in the Clair Ridge scheme, and
earlier this year the company unveiled a £3bn
redevelopment of the Schielhallion and Loyal
fields, also to the west of the Shetland Islands.
In shallower water the Norwegian find will cost less to extract.
"It would make a difference to the decline
rate," said Professor Alex Kemp from the University of Aberdeen.
"There will be quite a big increase, big enough
to at least moderate the decline rate [in UK and
Norwegian production] and possibly stop it for a few years."
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/10/
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