Shell links North Sea spend to collaboration

The UK-Dutch major stresses an ongoing commitment to its home waters, but with conditions attached

Shell plans to drill 20 wells on the UK continental shelf (UKCS) this year, spending $600mn, Wael Sawan, the firm's upstream director, told the SPE Offshore Europe 2019 conference. "But that commitment comes with strings—we need to work closer together," he warns. "Companies have moved on from the traditional adversarial relationship that existed [on the UKCS]. But we need to embrace technology more. There needs to be a 'next level' of cooperation," Sawan continues. And fellow major Total tells a similar story. "If we increase the level of collaboration, we can deploy new technology earlier, delivering new tools to meet the problems that we face," says the firm's CEO Patrick Pouyanne. Despit