North Sea FIDs suffer slippage

Two of the three most anticipated project green lights are postponed and a third looks at risk

The North Sea’s much-vaunted post-2014 oil price crash renaissance is under significant strain from 2020’s more extreme version. Already, two of the year’s most anticipated FIDs have been postponed. A third may also slip. In late March, UK independent Siccar Point deferred the planned sanction date for its Cambo project to 2021 “in light of the unprecedented worldwide macroeconomic dislocation resulting from Covid-19”. Cambo is one of the largest undeveloped fields on the UK continental shelf (UKCS). But it is also important in that its development will create infrastructure for other, smaller West of Shetland (WoS) prospects. Its delay could have knock-on effects beyond just pushing back pr