Clear shift in the types of investment opportunity in the UK North Sea
Time running out for UK North Sea
Smaller projects provide opportunities, but basin maturity and policy shifts amid political uncertainty signal a significant decline by the end of the decade
The UK North Sea has been battered and bruised. First by Covid, then by environmentalists, and finally by a traditionally supportive Conservative government bringing in the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) to 2028—and, just this March, announcing an extension to 2029. The decision to approve drilling at the $3.8b Rosebank project in the West of Shetland gave a confidence boost to the fragile UK North Sea oil sector towards the latter half of 2023. Containing around 300m bl of oil and owned by Norway’s Equinor and the UK’s Ithaca Energy, it may be one of the last large undeveloped discoveries in UK waters. But this should be viewed as a stay of execution rather than any last hurrah. “Post-Rosebank,
Also in this section
30 April 2025
While economic weakness and the electric vehicles trend have hit oil demand growth, petrochemicals and jet fuel show more nuanced changes across the barrel
28 April 2025
Rewards offered by investment in the sector must be balanced by its energy consumption amid an increasingly gas-hungry domestic market
25 April 2025
PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC are aiming to rebalance their energy mixes but face technically difficult deepwater and shale task
25 April 2025
EACOP has overcome a significant hurdle, with a group of regional banks providing an initial financing tranche for a scheme that has attracted criticism from environmental campaigners
