BP’s number-cruncher bows out with harsh words for Whitehall

Most of us have a vague idea that North Sea oil production has lately been slowing down. But by how much?

I looked up the answer in BP’s annual Statistical Review of World Energy, published earlier this month. Packed full of information about global energy markets, it is a highly authoritative data source in a notoriously murky area.


Well, the UK’s ability to extract the black gold is declining at an alarming rate. This country pumped an average of 1.63m barrels a day during 2006 – 10 per cent less than the year before.

In 2005, our North Sea yield dropped by 11 per cent – and by another 10 per cent again in 2004. In fact, the UK is now enduring the steepest and most sustained production cut of any major oil producer.

Telegraph