Energy Minister to Tell North Sea Oil Firms to Drill or be Damned

ENERGY minister Malcolm Wicks will take a hardline stance on mature North Sea oil fields this week, pledging to revoke exploration licences if companies fail to develop their assets quickly enough.

In a report to be published this week by the government’s North Sea task force PILOT, Wicks will reveal details of a new scheme that allows him to force oil companies to invest in fields where evidence of oil has been found.

Under the terms of the Stewardship initiative, the Department of Trade and Industry has greater powers to order companies to give up or sell assets that are not being drilled.

Wicks will also warn that unless such drastic moves are taken the North Sea could be extinct as an oil-producing basin by 2035 – with billions of barrels of oil left under the seabed.
Scotsman.com