North Sea Energy Upstarts Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

Young upstarts seldom have respect for conventional wisdom, and small independent oil and gas companies in the U.K.’s North Sea are proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Despite being one of the most heavily explored and exploited hydrocarbon basins in the world, leading figures in the offshore oil and gas industry say there are still riches to be extracted from beneath the North Sea. In many cases it is small independent oil companies that are proving them right.

Taking advantage of high oil and gas prices and improved exploration and drilling technology, an influx of small and dynamic independent oil companies have caused a “sea change” in the industry, and could dramatically improve prospects for future production of the U.K. continental shelf.

But industry observers say the thorny issue of who is responsible for decommissioning costs of aging offshore pipelines and platforms could stop the independents in their tracks and lead to valuable resources being abandoned forever beneath the sea.

Dow Jones Newswires