>
> For anyone keeping a score-card on these sorts of things, here's
> the latest
> figures regarding UK Energy consumption--the full article can be found at:
> http://199.97.97.163/IMDS%PMAINTL0%read%/home/content/users/imds/f
> eeds/m2c/2
> 001/07/02/m2p/0000-0246-m2p_200107021704181_3
>
> (Beware the bad parsed URL)
>
>
The real story here is the continuing stark decline in North Sea oil and gas
production:
OIL: QUARTER 1 2001 - Total indigenous UK production of crude oil and NGLs
decreased by 13.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2001 compared with a year
earlier, with bad weather affecting production along with the general
decline in production from older established fields.
.............
GAS: QUARTER 1 2001 - Comparing the first quarter of 2001 with the same period a year ago, total indigenous UK production of natural gas decreased by 3.4 per cent.
-- The large increase in gas imports in the first quarter of 2001 came largely through the interconnector with Belgium, leading to a corresponding decrease in exports.
-- Demand for gas (unadjusted for temperature) in the first quarter of 2001 was 2.7 per cent higher than a year earlier. This increased demand was met by higher imports and greater stock draw rather than indigenous production.
N Sea offshore oil and gas is now in severe and seemingly final decline; the depletion rates are accelerating and the industry is squeezing the last production out of many tiny fields; the giant like the Forties have long ago gone.
Depletion in the Gulf of Mexico is showing similarly signs of decline and the situation in the US natgas sector seems to be turning catastrophic. Production is again falling sharply despite the most intensive drilling programme for a generation. It's not just the Bush-Cheney conspiracy: US oil and gas is in serious difficulties and there is no relief coming from Non-OPEC offshore plays, as in the 1970s.
Mark Jones