The North Sea oil industry has been given a lesson on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
Executives, geologists, operators, investors and developers were schooled on the subject at the Oil and Gas Authority’s Technology Forum in Aberdeen.
The booked out event drew more than 180 people, who were told that technology was “critical” to unlocking every last drop of oil held in the UK continental shelf (UKCS).
It comes ahead of the November deadline for the 30th licensing round, focussed on mature areas of the UKCS – some of which were last offered for licensing more than 40 years ago.
The November deadline is expected to bring about the most significant offshore round in recent decades.
And Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) operations director Gunther Newcombe said adapting technology to fit the remaining North Sea resources would be seen as a major factor in who is awarded what acreage.
He set the scene to the plenary session, when he said: “Do we have a lot of potential remaining in the UKCS still remaining? Absolutely yes.
“Another good backdrop to this is that production is up, hopefully 1.7million barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of this year and also production efficiency is up to 73%.
“We’ve got 14 or so new developments coming on stream this year so it’s quite a vibrant UKCS here that we have in the 30th round.
“There’s still plenty of ‘yet-to’find- potential out there.