Discoveries and Development The global peak in oil and gas production for UK occurred in 1999 and 2000, probably delayed by four or five years by the Piper Alpha tragedy, and will not be approached, far less exceeded, again. There have been two other local peaks, each one preceded by about ten to twelve years by a local peak in the number of discoveries. The UK Oil and Gas Authority does not publish individual field resources, but it’s a fair bet that the large fields were discovered early on and most of the recent discoveries are small, near field tie-ins. There are presently only a couple of new licences under development, both single wells, but a few more being redeveloped (not explicitly shown). The significant discoveries that have not been developed, especially the older ones, are either small or complicated developments. The unlicensed […]