Top oil bosses have rallied behind Sir Ian Wood’s plan to keep the North Sea booming for another 20 years.
The industry veteran published the interim findings of his UK Continental Shelf review on Monday – claiming that an extra 4billion extra barrels of oil could be produced if government, industry and regulators work together.
He hit out at the in-fighting between rival companies – describing some commercial behaviour as “very damaging”.
He now wants to force firms to share information – and even assets – for the greater good of the UK Continental Shelf.
Those failing to do so could face tough new penalties, and could even lose their licence.
Oil and Gas UK chief Malcolm Webb said he thought oil firms would get on board.
Last night Marcus Richards, chief executive of Dana Petroleum, became the first industry leader to come out and back the scheme.
“The changing dynamics of the North Sea mean that operators, policymakers and regulators alike will have to think differently to maximise recovery and the report proposes many innovative ideas,” he said.
“We agree that greater collaboration and more efficient use of new and existing infrastructure is vital to the industry’s future success. We look forward to the publication of Sir Ian’s full report.”
EnQuest UK boss David Heslop is also backing it.
“Only by working together will we succeed,” he said.
Brian Nixon, chief executive of Decom North Sea, said: “We support Sir Ian’s call for a greater emphasis on collaboration.
“Recently, the decommissioning sector has seen a greater willingness to work together on a number of upcoming projects and this form of knowledge share is essential to all parts of the industry moving forward.”
Nigel Ross, business development director at leading independent subsea engineering and training firm Jee, said: “Jee wholeheartedly supports the findings of the Wood report as it states pretty hard and compelling evidence that unless action is taken now, revenue will be lost to the UK economy along with the knock-on impact to jobs in the supply chain.
“In order to realise the otherwise lost revenue the report refers to, lifetime extension is absolutely essential and integral to industry progression over the next 20 years to ensure maximum hydrocarbon recovery.”