LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Britain’s oil and gas output rose in 2015 for the first time since the turn of the millennium, industry body Oil & Gas UK said on Monday, reversing a declining trend but coming as oil prices are trading at a seven-year low.
The industry group, which represents oil producers active in the North Sea such as BP, Shell or ExxonMobil , expects British oil and gas production to have risen 7-8 percent, much higher than a 3-4 percent increase it predicted in September.
Britain’s oil and gas output has more than halved in the past 15 years due to easy-to-reach resources running low and a lack of investment in new areas.
But a renewed push to explore new areas of the North Sea over the past four years has meant new fields started up in 2015, including Taqa’s Cladhan oil field in resource-rich waters near the Shetland Islands, and boosted output year on year.
“The industry-wide focus on improving production efficiency coupled with investments of more than 50 billion pounds over the last four years to bring new fields on stream across the last twelve months is paying off and yielding a better result,” said Oil and Gas UK chief executive Deirdre Michie in a statement.
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