ASPO the Association for the Study of Peak Oil

Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Oil Depletion, Paris, France, May 26-27 2003,
Edited by K. Aleklett, C. Campbell and J. Meyer, www.peakoil.net/iwood2003 .

The North Sea – A Victim of Depletion
Chris Skrebowski

·    Introduction of speaker and his background in the industry.
·    The role of journalists as observers who are free of corporate or political pressures.
·    The documentation of the North Sea. The best public data of any province?
·    ASPO as the only real alternative data source to the companies or the ‘political’ reports of the IEA, EIA, USGC etc.
·    Getting the North Sea in proportion. The size of its reserves and production flows and the pattern of change. The relative size of the North Sea’s largest fields in comparison to other fields and provinces around the world.
·    The Geopolitical importance of North Sea production, particularly as a counterweight to OPEC over the last 25 years.
·    The importance and outlook for North Sea gas production with the UK set to be a net importer by 2005/6 while Norway is set to become a major exporter. And Denmark and the Netherlands struggle to maintain production flows.
·    The importance and outlook for North Sea oil production now that the UK is entering its 4th year of decline, while Norway and Denmark are now starting their production declines and the tiny Dutch production swings around on a single new field’s production.
·    The flight of the oil majors to richer and more productive provinces as the ‘bottom feeders’ come in to squeeze the rocks for the remaining North Sea reserves.
·    What we can learn from the rise and fall of North Sea production in terms of future global production.
·    The geopolitical implications of declining North Sea production and the likely consequences of Europe’s increasing import dependence for both oil and gas.

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