Drilling begins on 10,000th well in UK sector of North Sea
A MAJOR milestone in the history of the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry was reached yesterday as drilling began on the 10,000th well in the seabed off Britain’s coast.
The landmark well was announced by CDA Ltd, the oil and gas data management services subsidiary of the UK Offshore Operators Association which monitors the wells being drilled on the UK continental shelf.
The well is being drilled west of Shetland by BP on behalf of the owners of the Clair Field – BP, Conoco Phillips, Chevron, Shell UK and Amerada Hess.
Since the first North Sea well was drilled in 1964, 35 billion barrels of oil and gas have been recovered from reservoirs deep below the seabed in the one of the most hostile marine environments to be found in the world.
Over £330 billion (in today’s money) has been invested in the search for and production of the UK’s oil and gas reserves, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country, £215bn in tax revenues to the Treasury and saving the country billions on oil and gas imports.
