A senior official at the UK oil and gas regulator has signalled that the North Sea industry should expect “a big push” in the coming months aimed at improving the performance of existing and new development wells and to encourage more to be drilled.

Gunther Newcombe, operations director at the UK's Oil & Gas Authority (OGA), said 30% of the active well stock on the UK continental shelf is currently shut in and many wells that are in production do not perform as well they could, leading to too much lost output and wasted money.

The OGA has recently set up a new body in a bid to rectify the issue, and this formed part of of high-level discussions between oil and gas industry officials and politicians in Aberdeen last week.

“There is a big push coming on trying to maximise the efficiency of the well stock that we have and also to improve drilling performance,” Newcombe told Upstream.

He was speaking after a meeting at the OGA’s offices in Aberdeen last week of the MER UK Forum, a twice-yearly gathering of politicians, regulators and senior industry officials that co-ordinates the tripartite MER UK strategy to maximise the economic recovery of the North Sea’s remaining reserves.

“We produce 1.74 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 2500 wells, and we have 30% on top of that that could be producing. And the ones that are producing could possibly be producing more,” Newcombe added.

“So, do the maths. Having 600 wells shut in right now is a huge number.

“We need to be better at drilling wells, we need to be doing more wells and we need to be better with the current well stock we have, because the intervention and surveillance rates are far too low.”

Newcombe said analysis by the OGA showed there is currently 23% non-productive time from existing wells, which was costing the industry £250 million ($305 million) per year.

Meanwhile, half of the wells spudded on the UK continental shelf so far this year have had to be re-spudded, the majority due to mechanical reasons.

The OGA has set up the new Well Delivery Task Force to oversee the issue. It is now one of seven MER task forces aimed at driving improvements in key areas to deliver the MER UK strategy, with which operators are legally obliged to comply.

The new wells task force will be in place in the fourth quarter, and work groups are already in action.

Newcombe recently announced that he will retire at the end of March after nearly five years with the regulator.

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Development drilling drive in UK