Oil & Gas Reserves
UK oil reserves estimated at 2.8bn tonnes
Oil reserves, United Kingdom
The upper range of the UK's total oil reserves was estimated to be 2.8 billion tonnes at the end of 2007. However, of this, only 0.5 billion tonnes was proven, that is, known with the greatest degree of certainty to be technically and commercially producible.
The total includes an estimate of between 0.4 and 1.6 billion tonnes of resources which have yet to be discovered, but which may exist in areas of the UK continental shelf. Estimates of remaining UK oil reserves are therefore uncertain, but reserves do show an overall decline between 1998 and 2007 (as would be expected given the extraction of reserves over the period).
Levels of oil extraction amounted to 77 million tonnes in 2007, similar to the level in 2006.
Estimates of gas reserves are made on the same basis as oil and are similarly uncertain, totalling up to 1,979 billion cubic metres (bcm) at the end of 2007; this is down 1.8 per cent from 2,016 bcm in 2006. Proven reserves were also lower at 343 bcm in 2007 compared with 412 bcm a year earlier. Levels of gas extraction stood at 71 bcm in 2007, the lowest since 1996. Source: Office for National Statistics; Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
Notes: Reserves known with the highest degree of certainty are described as 'proven'. 'Probable' reserves are known reserves which are not yet proven but are estimated to have a greater than 50 per cent chance of being technically and commercially producible. 'Possible' reserves have a significant but less than 50 per cent chance of being producible.
Oil reserves include both oil and the liquids and liquefied products obtained from gas fields, gas-condensate fields and from the associated gas in oil fields. Gas reserves are the quantity of gas expected to be available for sale from dry gas fields, gas-condensate fields and oil fields with associated gas. Gas which is expected to be flared or used offshore is not included.
Environmental accounts provide data on the environmental impact of UK economic activity, on the use of resources from the environment in the economy, and on associated taxes and subsidies.
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Environmental Accounts