Oil and gas industry
Britain has been self-sufficient in oil and gas for the last 17 years. Today new technology is employed to reduce the cost of finding and producing oil and gas, and to give the fields a longer productive life.
Current forecasts predict that Britain can expect to remain self-sufficient in oil for at least another 10 years, and selfsufficient in gas well into this century. Over the next 25 years, the industry expects to make 130 new discoveries, and 240 new developments.
Working in the oil and gas industry
Different types of company employ people offshore:
Operating companies hold the exploration and production licences and operate the production facilities. Some of them are household names, but others are less well known. Most of them are international companies, working in many different parts of the world.
Drilling companies are contracted to undertake the drilling work, and often operate and maintain their own mobile drilling rigs. Like the operating companies drilling company tends to work globally.
Major contractors provide integrated operations and maintenance services to the operating companies. On some installations they employ almost all the regular offshore personnel (the 'core crew'). Some of these contractors are huge international companies, while others are small by comparison.
FPSO operators operate and maintain floating production storage and offloading units. These look like ships, but are designed to remain on station for months or even years on end, and are packed with equipment for processing oil and gas.
Service companies provide specialist assistance to both operating and drilling companies, e.g. well service firms, drilling mud suppliers, cementing companies, well testing specialists, seismic firms, divers, caterers, etc.