Economics of Independence Oil and Gas

Sir Ian Wood predicts 25bn barrels of oil still to come from North Sea

Sir Ian Wood predicts 25bn barrels of oil

Sir Ian Wood is on record as stating that there are 25bn barrels of oil still to come from the North Sea.  This is one thousand million more barrels of oil than stated as the upper target by the Scottish Government.

On the day that the industry body Oil & Gas UK stated: “We remain of the view that there could be up to 24 billion barrels of oil and gas to recover,” it has emerged that Sir Ian Wood had previously stated in an interview with the BBC that the North Sea could still produce another 25 billion barrels of oil.

During the interview, given as he retired from Chairmanship of the Wood Group, Sir Ian’s expertise and in-depth knowledge was demonstrated when he said:

“As far back as I can remember in terms of UK industrial activity, every year oil and gas has been way ahead of any other industry.

“We’ve produced 41 billion barrels. If you look ahead, we could still produce another 25 billion barrels – at $100 a barrel, that’s $2,500bn.

“If we don’t get it right, we’ll produce about half that – we could lose $1,250bn of economic contribution to the UK.”

Commenting on this Kenny Anderson, Leader of Business for Scotland in Aberdeen, said: “We have stated that 24bn barrels of oil is a reasonable target to extract if the North Sea is managed professionally and revenues maximised.”

He continued: “Our sources for these estimates have included Oil and Gas UK, Professor Alex Kemp, Sir Donald McKay and many other leading forecasters and now it seems Sir Ian Wood himself once predicted the higher figure of 25bn barrels left to produce.

“One thing is clear, all of the forecasts of the real experts – including Sir Ian’s pessimistic one – are far, far higher than those published by the Westminster Government and claimed by Better Together.  The North Sea represents a huge opportunity to Scotland as an independent country if we move from Westminster’s cash cow approach to one of intelligent stewardship in an independent Scotland.”

An excerpt of the video can be found on Business for Scotland’s YouTube channel here http://youtu.be/kIIW6hg–AA

and the BBC link here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-20140345

Join Business for Scotland – Sign the business declaration

About the author

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp is the Founder and Chief Executive of Business for Scotland. Before becoming CEO of Business for Scotland Gordon ran a business strategy and social media, sales & marketing consultancy.

With a degree in business, marketing and economics, Gordon has worked as an economic development planning professional, and in marketing roles specialising in pricing modelling and promotional evaluation for global companies (including P&G).

Gordon benefits (not suffers) from dyslexia, and is a proponent of the emerging New Economics School. Gordon contributes articles to Business for Scotland, The National and Believe in Scotland.

2 Comments

Leave a Comment