Chinese investments in the North Sea China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC, has stakes in multiple North Sea oil fields including one of the UK's highest producers Buzzard. CNOOC has further stakes in Golden Eagle, and the combined platform which oversees the Scott, Telford and Rochelle fields.
The North Sea contains the majority of Europe's oil reserves and is one of the largest non- OPEC producing regions in the world. While most reserves lie beneath waters belonging to the United Kingdom and Norway, some fields belong to Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany.
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), acts as the offshore oil and gas sector's independent regulator. Its role is to regulate, influence and promote the offshore oil and gas industry, in order to maximise the economic recovery of the UK's oil and gas resources.
Saudi Arabia is China's main crude oil supplier. In 2021, China imported nearly 81 million metric tons worth of crude oil from the Middle Eastern producing giant. In fact, the majority of China's oil imports originated from countries in the Middle East.
Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia as China's biggest oil supplier with refiners taking advantage of cheap barrels to feed rebounding demand in Asia's biggest economy following the end of Covid Zero.
China has ramped up its oil purchases as an expected recovery in the nation's crude consumption gathers pace following the end of its strict Covid Zero policy, boosting optimism in the outlook for global demand.
There are still substantial known oil and gas reserves in the North Sea left to be exploited. According to a report produced by the Oil and Gas Authority last September, known reserves of oil and gas in the North Sea at the end of 2020 amounted to 4.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE).
North Sea oil and gas production will 'effectively end' in next 20 years according to minister. A Scottish Government minister said that the production of oil and gas in the North Sea was declining. Michael Matheson said it was expected to be around a third of 1999 levels by 2035.
The Continental Shelf Act 1964 and the Continental Shelf (Jurisdiction) Order 1968 defined the UK North Sea maritime area to the north of latitude 55 degrees north as being under the jurisdiction of Scots law and sp that 90% of UK oil resources was considered under Scottish jurisdiction.
London-listed gas producer IOG has committed to sell its share of production from the Elgood gasfield to the Russian state energy company's UK-based trading and marketing arm for two years. Elgood, in which IOG has a 50 per cent holding, is scheduled to start production within the next fortnight.
They are majority owned (51 per cent) by Russia, along with German, Dutch and French stakeholders. They were financed by a consortium of companies from Russia, Germany, France, Austria and the Netherlands. It was the first pipeline that bypassed Ukraine and Poland to deliver Russian natural gas directly to West Europe.
Breadcrumb navigation. Scotland is thought to be the largest producer of oil and the second largest producer of gas in Europe. The oil and gas industry currently supports around 196,000 jobs in Scotland.
Venezuela has the largest amount of oil reserves in the world with more than 300 billion barrels in reserve. Saudi Arabia has the second-largest amount of oil reserves in the world with 297.5 billion barrels.
Norway has used its North Sea revenues to amass a sovereign wealth fund that will help the country adjust to an ageing population. Britain used its oil and gas receipts to pay for mass unemployment, tax cuts and current government spending. Boasts that the black gold would retool British industry proved utterly hollow.
The biggest Russian oil company is Rosneft followed by Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, Gazprom Neft and Tatneft. All oil trunk pipelines (except Caspian Pipeline Consortium) are owned and operated by the state-owned monopoly Transneft and oil products pipeline are owned and operated by its subsidiary Transnefteproduct.
It is predicted that we will run out of fossil fuels in this century. Oil can last up to 50 years, natural gas up to 53 years, and coal up to 114 years. Yet, renewable energy is not popular enough, so emptying our reserves can speed up.
The Berkut oil rig, located off the Russian Pacific coast near the island of Sakhalin, is the largest oil platform in the world. Weighing approximately 200,000 tons and situated 35 meters deep from the seafloor, this engineering marvel has an estimated maximum oil extraction capacity of 4.5 million tons annually.
SCOTLAND'S production of oil and gas will “effectively end” in the next 20 years - and ministers will consider speeding this up, the Energy Secretary has said.
The practical limitations of new North Sea production
Oil-heavy basin: The geology of the North Sea means that, after nearly 50 years of production, 70% of what's left in the basin is oil not gas – and not the type of oil that we use in UK refineries, which means that we export 80% of it.
Oil companies and service providers are cutting staff and investment to save money. Robin Allan, chairman of the independent explorers' association Brindex, told the BBC that the industry was "close to collapse". Almost no new projects in the North Sea are profitable with oil below $60 a barrel, he claims.
A windfall tax introduced last year as energy prices soared prompted oil and gas producers including some of the UK North Sea's biggest TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) and Harbour (HBR. L) to cut investment in the basin.
But despite the solid gain in refinery processing, it appears that China is still building up crude oil inventories in commercial or strategic storage tanks.
China is becoming more self-sufficient in energy supplies thanks to rising domestic oil and gas production in recent years, with the energy self-sufficiency rate reaching more than 80 percent in 2021, according to a recent report.
Russia also supplies oil to China via the major East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline, transit through Kazakhstan and via tanker.