DrillOrDrop’s review of the latest UK onshore oil data for June 2022: daily onshore oil production was still at historically low levels, despite increasing oil prices.

Key figures

Daily production: 13,440 barrels per day (bopd)

Weight: 52,804 tonnes

Volume: 64,102m3

Volume of onshore as a proportion of UK total oil production: 1.93%

Volume of flared gas at UK onshore oilfields: 627m3

Volume of vented gas at UK onshore oilfields: 102m3

The data in this post was compiled and published by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) yesterday (30 August 2022) from reports by oil companies. It is published about three months in arrears. All the charts are based on the NSTA data.

Details

Daily production

• Barrels of oil per day (bopd) was up 1.55% on May 2022
• It was the first increase in daily production since February 2022
• But at 13,440 bopd, this was the second lowest level in the past year
• It was down almost 5% on June 2021 and 10% on June 2020

Volume and weight

• Volume and weight both fell in June 2022 – to 64,102m3 and 52,804 tonnes
• This was down 1.72% on May 2022, a smaller fall than would have been expected because of the shorter month
• Both measures were more than 5% down on June 2021 and nearly 10% down on June 2020
• June 2022 was the second lowest volume and weight in the past year
• It was the third consecutive monthly fall in volume and weight

Contribution to total UK oil production volume

• The onshore contribution to total UK oil production was 1.93% in June 2022
• The contribution rose nearly 10% compared with May 2022
• June 2022 saw the highest contribution to the total UK production since June 2021 (2.29%)
• But the figure remained below 2%

Flaring and venting

• The volume of flared gas rose more than 6% in June 2022 compared with May 2022 but venting was down 15%
• Compared with a year earlier, flared gas volume was up 14% and vented gas was down 6%
• June 2022 was the fifth highest volume of flared gas in the past year but the second lowest for vented gas volume

Top 20 fields

The top four producing UK onshore oil fields (Wytch Farm, Welton, Singleton and Stockbridge), which comprise 91% of onshore production, maintained their positions for the fifth consecutive month. But only Singleton increased production.

Wytch Farm in Dorset, the UK’s biggest onshore oil producer, reported the third consecutive monthly fall in volume and weight, down from 45,387 tonnes in May 2022 to 44,725 tonnes, a 1.5% drop. But daily production was up nearly 2% to 11,456bopd in June 2022, from 11,251 in May 2022.

Singleton, in West Sussex, saw volume rise nearly 4% in June 2022, compared with May 2022, to 1116 tonnes. But the field’s volume was down more than 21% compared with June 2021.

Scampton North, in Lincolnshire, held on to its fifth position in the rankings for the second month, with production up 6% from 433 tonnes to 460 tonnes. June 2022 was the second consecutive monthly rise in oil production at the field.

Horndean, in Hampshire, rose from 10th to sixth place, with a 50% increase in production in June 2022, compared with May 2022, up from 274 tonnes to 412 tonnes. This took production to above the level last seen in March 2022 (395 tonnes).

At Horse Hill, in Surrey, there was a 2.% increase in volume (from 249m3 to 256m3) between May 2022 and June 2022. Daily production was also up, from 50.5 bopd to 53.6 bopd, a rise of more than 6%. But volume in June 2022 was 43% lower than in June 2021 and 66% lower than in June 2020. The site rose in the production rankings two places to 12th but this may be partly explained by the absence of data from Whisby, in Lincolnshire for June 2022. Horse Hill’s volume of produced water rose for the first month for three months, up 1.6% in June 2022 compared with May 2022.

Humbly Grove, in Hampshire, continued its volatile production pattern, with a 243% increase in volume in June 2022, compared with May 2022. Oil production at the field is supported by the injection of gas which is stored underground in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Brockham, in Surrey, recorded oil production for the first month since October 2018. In June 2022, the field produced 5.66 barrels of oil per day and a total of 27m3 (22.5 tonnes). Water production was higher than oil at 53.1m3.

Egmanton, in Nottinghamshire, also reported production, for the first time since May 2021. The site recorded 1m3 of oil at a daily rate of 0.2 bopd.

Palmers Wood, in Surrey, continued to increase production, up to 125 tonnes in May 2022, to 178 tonnes in June 2022, a rise of more than 40%. Production also rose at Wareham, in Dorset.

There were falls in production at: Glentworth, Gainsborough and Cold Hanworth in Lincolnshire; Kimmeridge in Dorset and and Long Clawson in Leicestershire.

No production

The data recorded no production at: Whisby, Keddington, Nettleham, Newton-on-Trent, Scampton and Fiskerton Airfield, in Lincolnshire; Dukes Wood, South Leverton and Kirklington in Nottinghamshire; Avington in Hampshire; Kirkleatham in Redcar; Lidsey, in West Sussex; Waddock Cross, in Dorset.

Egdon Resources’ Wressle field, in North Lincolnshire, has still not reported formal production data. The regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority, gave it permission to go into production in May 2022. The operator, Egdon Resources, said at the time it was planning to complete installation of remaining permanent production facilities and seek permission to pipe gas produced along with the oil, to the local distribution network.

Operators

Perenco, the UK’s biggest onshore oil producer, saw its total production fall again, down from 45,757 tonnes in May 2022 to 45,105 in June 2022. But its share of UK onshore oil production continued to rise, to 85.4%. It has now been above 85% for two consecutive months.

Production at fields operated by second-placed IGas, also fell again (down from 7,023 tonnes in May 2022 to 6,907 tonnes). The company’s share of UK onshore oil production was virtually unchanged.

EP UK Investments, saw a 244% rise in production with increased volumes from Humbly Grove.

BritNRG, which has been placed third for several months, was not listed in June 2022 because there was no report of production from its site at Whisby. Egdon Resources was also not listed because there was no reported production from its fields (Dukes Wood, Fiskerton Airfield, Keddington, Kirkleatham, Kirklington and Waddock Cross).

Europa Oil and Gas was down slightly at 181 tonnes, compared with 193 in May 2022. Angus Energy appeared in the list for the first time for three-and-a-half years with the resumption of production at Brockham.