DrillOrDrop’s review of the latest UK onshore oil data, for August 2022: Horse Hill production recovers as key onshore figures rise.
The NSTA updated the source data used in this article after publication. Please see the September 2022 article on UK onshore oil production for the most up-to-date data.
Key figures
Daily production: 13,759 barrels per day (bopd)
Weight: 55,851 tonnes
Volume: 67,811m3
Volume of onshore as a proportion of UK total oil production: 2.17%
Volume of flared gas at UK onshore oilfields: 369m3
Volume of vented gas at UK onshore oilfields: 111m3
The data in this post was compiled and published by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) from reports by oil companies. This is published about three months in arrears. All the charts are based on the NSTA data.
Details
Daily production
- Total onshore barrels of oil per day (bopd) rose to 13,759
- This is the highest level of bopd since April 2022
- August 2022 was up 3.5% on July 2022 but down 4.5% on August 2021
Volume and weight
- Volume and weight increased by 3.5% in August 2022, compared with the month before
- This was the second consecutive monthly increase for volume and weight and the highest figures on both measures since March 2022
- But volume and weight were still more than 4% lower than in August 2021
Contribution to total UK oil production volume
- The proportion of onshore oil in the UK’s total volume rose above 2% for the first time since June 2021
Flaring and venting
- Both flaring and vented gas volumes fell in August 2022, after a rise in July 2022
- The biggest fall, at 44%, was in flared gases, down from 656ksm3 in July 2022 to 369ksm3 in August 2022
- Flared gas volume in August 2022 was the lowest since September 2020
Top 20 fields
Risers and fallers
Ten onshore fields saw an increases in production weight in August 2022, compared with July 2022. These fields were: Wytch Farm, Welton, Scampton North, Horndean, Glentworth, Cold Hanworth, Horse Hill, Corringham, Long Clawson and Keddington
There were falls in production in August 2022 compared with the previous month at nine fields: Singleton, Humbly Grove, Stockbridge, Wareham, Bletchingley, Beckingham, Kimmeridge, Palmers Wood, Gainsborough,
Storrington and West Firsby (no longer in the top 20) remained unchanged over the month.
Horse Hill
The UK Oil & Gas site, once nicknamed the Gatwick Gusher, returned to former levels of production in August 2022, after a drop to 25 tonnes (30m3) in July 2022. The August figure is the highest recorded at the site since March 2022. But production remains 75% down on the peak in April 2020. The site operator, UK Oil & Gas, reported in August 2022 that a new pump had been installed at the site.
Wytch Farm
Daily production at the UK’s biggest onshore oil field also recovered, from a nine-year low in July 2022. In August 2022, production on all measures was up 3% on the previous month. Weight and volume were at the highest level since March 2022. The field’s contribution to UK onshore production fell slightly, from 83.51% in July 2022, to 83.22% in August 2022.
Welton
Oil volume at IGas’s Welton site near Lincoln was up 48% in August 2022 (1,992m3), compared with July 2022 (1,087m3). Daily oil production also rose, from 220bopd to 404bopd. Volume and weight were above figures for June 2022 but below the monthly figures for March-May 2022.
Gainsborough
Oil volume and weight and daily production dropped at Gainsborough, another IGas field in Lincolnshire. The figures were down 24% in August 2022, compared with July 2022. August’s production was the lowest for six months.
Brockham
The volume of water produced in August 2022 at the Angus Energy site at Brockham, in Surrey, was twice the volume of oil. The site, which resumed oil production in the summer, reported nearly 98m3 of water and 48m3 of oil. Oil volumes and daily production (9.6bopd) were stable between July and August 2022. But water volumes rose from 151% from 39m3 in July 2022.
Palmers Wood
This site, operated by IGas in Surrey, saw production fall by nearly a third between July 2022 and August 2022. The August figures were the lowest since May 2022.
Keddington
In August 2022, the Egdon Resources’ site at Keddington, in Lincolnshire, reported the highest production volume and weight in the past two years. According to the data, Keddington had no production in June 2022 and just 12m3 in July 2022. But in August 2022, volume reached 127m3 and weight 105 tonnes.
Non producers
There was no production at 10 UK onshore fields:
- Angus Energy: Lidsey
- Britnrg Limited: Newton-on-Trent
- Egdon Resources: Dukes Wood, Fiskerton Airfield, Kirklington, Waddock Cross
- IGas: Avington, Egmanton, Nettleham, Scampton
According to the data, production resumed in August 2022 at Britnrg’s Whisby site (75.6 tonnes) and the IGas site at South Leverton (1 tonne).
There was still no formal oil production data from the Egdon site at Wressle in North Lincolnshire. It got approval for formal oil production in May 2022.
Operators
Oil production by IGas rose above 7,000 tonnes for the first time since May 2022. The increase in oil production in August 2022 at the Welton field contributed to the 7,048 tonnes produced by the company. IGas’s share of UK onshore oil production was down very slightly at 12.62% (12.67% in July 2022).
Perenco, the UK’s largest onshore oil producer, saw total production rise 3%, reflecting the increase at its main field, Wytch Farm. August 2022 reported the highest production figures for the company since March 2022.
Production at EP UK Investments fell to 1,199 tonnes, down from 1,320 tonnes in July. This was solely because of falling production at Humbly Grove.
Resumption of production at Keddington pushed Egdon Resources up the operators’ table from eighth place in July 2022, to sixth place in August 2022.
UK Oil & Gas plc also rose, from sixth place to fourth, with increased production at Horse Hill.
Britnrg Limited returned to the table, in seventh place, after a gap of two months, with the resumption of production at Whisby.
DRILL OR DROP? 
The glass half full would suggest that if Wressle output is added, suggested on DoD recently (albeit limited currently) then monthly UK on shore production would actually be around peak for the 12 months!
A glass nearly full would appear nearly empty if they removed Wytch Farm from the figures. When you consider all the oil is being produced from formations under the sea it does appear to be a bit cheeky.
Well, Mike, as Wytch Farm was producing over 100k BOE/day and has been steadily declining in output for years, as expected, it is a bit cheeky to incorporate Wytch Farm’s decline as some sort of failure indicator. The record for Wytch Farm is one of success.
The reality is that Europe’s largest on shore oil field is nearing the end, having produced extensively and without any significant adverse impact upon the local environment, whilst smaller pockets of on shore oil have been producing in smaller ways, achieving little adverse impact, and other smaller deposits are still there, expected to do exactly the same. That is, apart from those trying to suggest that all of a sudden Armageddon is the likely outcome. The reality is that around Wytch Farm more damage has been done to the environment by forest fires-apparently due to idiots using disposable BBQs.
Coincidently, I received an E-mail yesterday from a friend who used to be a university lecturer for Business Studies, organizing a lunch meeting. She used to use (now retired) Wytch Farm as the prime example for her students to consider as to how business activity, including extraction of minerals, could still take place and the environment be protected. Ironically, the plastic keyboard warriors were often instructed to rewrite/retype as their keyboards had directed them to a very narrow research effort.
Meanwhile, the science teachers can still take children to Kimmeridge Bay and delight them with noting how the “rocks” can be set alight, As is the case elsewhere onshore in the UK. Energy storage for all to observe and consider, yet all that money spent on Rough.
Your argument relies on very narrow framing, ie. “little adverse impact on LOCAL environment”….which probably hasn’t been measured by anyone independent anyway. Take a look around the world to see the adverse impact that fossil fuels are having on THE ENVIRONMENT. And, bear in mind ALL fossil fuels contribute to this problem – every extra drop is exacerbating the climate and ecological crisis.
Alex you may have missed that Fawley Refinery, which is quite close to Wytch Farm, has been continuing to IMPORT vast quantities of oil from all around the world, during the lifetime of Wytch Farm. You can check shipping details if you like to see where the oil comes from, the distance it has travelled and the standards that are often applied in the countries where it is produced.
Producing oil in UK does NOT produce extra demand, it helps supply current demand-such as yours. Goodness, Wytch Farm even has its own pipeline cutting back on transport emissions!
Perhaps you would prefer another Torrey Canyon?
So much for “industrialisation of the landscape”. It looks like all the top five sites are well sheltered by woodland. Singleton for example is one of the most beautiful villages in the South of England, close by Goodwood racecourse. Compare and contrast with the impact of multi-acre solar arrays and wind farms.