North Sea production to see minor boost

Taxation strategies in UK and Norway to continue to play important role for a region in which significant volumes of medium sour have offset the loss of similar quality Russian barrels and balanced the influx of US light sweet grades

North Sea oil output is set to rise in the next couple of years, briefly stalling longer-term structural decline in the mature basin. Crude and NGLs from the two major producing nations, Norway and the UK, are expected to rise by 7% in 2025 compared with this year, and a further 1.6% in 2026, to peak at around 2.94m b/d, with Norway doing most of the heavy lifting, according to forecasts from Argus Consulting, a division of price reporting agency Argus Media. Investment in the Norwegian offshore sector has been boosted by a temporary tax regime brought in by the government in mid-2020, designed to give the country’s economy a lift following the outbreak of Covid. This has stimulated activity