The centre of activity for the oil and gas extraction is off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland. Hydrocarbons are however produced in other areas of the UK such as the southern North Sea, from around offshore Humberside to Norfolk and Suffolk and offshore the Liverpool and Morecombe Bays.

The majority of these offshore sites have landfall sites around the coast to where the hydrocarbons are piped for further distribution or processing for export. Whereas others off load from the offshore facility to small tankers which transport the cargo to various onshore terminals for onward transmission. The principal onshore production area is in Poole, Dorset  where the reservoir of hydrocarbons is literally under Poole Harbour but produced onshore in an environmentally sound method. There are other lesser known on shore fields too many to mention here but as an example, Surrey south of London.

The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is facing significant challenges as the province matures. In future its ability to compete will depend critically on rapid and continual improvement in performance.

This in turn will depend on greater collaboration to ensure this performance can be delivered with the resources available. The UK still has substantial recoverable reserves of oil and gas potentially exceeding the amount already produced. However many existing large producing fields are well into decline and discoveries are becoming fewer and smaller or have associated technical challenges.

The UK is a high cost province. As other areas around the world are opening up to international oil investment the UK needs to compete even harder for investment funds.