Engineering a sea-change

For almost 40 years, the hydrocarbon reserves of the North Sea  have been vital props for five European countries: Norway, the UK,  Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. Since the first licences  to explore the region for oil and gas were granted in the mid-1960s, more than 40 billion barrels of oil (an equivalent figure that includes gas on the basis of value) has been extracted from the convoluted folds and fissures  of the geology of the seabed, and most estimates say extraction can continue for another 30–40 years, with some 24 billion barrels  of reserves remaining.

And while the industry in the North Sea can still look to the future  with hope – and exploration continues in other regions of the Northwest European Continental Shelf, such as the regions to the west of Shetland – the industry’s minds are beginning to turn to what’s going to happen when the hydrocarbons run out. It’s clear that we’re closer to the end than the beginning. So how do we bring the era of the exploitation  of the North Sea for oil and gas to an end?