Oil production in the UK has typically has a seasonal pattern, with workovers and development done in the summer (which means taking some fields offline for a month or so), with full production in the winter. So the November-March figures for the year are usually highest.
Which makes it a bit of a surprise that this Feb was the worst month on the DTI’s site for oil production (Worse than any month in 2003!):
www.dti.gov.uk – (Excel file, macros not required)
A bit of data manipulation on my part gives the following table, all values in barrels/day.. (1 tonne = 7.7 barrels)
Year Production Exports
1995 2,740,699 932,221
1996 2,736,034 961,117
1997 2,699,980 990,061
1998 2,795,131 1,029,741
1999 2,892,641 1,259,250
2000 2,660,805 1,052,052
2001 2,461,087 733,668
2002 2,446,812 819,367
2003 2,239,308 562,400
2004(td)2,186,108 286,954
So we should start importing just as an oil crisis strikes…
