Business | North Sea oil

Offshore fog

Bloated costs and falling profits threaten the future of North Sea oil

Try to keep it pumping

WHEN the North Sea oil- and gasfields were booming, inefficiencies mushroomed. Now, times are tough—and it may be too late for belt-tightening. The offshore industry, particularly the British bit of it, is squeezed between a lower oil price, stubbornly high costs, an ageing infrastructure and a looming bill of many billions of dollars for decommissioning old platforms.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Offshore fog”

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