Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of future trends in the level of investment in the North Sea oil and gas sector.

Significant opportunities remain in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) with an estimated 10-20 billion barrels of oil equivalent remaining. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimate total expenditure to be £73.7 billion between 2017 and 2021.

We have already seen substantial investment in the North Sea during 2017, with almost $4 billion of upstream deals announced during the first two months, with the potential for more as the year progresses. This is a significant vote of confidence in the UKCS and reaffirms the globally competitive fiscal and regulatory regime.

The Government, along with the Oil and Gas Authority are working hard to stimulate exploration and new capital investment. The UK Government have provided £40m funding for new seismic surveys which resulted in a successful 29^th licensing round earlier this year. In addition, the Oil and Gas Authority have recently made freely available a substantial package of subsurface data, in order to generate interest ahead of the 30th licensing round which will be launched soon. The Oil and Gas Authority estimate that capital expenditure in the UKCS will be £27.6 billion between 2017 and 2021.