All figures below are drawn from official UK government sources, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), HMRC, and UK Parliamentary research briefings. Monetary valuations use a Brent crude price of approximately $75 per barrel as at 9 July 2026.
In Context: Total remaining reserves and resources (2P + 2C) amount to 9.2 billion boe – approximately 19% of what has already been extracted. Including speculative prospective resources, the total remaining potential is up to 15.8 billion boe. Even in the most optimistic industry-backed scenario, 86% of available oil and gas has already been extracted.
Important Caveat: These are gross notional values (volume × spot price) and do not represent actual realisable revenue. Real-world extraction costs (averaging £19.49/boe in 2024), declining output rates, variable oil prices over multi-decade extraction periods, export dynamics, and the commercial viability of undiscovered resources all mean actual revenue would be substantially lower. Prospective resources in particular may never be commercially extractable. These figures are provided for scale and context only.
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Cumulative UK tax revenue (since 1975) | ~£200bn+ | Various / Tribune analysis |
| Peak annual revenue (cash terms) | £12.4bn (2008/09) | OBR / HMRC |
| Peak as % of GDP | 3.1% (1984/85) | OBR |
| Energy Profits Levy revenue (2024/25) | £2.9bn | HMRC |
| Current headline tax rate on profits | 78% | HoC Library |
| EPL expiry date | 31 March 2030 | Finance Act 2026 |
| Metric | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total decommissioning cost estimate | £44bn | NSTA (2024 prices) |
| Decommissioning spend 2023–2032 | £27bn | NSTA |
| Record annual decommissioning spend | £2.4bn (2024) | NSTA |
| Wells due for P&A (2026–2030) | 1,500+ | NSTA |
| Overdue well backlog | 500+ | NSTA |
| Treasury cost of decommissioning | £11.7bn | HMRC (present value) |
| Average production cost per boe (2024) | £19.49 | NSTA |
Norway created its Government Pension Fund Global in 1990, channelling oil revenues into a diversified investment fund now worth over $1.6 trillion. The UK, by contrast, spent its North Sea revenues on current expenditure, funding tax cuts in the 1980s and general government spending thereafter. The Norwegian continental shelf is also far less depleted than the UK’s: Norwegian Petroleum estimates that only 57% of expected recoverable resources on the Norwegian shelf have been produced, compared with over 90% on the UK side.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total UK jobs supported | ~200,000 |
| Direct offshore workers | ~30,000 |
| Average offshore salary | ~£65,000/year |
| UK capital expenditure (2022) | £5.5bn |
| Flaring reduction since 2018 | 50% |