Rising tide of recovery for North Sea oil and gas | Financial Times

Rising tide of recovery for North Sea oil and gas | Financial Times:

In a remote harbour just north of Inverness, contractors are busy working on a giant metal structure whose bright colours stand out against the horizon. The Maersk Innovator offshore oil rig is getting ready to leave Cromarty Firth to drill at least three development wells in the North Sea.

It was a very different scene two years ago when the Cromarty Firth was full of idle rigs. The oil price crash which began in late 2014 and saw Brent crude plummet from $115 a barrel to less than $30 in January 2016, drastically reducing exploration drilling in the North Sea. Oil and gas producers battened down the hatches, cut costs and curtailed operations in what was one of the world’s most expensive places for extracting fossil fuels.

The Maersk rig is one of five that has arrived in Cromarty Firth since the start of the year for maintenance and repair — the highest number to come in for this sort of work since 2010. Three of the rigs have already departed to drill. The numbers may be small but the increased activity is being greeted by industry executives as evidence of the first green shoots of a wider recovery across the North Sea.