According to the industry body, about two million barrels of oil a day are anticipated to come on stream by 2017, which would mark an increase from 1.5 million in 2013, reported The Telegraph.
Oil & Gas UK has attributed these higher estimates to a major rise in investment in the North Sea, from GBP11.4bn in 2012 to a record GBP13bn in 2013.
Oil & Gas chief executive Malcolm Webb said that the forecast suggests a slump in investment in the North Sea since the 2000s is coming to an end.
The slump was aggravated when UK Chancellor George Osborne announced a GBP2bn tax raid in 2011, which raised marginal tax rates on North Sea operators to up to 81pc.
Webb was quoted by the publication as saying that the new incentives for the ‘awkward squad’ fields had ‘commercialised what would have been uncommercial projects’.
In September 2012, Osborne unveiled a new tax measure to support investment in older fields by allowing companies to shield some income from the supplementary charge on their profits.
