- The NSTA’s estimate for Proven and Probable (‘2P’) UK oil and gas reserves as at end 2025 is 2.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (‘bn boe’), 0.4bn boe lower than as at end 2024.
- In 2025, around 380 million boe (‘mmboe’) were produced, and 40 million boe net were added from 2P Reserves. There were no new field development activities added in development plans (‘FDP’) in 2025. There was 1 field development plan addendum (‘FDPA’) in 2025.
- The UK’s contingent resource volume has a central estimate of discovered undeveloped resources of 6.5 billion boe. Much of this resource is in mature, developed areas, with some under consideration for development.
- In aggregate, UKCS petroleum reserves and discovered resources both remain at approximately 70% oil and 30% gas, when expressed in oil equivalent terms.
- There were no exploration wells drilled in the UKCS in 2025.
- The mean licensed prospective resources (‘yet-to-find’) in mapped leads and prospects are estimated as 1.2 billion boe, with a further 3.6 billion boe of unlicensed prospective resources. This is supplemented by an additional mean unlicensed prospective resource of 11.2 billion boe estimated to reside in plays outside of mapped leads and prospects.
The NSTA estimate for remaining UK recoverable petroleum resources, include reserves, undeveloped resources and undiscovered resources. A total of 48.1 billion boe of oil and gas had been produced from the UKCS by the end of 2025.
Overall oil and gas reserves as at the end of 2025 showed a decrease compared to end 2024. This is a result of production of around 380mmboe in 2025 not being offset by additions to the reserves base as a result of no Field Development Plan (‘FDP’) approvals or additional reserves adjustments for producing fields.
Contingent resources showed an increase compared to end 2024. This is due to more discoveries being progressed by operators and some sanctioned projects being downgraded.
The mean licensed prospective resources in mapped leads and prospects are estimated as 1.2 billion boe with 3.6 billion boe unlicensed. This is supplemented by an additional mean unlicensed prospective resource of 11.2 billion boe estimated to reside in plays outside of mapped leads and prospects.
Summing the overall estimates of the four categories of resources (reserves, contingent resources, prospective resources associated with mapped features and play-level prospective resources) does not imply any particular levels of probability that those volumes will ultimately be produced.
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Source: NSTA
