Oil & Gas / Energy

Aberdeen is known for oil & gas and it is a global energy city, known as the
Energy Capital of Europe.
As an energy city, Aberdeen sits alongside Calgary, Abu Dhabi and Stavanger
and competes not with other UK cities but other energy cities including
Houston, Perth and Kuala Lumpur.

Outside Houston, Aberdeen has the biggest collection of international oil and
gas companies
Meanwhile, Westhill in Aberdeenshire is known as the Global Subsea Centre
of Excellence. Both locations are just six miles apart.

The city has built up 50 years of expertise in oil & gas and subsea
engineering.
Consequently, skills developed and services based in Aberdeen are in
demand all over the world and the city attracts industry visitors from around
the globe.

In a recent study by FTI consulting, almost three quarters of global

executives (74%) agreed that Scotland is one of the worlds leading training
grounds for the energy sector. The study found three quarters of respondents
preferred working with Scottish suppliers or contractors, with the figure rising
to 88% among US respondents. This suggests that that oil & gas executives
will continue to visit Aberdeen for a long time.

According to the Wood Review, there is potential for a further 15-24 billion
barrels of oil equivalent still to be extracted. It is forecast that production will
continue to 2050.

SDIs Survey of International Activity in the Oil and Gas Sector 2013/2014 found:

International sales from Scottish-based supply chain companies rose to 11.2

billion in 2013.
Of this, 4.2 billion came from Scottish exports and 7.0 billion was delivered
through subsidiary companies, representing an overall increase of 12% on
2012.
International activity in 2013 accounted for a record 50.3% of total Scottish
supply chain sales, an increase from 50.2% in 2012

Oil & Gas UKs Activity Survey has data for UKCS performance in 2014:

Delivered production revenues of 24.4 billion, the lowest since 1998.

Spent 9.6 billion operating the UKCS, almost 8 per cent higher than in 2013.
Invested 14.8 billion of capital, half of which was spent on only 12 fields.
Spent 1.1 billion on the acquisition and interpretation of seismic data and
on drilling 14 exploration and 18 appraisal wells (including sidetracks).
Paid 4.7 billion in production taxes in the fiscal year 2013/14, and expects to
pay substantially less than 2.8 billion in the fiscal year 2014/151, the lowest
in over 20 years.

Produced 1.42 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), the best yearon-year performance in 15 years, slowing production decline.
Discovered around 50 million boe of potentially commercial reserves,
significantly lower than the average of over 250 million boe per year over the
last ten years.
Drilled 126 development wells (including sidetracks), slightly higher than the
120 in 2013.
Sanctioned the development of 8 new fields and 28 brownfield opportunities

http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/cmsfiles/modules/publications/pdfs/EC044.pdf
Future outlooks

Regional employment is forecast to grow by up to 39,000 by 2025 (AGCC, A

Hotel Supercity)
Lower weekend occupancy rates present huge growth opportunities in the
leisure market for hoteliers and the city generally. A major part of the
regional economic strategy is to grow both business and leisure tourism
visitor levels.
The city will see major investment as a new city centre masterplan is
delivered
No less than six new high-quality business parks have emerged in the city
since 2013, including three adjacent to Aberdeen International Airport.
Opportunities for immediately available sites coupled with investor
willingness has never been higher.
For oil and gas, in the near term and over the next five years the United
States will continue to be a key country alongside Norway, the United Arab
Emirates, Brazil and Singapore. L ooking more generally to regional markets,
Africa, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and North America regions are forecast to
provide the most opportunities (SDI, 2014).

Business tourism and commercial occupancy

In 2014, Aberdeen rose to 11th position in the British Meetings and Events
Industry Survey of the best UK destinations for business tourism and events.
The city hosts numerous high profile conferences, the largest being the
biennial global Offshore Europe conference. OE is one of the world's largest
technical conference and exhibitions for the offshore E&P industry. The event
attracted more than 63,000 delegates from over 100 countries in 2013,
which was a record number of visitors and an increase of more than 30% on
2011 figures.
Around 50% of overseas visits to Aberdeen are for business purposes, far
higher than the 17% recorded for Scotland overall.
In 2014, Aberdeen was again listed as a Hotel Super City alongside
locations such as Singapore, Barcelona, Beijing and Central London.
Aberdeen occupancy rates for the year 2014 were 77%, rising to almost
100% Monday to Thursday driven by a high demand from business travellers.
Aberdeen office take-up has grown rapidly in the past 10 years and in 2014
the annual take-up exceeded 1 million square feet
Aberdeen International Airport welcomes more than 3.5million passengers a
year and has seen around a 40% increase since 2003 against a UK average

of 14%. Aberdeen is one of the best connected regional airports in the UK

with daily flights to five of Europes international hub airports.
Economy

There are 26,900 businesses in the region

Aberdeen drives the Scottish economy and is second only to Inner London in
terms of productivity measured by GVA.
The turnover for Aberdeen City & Shire enterprises in 2013 was over
68billion and there are many successful non-oil companies, especially in the
finance and business services sector.
In 2014 Aberdeen was the second highest ranking UK city for employment
(77.9%) and has the lowest unemployment rate (1.3%) of all of Scotlands
cities

Miscellaneous

In late 2014, Aberdeen was ranked the best city to live and work in
Scotland and the second best in the UK by PwC [Good Growth for Cities
2013].
The food and drink sector supports around 22,000 jobs in the region and
accounts for around a fifth of Scotlands food and drink economic activity
Over a third of all revenue in the sector is derived from countries outside
the UK.
(AGCC, Food and Drink Survey 2014)