Proof of concept. This is an unofficial demo built by Datopian from the North Sea Transition Authority's public data. The official portal is NSTA Open Data. Questions or feedback: hello@datopian.com

North Sea Transition Authority

Data story · Wells

Sixty years of drilling on the UK Continental Shelf

The NSTA’s open data lists 13,388 offshore wellbores, the first spudded in 1964. Drilling peaked in 1996 and, despite brief upturns, has declined since: in 2025, 41 wellbores were started, and not one of them was an exploration well.

13,388
offshore wellbores since 1964
425
started in 1996, the busiest year
41
started in 2025 (10% of the peak)
0
exploration wells in 2025

Every well drilled on the UK Continental Shelf is registered with the NSTA, with the date drilling started (the spud date) and what the well was for. Exploration wells look for new oil and gas, appraisal wells measure a discovery, and development wells produce from (or inject into) a field. Sidetracks drilled from an existing well count as wellbores of their own, which is why there are 13,388 wellbores from 8,295 well origins.

Wellbores started each year, by purpose

1964 to 2026 (2026 to 1 November 2026). Hover a year for its numbers.

  • Development
  • Appraisal
  • Exploration
2025: 41 wellbores · exploration 0 · appraisal 2 · development 39
0100200300400197019801990200020102020

Exploration fell first

Exploration drilling peaked earlier than drilling overall: 172 exploration wellbores were started in 1990, against 76 in 1996, when development drilling on producing fields carried the total to its high of 425.

In the ten years to 2025, 106 exploration wellbores were started in all, and 2025 had none. The most recent exploration wellbore in the data was spudded in 2026.

Who drilled, 2016 to 2025

Wellbores started, by operator group at total depth.

  1. APACHE CORPORATION122
  2. ADURA ENERGY101
  3. ITHACA ENERGY62
  4. BP EXPLORATION57
  5. NEO NEXT+ ENERGY45
  6. HARBOUR ENERGY PLC44
  7. CNOOC INTERNATIONAL33
  8. CNR INTERNATIONAL31

216 of the 832 wellbores in these years (26%) have their operator group recorded as “No Data Available”.

Where the drilling moved

Each square is 20 km across and shaded by the median year its wellbores were started. The first wellbores, in the 1960s, were drilled in the southern North Sea. The darker squares mark where most drilling is more recent: around producing hubs in the central North Sea, and west of Shetland, where drilling started later.

  • Median spud year before 1980
  • Median spud year 1980s
  • Median spud year 1990s
  • Median spud year 2000s
  • Median spud year 2010 or later
Hover a square to see how many wellbores it holds.

UKCS quadrants, UTM zone 31N. Contains information provided by the North Sea Transition Authority.

How we worked this out

  • Sources: UKCS offshore wellbores top holes (13,388 wellbores, one row per wellbore including sidetracks) and UKCS quadrants, both published by the North Sea Transition Authority.
  • Years are the spud date (when drilling started), in UTC. Purpose is the well’s original intent (exploration, appraisal or development); 1 carbon capture and storage wellbore is counted in the totals only. 2026 runs to 1 November 2026.
  • The figures are computed from the published data when this site is built, not typed in by hand.