The decline in oil and gas production in the UK North Sea continued in April, despite record investment in 2006, in what economists at Royal Bank of Scotland said was another sign that the province is maturing rapidly.

The latest oil and gas index from Royal Bank shows that combined average daily oil and gas production for the UK Continental Shelf stood at 2,823,141 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in April. This was about 2.3% lower than in March, ending a run of six consecutive monthly increases. The underlying rate of production continued on a firmly downward trend, falling 7.8% compared with April last year.

The decline occurred ahead of the summer maintenance season, when production usually falls as operators have work done on rigs.

Against the backdrop of a continuing surge in investment in response to buoyant energy markets, the figures show that operators are having to work increasingly hard to try to maintain production.

An increasing share of output on the UKCS is coming from fields that have come off plateau production levels and from smaller fields.

Oil production was down 0.8% on the month at 1,384,740 (bpd) and down 12.1% on the year.

UK natural gas production decreased 3.8% to 8170 million standard cubic feet per day (mmcfd) compared to March and fell 3.2% on the year. Prices rose in the month with Brent crude fetching $67.53 per barrel in April, up $5.34/bbl on March but down $2.76/bbl on the year.

Due to the higher exchange rate, sterling prices fell by 14.6% to 33.96/bbl over the year.