Output slowed as the region revealed more evidence of its maturing fields, with figures from the Royal Bank of Scotland showing that combined oil and gas was down 13.5 per cent on the period in 2004.
Some 34 billion barrels of oil have been recovered from the North Sea since the first output 30 years ago, and the latest forecasts estimate future reserves at 28 billion barrels.
But RBS economist Tony Wood said investment in the North Sea had "improved significantly" - a trend he expects to be increasingly robust.
The UK Offshore Operators Association has said that increased spend could half production decline to 7 per cent per year - extending the life of the North Sea. Investment has been put at GBP 4.31 billion for 2005.
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None of [the major papers] thought that the IPCC's statement that the Himalayan glaciers would likely melt by 2035 was in itself worth mentioning, let alone basing a story around. So how much effort should the same papers spend reporting on the withdrawal of this claim? That depends on whether...