More properties are changing hands in the U.K. sector of the North Sea, and small companies have been driving the action. At the end of 2005, 143 companies owned acreage in the U.K. Continental Shelf, and 34 of these were new to the region, reports Hannon Westwood, a Glasgow-based upstream consulting company. The market changes can be tied directly to the efforts of the U.K. Department of Trade & Industry, which has both recruited new investors from North America and pushed existing license-holders to either drill or relinquish fallow acreage. The response has been dramatic: oil majors have reduced their noncore holdings from more than 60% of total holdings to 40% at year-end 2005. The acreage turnover will continue to be substantial. From a stock of about 1,400 blocks and part-blocks, Hannon Westwood estimates that around 700 could attract near-term investment, and a further 360 blocks wait in the wings. All told, around 1,070 blocks are expected to move into the market for third-party investment or be returned to the government for new license rounds during the next five years. In response to the abundant opportunities, money is pouring into the U.K. offshore. A plethora of small firms are chasing properties, and larger companies, given their fat balance sheets and today's tight rig market, are attracted to the prospects and properties that the start-ups have assembled. Last year, 428 properties changed hands, not including new acreage added in government license rounds. The resources are apparently available to support this burst of investment. A conservative estimate of risked new oil and gas reserves appears to be around 15 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), not including 2- to 4 billion BOE in mature fields and 10 billion BOE in current reserves. "Over the next 30 years, we therefore have the potential to introduce annually around 500 million-plus BOE in new oil and gas," the firm reports. If this occurs, U.K. North Sea production could be sustained at more than 2 million BOE per day.