AXA's Thomas: Why I am banking on a North Sea oil renaissance

UK North Sea oil production represents a key opportunity for UK equity managers as capex increases and production ramps up, according to AXA Framlington's Nigel Thomas.

In his semi-annual ‘Thomas Report', the manager of the £3.6bn AXA Framlington UK Select Opportunities fund compared the production uptick to the manufacturing renaissance seen in the US. He said nine new oil fields - with 153m barrels of available resource - came online in the UK North Sea in 2012, four times as many as in 2011, with 21 new fields with 638m barrels of reserves coming into production this year. "[Analysts at Wood Mackenzie] also predict capital expenditure between 2012 and 2015 to total £39bn. This compares with £4.9bn in 2009," he said. The manager is playing the t...