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　　ABERDEEN, Scotland — Even before Craig May, alongtime Chevron executive, moved to this NorthSea port city two summers ago, he knew that the oilwealth in Britain's waters was on the steepeningslope of a decadeslong decline.

　　苏格兰阿伯丁——克雷格·梅(Craig May)是雪佛龙公司(Chevron)的资深高管。即使在两年前的夏天搬到北海的这座港口城市之前，他就已经知道，英国水域的石油财富已经处在了数十年来的下降过程中一个愈加陡峭的阶段。

　　Along with other Big Oil players that make Aberdeentheir North Sea hub, Chevron had let its agingoffshore operations become inefficient. There was still plenty of oil and gas out there. But therising expenses, May said, no longer justified the diminishing revenue from the undersea wells.

　　还有一些石油巨头也把北海枢纽设在了阿伯丁，而它们和雪佛龙遇到了同样的困难：日益老化的近海业务变得效率低下。那里仍然存储着大量的石油和天然气。但梅表示，成本不断攀升，海底油井的营收日益减少，从经济上说不再合理。

　　“We recognized we weren't structured the right way,” said May, who now leads the company'sexploration and production in northern Europe. “Cost always matters.”

　　“我们那时候就认识到，我们的结构有问题，”梅说。他现在是该公司欧洲北部勘探与生产部门的负责人。“成本一直都是重要因素。”

　　And that was when oil was selling for more than $100 a barrel.

　　当时，石油的价格还在每桶100美元以上。

　　Now, with oil's price per barrel down about 40 percent from a year ago, and with someoperators shutting down aging platforms, May and Chevron are in a race against irrelevancy fortheir North Sea operations.

　　现在，随着油价比一年前下跌了约40%，一些石油公司在关停日益老化的平台。梅和雪佛龙在北海的业务可能会变得无足轻重，而他们正在与之赛跑。

　　The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which meets on Friday in Vienna, isunlikely to provide any sort of relief to the North Sea industry by cutting production to propup prices. Instead, OPEC — which does not include Britain or any other North Sea producer —hopes that a spell of low prices will discourage new investment in high-cost regions like theNorth Sea, reducing their output.

　　石油输出国组织(Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries，简称欧佩克)将于本周五在维也纳碰头。它不太可能通过削减产量的方式来支撑油价，给北海业务提供喘息的机会。相反，欧佩克——其中不包括英国或其他北海产油国——希望，持续的低油价能够阻止新的投资进入北海这样的高成本地区，从而让它们的产出减少。

　　Even before the price of oil began collapsing last summer, May was taking steps to trimChevron's North Sea costs and planning new technologies — including a $3 million integratedoperations center in Aberdeen — to wrest renewed efficiencies from 20- and 30-year-oldoffshore oil and gas rigs.

　　早在去年夏天油价开始崩盘之前，梅就开始采取措施，削减雪佛龙在北海的运营成本，并计划采用新的技术——包括一个造价300万美元的阿伯丁综合作业中心——来努力提高二三十年前修建的近海油气钻井平台的效率。

　　There is much more at stake than one company's profitability. The efforts are a test of thecontinued viability of an energy region that, if nurtured, could continue to give Europe a hedgeagainst its reliance on oil and gas from Russia and the OPEC nations.

　　其中牵扯的，绝不仅限于一家公司的盈利能力。这些努力是对一片能源区域持续开采作业能力的测试。若是获得改善，北海能够持续给欧洲提供一个立足点，让它不那么依赖于俄罗斯和欧佩克的油气。

　　Just as crucially, the techniques that Chevron is experimenting with in the North Sea could leadthe way for other oil companies around the world to coax continued life from aging offshoreenergy operations — wherever they are — and learn from some industry mistakes.

　　同样关键的是，雪佛龙在北海尝试的技术，可能会为世界各地的其他石油公司指引方向，让它们得以延续日益老化的近海能源业务——无论它们地处哪里——的生机，并从同行的错误中吸取经验教训。

　　In a sense, British waters are a microcosm of the global industry. Costs, especially for offshoreoperations, have risen across the globe, eating into profits and reducing incentives for newexploration.

　　从某种意义上说，英国水域是全球石油行业的一个缩影。世界各地的石油生产成本都在上升，近海业务尤其如此，因此利润遭到挤压，进行新勘探的动力也随之减少。

　　Despite the global push toward renewable energy and onshore drilling of oil and gas fromshale in the United States and elsewhere, the world is likely to require a long-term, adequatesupply of undersea oil — if it can be extracted economically. Chevron, for one, has postponed abig Scottish deepwater project called Rosebank, where the North Sea gives way to the NorthAtlantic just northwest of the Shetland Islands, judging it not feasible under current industryeconomics.

　　尽管可再生能源与从美国等地的页岩中开采油气的陆上钻探的趋势获得了全球性的推动，但我们可能还是需要长期而充足的海底石油供应——如果它能够以经济可行的方式获得的话。比如，雪佛龙推迟了位于苏格兰的大型深水项目罗斯班克(Rosebank)，因为公司认为，在目前的行业经济状况下，这个计划是不可行的。罗斯班克位于北海和北大西洋的交界处，正好在设得兰群岛的西北方。

　　As other large oil companies in the region have, Chevron has turned to layoffs and other cost-cutting moves. While total industry job cuts in the North Sea region have so far been in the lowthousands, the management consulting firm Ernst & Young forecasts that as many as35,000 of the 375,000 jobs related to the oil industry in Britain could be lost over the nextfour years.

　　就像该地区的其他大型石油公司一样，雪佛龙也采取了裁员等削减成本的方法。虽然迄今为止，油气行业在北海地区总共裁减了小几千人，但据管理咨询公司安永(Ernst& Young)预测，英国与石油业有关的37.5万个工作岗位中，可能有至多3.5万个会在未来四年中遭到裁减。

　　“The issue in the North Sea is existential around the cash cost of operation at the currentlevel of oil prices,” Simon Henry, Royal Dutch Shell's chief financial officer, said recently whilediscussing the company's quarterly results.

　　“北海业务存亡问题的核心是，在目前油价水平上开采作业的直接成本，”荷兰皇家壳牌公司(Royal DutchShell)的首席财务官西蒙·亨利(Simon Henry)近期在讨论公司的季度业绩时表示。

　　And in the North Sea, no company is an island.

　　而在北海，没有哪家企业是一座孤岛。

　　The region is a vast web of interconnected fields and pipelines and other infrastructure, withdifferent owners, that transport the oil and gas. If one company closes a node in thisnetwork, others might be forced to shut down portions of their own operations.

　　这片地区是一个巨大的网络，油田、管道及运输油气的其他基础设施彼此相连，属于不同的公司。如果这个网络上有一家公司关闭一个节点，那么其他公司可能就不得不关停自己的部分业务。

　　Chevron, for example, lost production for several months from a field called Erskine because itsoil flowed through a field operated by the BG Group. That field had been closed since Octoberfor an upgrade but recently came back online.

　　例如，雪佛龙有一块名为厄斯金(Erskine)的油田，蒙受了数个月的生产损失，因为它出产的石油要流经BG集团(BG Group)的一块油田。从去年10月开始，BP的那块油田因升级改造而关停，不过近期又重新连接到网络中。

　　“It takes only one field that has exposure to a piece of infrastructure to put the whole systemin jeopardy,” said Derek Leith, an energy consultant at Ernst & Young in Aberdeen.

　　“只要有一块油田的一处基础设施出问题，整个网络就会处境不妙，”安永驻阿伯丁的能源顾问德里克·利思(Derek Leith)表示。

　　Once fields start to shut down, the companies cannot simply abandon them. International lawsrequire the companies to safely and cleanly dismantle the platforms and underwater equipment,a process with considerable costs.

　　一旦油田开始关闭，相关公司也不能简单弃用，而是要按照国际法的要求，安全、无污染地拆除钻井平台和水下设备。这个过程需要投入大量成本。

　　The industry is projected to spend about 15 billion pounds ($23 billion) in the next decade onNorth Sea decommissioning — spending the industry can hope to partly defer the longer it cansqueeze life from existing operations.

　　在未来十年里，整个行业预计会在退出北海业务上花费150亿英镑(约合1400亿元人民币)左右。现有业务持续得越久，该行业就越有希望推迟部分开销。

　　Apache, a midsize oil company based in Houston, is considered something of a model. In 2003,Apache acquired a portion of the Forties field, a vast North Sea plot 140 miles northeast ofAberdeen that was discovered in 1970 and once produced about a half-million barrels a day. Bythe time Apache bought its portion from BP, output had dwindled to 41,000 barrels a day.

　　总部位于休斯顿的中等规模的石油公司阿帕奇(Apache)被认为堪称这方面的榜样。2003年，该公司收购了福蒂斯油田(Forties)的一部分。这片广阔的油田也位于北海，在阿伯丁东北140英里(约合225公里)处。福蒂斯是1970年发现的，曾经能日产原油约50万桶。到阿帕奇从BP手里买下油田的一部分时，其产量已跌至每天4.1万桶。

　　But Apache has raised production 20 percent, to about 50,000 barrels a day, by investing innew wells and installing more electrical generators to reduce downtime, according to James L.House, the company's North Sea manager until this month.

　　不过，在本月之前一直担任阿帕奇北海业务经理的詹姆斯·L·豪斯(James L House)称，通过投资新油井，以及增加发电机来减少停工期，公司将产量提高了20%，达每天约5万桶。

　　“We all have access to the same level of technology and hire people with similar educationalbackgrounds,” he said. “It is how decisions are made and how they are executed.”

　　“我们所有公司掌握的技术水平是一样的，雇的员工的教育背景也类似，”他说。“关键是决策的制定和执行。”

　　At Chevron, May says he is encouraged by his company's efforts to reclaim the North Sea.Chevron is continuing with development of a new field called Alder. And the giant Rosebankproject could yet go ahead, May said.

　　雪佛龙公司的梅表示，他受到了公司恢复北海业务的种种行动的鼓舞。雪佛龙正在继续开发一个名叫阿尔德(Alder)的新油田。据他介绍，庞大的罗斯班克项目仍可能推进。

　　“We have been here for 50 years,” he said. “We want to stay.”

　　“在这里50年了，”他说。“我们想留下来。”

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