North Sea Oil in Scotland

Oil from the North Sea was first brought a shore from the Argyle field in 1975 followed a short time later by oil from the large BP Forties field. Further discoveries of oil were made leading to new and innovative technological developments. By the mid-1980’s there over a hundred production sites producing millions of barrels of oil causing Aberdeen to become the oil capital of Europe. While Aberdeen is central to the oil industry the northern isles of Orkney and Shetland are also of great importance with the Flotta and Sullom Voe oil terminals. The Flotta Oil Terminal in Orkney being linked to the Piper and Occidental oil fields in the North Sea by a 230 kilometre pipeline. The Grangemouth refinery complex locate on the Firth of Forth refines the oil from the North Sea. From the 1960’s to 2014 it was reported that 42 billion barrels of oil of oil equivalent (BOE) had been extracted from the North Sea during this period of time. This made Scotland one of the leading oil producers in the world and economists estimated that by 2020 the oil industry supported 100000 jobs and added £13.8 billion to the Scottish economy.

                                                   Safety Issues

With the accelerated development of the oil and gas industry came problems with safety in the industry. This culminated in the Piper Alpha disaster of 1988 in which 167 rig workers lost their lives and the largest and most profitable platform in the North Sea was totally destroyed. It was only after this horrendous disaster that safety procedures and standards were improved.

                                         The North Sea in the 1990’s

The 1990’s witnessed severe fluctuations in the price of oil but despite this the production of oil from the North Sea peaked in 2000/01. From then on production declined but continued to be sustained by the continuing development of oil extraction technology.

                                 New Oil fields to the West of Shetland.

High oil prices have resulted in a renewal of oil exploration in the North Sea especially in the North East Atlantic basin to the west of Shetland and the Outer Hebrides which had been considered uneconomical.