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 UNITED
KINGDOM
North West Europe
The UK had an oil industry well before offshore
production began because of the prominence of its oil companies in the
Middle East, Mexico and Venezuela. In addition oil shales were mined in
Scotland in the 19th century and minor oilfields were found onshore in
Lincolnshire before WW2.
 However,
it was in 1964, after the First Offshore Licensing Round, when the UK
began to become an important area for hydrocarbons and a major exporter.
Declining discovery rates and production have now led many of the major
companies to reduce their investments in oil and gas. Small companies
drilling for satellites and step-outs and scavenging for tail-end
production are in part replacing them.
The Southern Gas Basin: Offshore drilling began in
the Southern Gas Basin of the Southern North Sea, targeted at the
offshore extension of a belt of gas fields, sourced from Carboniferous
Coal Measures, discovered in the Netherlands in 1957.
The West Sole field in the UK was the first gas discovery
in the North Sea in 1965 and gas production began from here in 1967. In
the UK around 95 fields have produced gas from this region with
production dominated by the Hewett, Indefatigable and Leman fields.
The Central and Northern North Sea: Drilling moved
northwards aimed at several Jurassic rifts (grabens) identified as
containing rich source rocks of the Kimmeridge Clay. Wells drilled
yielded one giant field after another, and first production began from
the Forties and Argyll fields in 1975.
 Key fields found in the early 1970s were Forties (1970)
and Piper (1973) in the Central Graben of the central North Sea and
Brent (1971), Ninian (1974) and Beryl (1972) in the Viking Graben of the
northern North Sea. Many more fields have been discovered over the years
in both regions and are still being discovered and developed, although
in general field discoveries have progressively declined in size.
Over 110 separate fields and satellites have produced oil
from the central North Sea including the Central Graben and Moray Firth,
(of which over 20 have been abandoned) and around 70 have produced oil
from the Northern North Sea (over 10 abandoned).
Substantial associated gas reserves were also identified
early on. The Piper/Tartan complex of fields began producing gas in 1976
but significant production was delayed until pipeline systems had been
built. The FLAGS and SAGE systems from the northern North Sea to St.
Fergus, and the CATS and SEAL systems in the central North Sea to
Teesside and Bacton respectively, are responsible for nearly half UK gas
production.
Improvements in seismic data have ensured that new fields
are discovered each year. Indeed the Buzzard field, drilled in May 2001,
was the largest field discovered in the UK for a decade. In addition
around 200 undeveloped discoveries are known to exist.
West of Britain: Although the North Sea dominates,
some other lesser finds have been made to the West of Britain. A number
of Carboniferous gas accumulations (and minor oil accumulations) were
found in the Irish Sea but few prospects remain in this region.
BP also discovered the Clair field in the West of
Shetlands in 1977 but due to its location, its oil quality and the large
discoveries that were being made in the North Sea at the time, first oil
was not until early 2005.
The BP-operated Foinaven field was discovered in the same
area to the south in 1992 and began production in 1997. The nearby
BP-operated Schiehallion field was discovered in 1993 with production
beginning in 1998.
Other undeveloped discoveries are also present but the
West of Shetlands area does not have the prolific reservoirs
characteristic of the North Sea. There is a small, relatively unexplored
deepwater area in the north west of the region potentially prospective
for gas.
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