Table of Contents

Map of the North Sea 3
Acknowledgements 9
Preface by Diane Morgan 11
Introduction 13
Timeline 15
Chapter 1 Finding a North Sea Oil Field 17
Chapter 2 The First Oil Fields are Found 28
Chapter 3 Appraisal and Production 42
Chapter 4 Aberdeen 53
Chapter 5 Local Heroes 64
Chapter 6 New Challenges 72
Chapter 7 Offshore 81
Chapter 8 The Forties Field 89
Chapter 9 Big Money 100
Chapter 10 BP and Britoil 109
Chapter 11 Occidental and ELF 116
Chapter 12 Oil Reserves 124
Chapter 13 Out West 132
Chapter 14 The End of Oil 139
Chapter 15 The Geological Story 147
Endnotes 175

About the Author

Mike Shepherd was born in Aberdeen and witnessed the arrival of the oil industry to the city in his teenage years. Later working for BP and Shell planning oil wells in the North Sea, his childhood dream of becoming a geologist was realised with over thirty years experience in the oil indus-try. His previous work includes the textbook Oil Field Production Geology, used for postgraduate study both in the UK and abroad.

Reviews

Shepherd tells an extraordinary story in plain words, without talking down to the lay reader. The result is a rattling good yarn that is a major contribution to public understanding of what goes on our there, over that cold, grey, storm horizon. - SCOTTISH REVIEW OF BOOKS