The UK has been producing oil and gas for half a century.
And despite some thinking that BP kicked things off in the North Sea, it was an obscure North American exploration company that first got the hydrocarbons flowing.
The Argyll field, operated by Hamilton Brothers, managed to achieve first oil a matter of months before BP’s Forties development.
Fred and Ferris Hamilton achieved the first ever commercial offshore oil production in the UK with Argyll, pipping BP’s Forties field.
Production kicked off on 11 June with the official ceremony at BP’s refinery being held on 18 June, 50 years ago today. This milestone was followed by a “great office party in Aberdeen,” one engineer involved in the project recounted.
Argyll is no longer in production after North Sea player EnQuest closed that chapter of UK oil and gas history in 2020 when its linked Alma-Galia oil fields shut down.
Although Argyll only produced for 17 years, the field was redeveloped subsequently, with Alma being the most recent attempt to breathe new life into the old field.
The early days of oil and gas in the UK were not without their struggles, trials and tribulations, engineer and collaborator on the Argyll project, JL “John” Daeschler, explained.
Daeschler wrote in a letter to Energy Voice: “The entire operation was relying on the diving industry, and this was a very strong commitment by all, considering the associated risks, and also the technology to dive and work at these depths.”
© EnQuestHe added: “Thank you and God bless all these dedicated workers” as he recounted “some of the tragic diving accidents” during the early days of the North Sea.
The engineer said that those involved “could write a book” about events like the “production platform drifting in the North Sea, with all anchor chains severed, and almost capsized!”.
After oil production started in the UK, the genie was out of the bottle, and the floodgates opened for other enterprising companies to follow in Hamilton Brothers’ footsteps.
Forties
© Supplied by AJL/Midas MediaThe UK’s first massive oil discovery came in the form of the Forties field, which was found by BP in 1970.
However, production did not start until November 1975, allowing the Hamilton Brothers to claim the title of first UK North Sea operator.
It has been said that BP could have brought Forties on stream in 1974, but the lack of an adequate contracting sector created a stumbling block.
However, what Forties lacked in early deployment, it made up for in longevity as it produced for more than 40 years.
Queen Elizabeth II even had a gloved hand in the first oil from Forties as she opened the operation of the UK’s first oil pipeline, which ran 130 miles from Cruden Bay to Grangemouth.
© PA Archive/PA ImagesThe Queen started the flow of oil by pushing a gold-plated button in BP’s control centre at Dyce, near Aberdeen.
At the time, Her Majesty said: “I am sure that British experience and expertise gained off our coasts will have a key role to play in developing this new offshore industry, wherever oil and gas are found.”
The discovery, first estimated to hold “two billion barrels recoverable reserves” and “produced 500,000 barrels a day,” said former BP chief executive Lord Browne.
He argued that the field located 110 miles east of Aberdeen had wider-reaching impacts than the Granite City.
In 2020, Lord Browne told Energy Voice: “When the offshore development started, it really was imported technology from the United States. That included labour, some of which was Hispanic, and as a result, some of the signs in the Forties field were in English and Spanish.”
Apache bought over the field from BP, the “jewel in its crown”, in 2003 at a time when the US firm had no track record in the UK North Sea.
The US oil business took over 230 staff and 35 onshore employees from the London-listed giant under the deal.
Brent
© Supplied by Amy Mackie/PAA conversation about the history of North Sea production wouldn’t be complete without touching on the field that gave its name to the Brent oil price.
Shell’s gargantuan development, which produced from 1976 to 2021, is currently in the process of being decommissioned, with the field’s four platforms already removed from the North Sea.
Brent Charlie, the last of the four to be lifted, was taken to the Able Seaton Port near Hartlepool in 2024, with Delta removed in 2017, Bravo in 2019, and Alpha in 2020.
The 3bn barrel development produced more than half a million barrels a day during its peak in 1982.
In 2021, Shell produced a short film documenting the final days of production on the Brent Charlie platform.
The video showed how the field came to be and how influential its production was on the UK, with input from industry experts such as Sir Ian Wood and former chief executive of Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), Deirdre Michie.
Using archive footage, Shell tells the story of Brent from its discovery to its last day.
The field gave its name to the crude oil price and served as a benchmark for North Sea production.
Although production has stopped, the Shell North Sea giant continues to leave its mark on the industry with Brent lending its the name to the crude oil price benchmark making it as relevant now as it ever was.
The North Sea now
Since then, the energy sector has evolved and adapted to changing safety standards, fiscal and political policy and public sentiment.
Now, oil production platforms are not the only energy producers in UK waters, with wind turbines becoming more commonplace and former production assets set to be repurposed for carbon storage.
Pipelines are set to be transitioned into cables; however, those still involved in North Sea hydrocarbon production argue that the industry is here to stay.
Trade body OEUK forecasts that domestic production could continue for 25 years, and demand for gas will outstrip even that.
The last oil platform in the UK is expected to be BP’s Clair; however, other sites have moved to the use of floating production storage and offloading vessels to operate fields.
Recently, BP’s North Sea head honcho Doris Reiter claimed that the London supermajor could squeeze an extra one billion barrels from the West of Shetland asset if the right fiscal and political climate arises. BP is also pressing ahead with plans to redevelop its Morlach field.
Under the right conditions, OEUK believes that the UK could meet half of its hydrocarbon demand until 2050, unlocking 13bn to 15bn barrels of oil and gas, compared to the current forecast of 4bn.
The future of the North Sea may be uncertain with the industry awaiting the outcomes of consultations on the future of licencing and tax, however, over the last 50 years, the industry has come a long way from that first barrel produced 190 miles south-east of Aberdeen.
