Oil Gushing From the North Sea? | Brussels Blog

Oil Gushing From the North Sea?

posted by on 22nd Jul 2010
22nd,Jul

Last week, I was amused to read an article in The Sunday Times which described the renaissance of the North Sea oil field. For those of you who are not interested in the nitty-gritty of oil statistics relating to production in the North Sea – on the basis that life is too short and there are better things to do – here is a brief overview. The oil is running out. In 1999 the UK produced 2.9 million barrels a day. In 2009 the figure was down to 1.5 barrels a day. The mathematicians amongst you will note that production has almost halved in the last decade. No wonder that our erstwhile Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in 2008 took to exhorting the oil companies to increase production. He had seen the figures and was desperate. The revenues that come from the production of oil have been a substantial but largely unsung benefit to the British economy for the last thirty years. Unfortunately, it seems no one bothered to tell Mr. Brown that once a field goes into decline no amount of pumping can bring it back to life.

Now however, we are told by the Sunday Times that the oil is gushing again: codswallop. The fields that they are describing hold total reserves of around 20million barrels. This you will recall, is the amount of oil that the U.S.A. uses in a day. These are tiny fields. They will be profitable for the companies by whom they are developed. Small fields of this order of magnitude are scattered all over the European mainland and have been producing oil for decades. In the grand scheme of things they are however, of marginal importance. It is a sign of the times that they should now assume any sort of significance.

It is appropriate that the decline of the North Sea oil fields should act as a symbol or harbinger of a wider global problem. It was in Britain that machinery was first designed to harness the power of fossil fuels. The steam engine was developed to pump water from coal mines and then to power factories. Canals were dug to transport coal. The foundations for a modern industrial agricultural system were established. On one view, when it comes to eco-terror the UK was there first. Now the dramatic decline of our oil producing industry might spur us on to consider a utopian future in which we green our beautiful islands and wean ourselves from our dependence on non-renewable resources.

If you want to see a startling example of someone who is interested in oil depletion go, if you can bear it, to the BNP website. The BNP may be crazed racists but not all of them are stupid. For a number of years they have followed this issue. At one time the website had a section dedicated to peak oil theory. This has gone but read Nick Griffiin’s article, “The Convergence of Catastrophes and What the BNP Needs to Do”. The BNP knows that the economic and consequent social upheaval that will follow a sudden increase in the price of oil will provide rich pickings for extremist politicians.

Robert Urquhart Collins

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