The North Sea has two of the world’s largest ports on its coasts and is one of the most frequently traversed seas on the planet. Mention the North Sea to most people and they will most likely refer to the Oil industry for which it is widely renowned; however it also provides most of Northern Europe with fish. There are over 230 different species living in its waters. The commercially fished varieties include; Sole, Plaice, Mackerel, Haddock and Cod. Both the Oil industry and commercial fishing present a number of challenges in maintaining a balances and healthy eco-system.
Many people imagine oil to have been discovered in the North Sea within the last 35 years; although it was way back in 1859 that the Germans made the first discovery after drilling for coal in the Southern North Sea Basin above North Germany. This find started the German oil industry, and up until 1890 a further 100 wells were drilled, of which 60 produced oil. Shortly after Natural Gas was discovered in the North Sea in 1910.
Five relatively quiet decades passed, until in August 1959 a well drilled by Shell & Esso in Groningen, the Netherlands literally changed the European oil and gas industry over night. Realization of the vast size of this immense gas field suddenly hit home. The geologists calculated it to be twenty miles long with a capacity of 6 billion cubic feet per day, making it one of the largest gas fields in the world. After this discovery in 1959, serious commercial exploration in the North Sea was soon underway.
In 1965 five major gas discoveries totaling some 20 trillium cubic feet were found, enough to saturate the entire UK monopoly market. By 1969 seismic ships were scouring the North Sea for oil, and then the Phillips Petroleum Company made the second biggest discovery in North Sea history, the fist billion barrel oil field, ‘Ekofisk Field’ in Norwegian waters.
The North Sea is sometimes considered to be a deep sea area; however it is actually relatively shallow. The depth increases from less than 30 meters in the South to around 200 meters in the North. The exception to this is a small area of the North Sea called the Norwegian Trench which cuts through the North-Western part of the sea and is up to 700 meters deep in the area called the Skagerrak.
Popular opinion suggest that the UK’s share of North Sea oil and gas is presently in decline, with reserves reducing at a fast rate 35 years after the the oil fields were initially exploited. There is however a growing body of opinion that contradicts this view, and suggests that proven oil reserves have been greatly underestimated.
37 billion barrels of oil have now been sucked up from the UK Continental Shelf, with a remaining 25.5 billion barrels still to be extracted. Experts in the Oil Industry believe that remaining reserves exceed current estimated by as much as a fifth. With the onset of new drilling technology, and the ever rising price of oil, it is now makes economic sense to drill fields that were once considered too difficult or remote.
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