North Sea Oil
A History - Sixty Years of Triumph and Tragedy
$50.02
- Hardcover
288 pages
- Release Date
15 July 2025
Summary
Charting the development of the North Sea Oil business from the early days, when oil companies hired seismic ships to go out and use dynamite to try to determine whether there was any oil out there, to the modern day, this is a fascinating history of oil and gas exploration, development and production in the North Sea. This was a drama enacted out of sight of land, in the freezing waters of one of the world’s most hostile seas. All the major oil companies wanted to get in on the act, as well …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781398126893 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1398126896 |
| Author: | Victor Gibson |
| Publisher: | Amberley Publishing |
| Imprint: | Amberley Publishing |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 288 |
| Release Date: | 15 July 2025 |
| Weight: | 614g |
| Dimensions: | 39mm x 166mm x 244mm |
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Critics Review
‘It is a tale of grit, endurance and extraordinary technical innovation, as well as distress when things have gone wrong and lives have been lost.’ * Tugs and Towing News, August 2025 *
‘A superb book that brings the story of the industry to a wider audience and makes the invisible visible.’ * Undiscovered Scotland, August 2025 *
‘As debate rages on the merits of drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, Victor Gibson’s account of the industry’s rise and decline feels particularly timely, writes Sam Baker.Squeezing 60 years of exploration, drilling and decommissioning into 286 pages – and concluding with the court rulings affecting the Rosebank and Jackdaw developments – Gibson largely avoids taking a firm position on the sector’s future. However, he suggests that opposition to new projects could mark a decisive turning point for the UK’s offshore industry. At the same time, the very existence of a retrospective book on North Sea oil hints that its most significant chapter may already be over.’ * The Chemical Engineer Magazine, May 2026 *
‘The reader might well wonder why anyone wanted to work offshore at all when it was so dangerous, and there’s not much in the book about the well-known attraction of high wages. But there is a certain sense of fondness in Gibson’s telling; a feeling of admiration for ingenuity and a remembrance of how much individual skill and resourcefulness matter when an industry is in its infancy. Let’s hope those attributes can be put to good use in whatever comes next for the North Sea.’ * Nautilus Telegraph, Book of the Month *
Victor Gibson
Victor Gibson is a former master mariner who commanded offshore vessels working in the North Sea between 1975 and 1986. He wrote a guide for shipmasters involved in the offshore industry, Supply Ship Operations, published by Butterworth Heinemann, and subsequently compiled technical documentation for a number of drilling rig owners, as well as contributing articles to specialist journals and acting as a marine representative for rig moves.
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