Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil

Forty years ago, Britain was poised on the brink of an extraordinary discovery - oil, billions of gallons of it, deep beneath the harsh waters of the North Sea. This opening edition gives a voice to some of the men who made that discovery and who risked their lives in the North Sea to get the oil ashore. Theirs is a tale of dramatic risk-taking and high politics as the government and the oil companies raced to get their hands on the bonanza. The promise of enormous riches inspired technical innovation on a scale never seen before, but did the haste of the North Sea project put at risk the lives of men who were working in some of the most extreme conditions in the world? (bbc.co.uk)

As the oil industry boomed in the early 1980s, workers up and down the country vied for jobs offshore. Under Margaret Thatcher, dozens of new platforms were built in the North Sea, bringing in millions of barrels of oil and billions of pounds of taxes to the Treasury. The economy was transformed as the fortunes of oil and banking soared, while Britain's traditional manufacturing industries declined. But before the decade was out the boom would turn to bust with the collapse of the global price of oil, and the industry would be rocked a succession of tragedies, culminating in the destruction of the Piper Alpha platform by fire and the deaths of 167 men.

The first Gulf War of 1991 brought home the fragility of global supplies of energy. Suddenly our North Sea oil and gas were more important than ever, but there were problems looming on the horizon. As oil reserves were used up, oil companies were about to face their biggest challenge yet. Getting rid of redundant platforms brought them into a dramatic confrontation with an environmental movement that was growing in confidence and influence. As the flow of oil began to slow down, the oil men and women had to venture into ever deeper waters in the search for new supplies. Their quest would inspire a new generation of awe-inspiring underwater technology. With North Sea oil and gas still supplying most of Britain's energy, it may be that the extraordinary national adventure, which began 40 years ago in the North Sea, is far from over. (bbc.co.uk)