Page 30 - Gi flipbook March 2018

THE SEA, THE SEA

By Barry Wilkinson, gas industry historian and former the UK’s fuel would be supplied from
Editor of the Historic Gas Times the North Sea, and for over 45 years
since. The gas was of exceptional
quality, but it was a finite resource
t was 1963 and the residents Geophysical exploration and survey – high in methane and low in higher
along the east coast of England, of the North Sea bed was taking hydrocarbons, virtually sulphur free
from Yorkshire to Norfolk, were place after large gas deposits had and low in inert gases. The first North
intrigued by bumps and bangs been found on a line drawn between Sea well was started by Caltex, on
I out at sea. It could not be the North Yorkshire and northern Boxing Day 1964. However, it proved
clearance of wartime minefields, as Holland. They were looking for liquid to be dry. The drilling rig Sea Gem,
these had already been dealt with and gaseous hydrocarbons. operated by BP some 35 miles off the
after hostilities ceased in the 1940s. Their success meant a large part of Humber Estuary, found commercial

30

History_NorthSeaGas.indd 1 15/02/2018 14:10