The Struggle Over North Sea Oil And Gas

A strategic resource which is heavily influenced by international politics, North Sea oil and gas production has become an important economic and symbolic issue. Comparing the different government policies of Denmark, Great Britain, and Norway, Andersen explores the strategies each country uses and explains the resulting developments. He stresses that these differences reflect the resource base, lobbying patterns, and governmental need for revenue--emphasizing the importance of national policy paradigms underlying policy formation.

Written by the leading expert in the history of UK energy, this study provides new, in-depth analysis of the development of UK petroleum policies towards the North Sea oil and gas industry from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. Following on from volume I (The Growing Dominance of the State) to discuss the more recent history of the North Sea oil and gas industry, here Alex Kemp offers new insights into developments in the industry. The controversial decisions to raise gas prices to consumers and to introduce the Gas Levy are discussed, while the thinking behind the gradual reduction in taxation - including the abolition of SPD (Supplementary Petroleum Duty) and the removal of royalties on new developments - is fully explained. The various options considered to reduce the powers of BNOC (British National Oil Corporation), then privatise its upstream assets, and finally to abolish the state company altogether are fully discussed, as is the thinking leading up to the privatisation of the British Gas Corporation in 1986. This volume also sheds light on the development of policies onshore, particularly the role of the OSO (Offshore Supplies Office), and the response of British industry to the North Sea opportunity. Finally, the evolution of policies relating to health, safety, decommissioning, and the environment over the whole period of the study are examined. The Official History of North Sea Oil and Gas will be of interest to students of North Sea oil and gas, energy economics, business history, and British politics, as well as to petroleum professionals and policymakers.

This first of two volumes of collected papers and essays charts the sequence of significant developments over the past 40 years of the most international of industries—that of gas and oil. Explained are the physical attributes of oil and gas resources, reserves, and supply in their economic and political settings, with an emphasis on the quantities. This book also explores the economic and political inputs to the global oil and gas industry’s organization and markets since the early 1960s and the consequences of a loss of control, not only for the industry itself, but also for the western world’s economy and its political stability.

This book is a contribution to the history of a vital stage of UK technical and economic development, perhaps the most important since the Second World War. It shows, from an industrial viewpoint, how the British handled the exploitation of their most significant natural resource gain of the 20th century. Notwithstanding the nearly 30 years of government support through the Offshore Supplies Office, the UK has not reaped the full benefit of the North Sea discoveries; this book attempts to explain why. It will assist governments and industries faced with future instances of unforeseen, specialist and large-scale new demand to manage their reactions more effectively. It also throws light on how governments can pursue strategic industrial objectives while leaving market mechanisms to function with minimal interference, something some administrations – perhaps even the British – may wish to do now or in the future. Covers the entire period from the first well offshore Britain until the dismantling of the specific British industrial policy measures for offshore supplies Based in large measure upon archives not previously accessed and the private testimony/papers of participants 'Drills down' to the level of individual company decisions through case study and other material The only properly researched description of how the world’s first major local content initiative developed

This collection, featuring an impressive list of contributors, covers themes including maritime history, environmental issues, public policy, technology and resources as well as open sea development and management.

This book is organized around 50 commentaries on geopolitical energy subjects. It begins with a focus on the Americas, but then quickly skips to more international destinations encompassing five continents. The commentaries reflect on the politics emanating from the post-2014 decline in world oil and gas prices and the attendant massive increase in supply—particularly North American supply—brought on by the discovery and development of unconventional sources of energy. The commentaries give the reader a real-time perspective on politics that brings to life the current history of national and sub-national jurisdictions. As such, they offer the perspective of history “on the move.”

This book is an appraisal of current offshore industrial relations, and safety regulations instituted after the 1988 Alpha disaster in the North Sea. This text discusses the oil industry's attempts to contain subsequent, unwelcome regulatory interference, and examines the fraught history of trade unionism in the offshore industry, the conflict over health and safety, and the sometimes brutal struggle over union rights as the workforce attempted to achieve a collective voice in the reshaping of the safety and production environment. The authors conclude that, as yet, offshore safety has been little, or not at all, improved.