104 



Until then, the industry had nothing to phow for a brash, half-billion-dollar 

 het that it would find large reserves of oil or gas in the untested, 280,(X)0-sq-mile 

 body of water bounded hy energy -hungry Britain, Holland, Germany, Denmark, 

 and Norway. 



Six more discoveries fast on the heels of BP's find removed any fears that the 

 entire North Sea play might he a complete debacle. But jubilation gave way to 

 new apprehension when Britain's Gas Council refused to offer producers what 

 they felt was a fair price. 



The U.K. marketing has.sle, Holland's failure to adopt acceptable rules for 

 opening its waters, and dismal drilling results off Germany tended to cloud the 

 picture as drillers pa.ssed the halfway mark of their third winter in the hostile 

 North Sea. 



Geologists shine. Though not yet an economic success, the North Sea must be 

 one of the most intriguing exploration successes of all time. 



Germany, Holland, and Britain have long produced from scattered onshore 

 fields, and imaginative geologists had no trouble extending the same prospects 

 into the North Sea. However, pay thickness, productivity, and reserves of the 

 land field were too small to make a high-cost offshore search worthwhile — until 

 Holland's 40-trillion-cu-ft Groningen gas field changed the outlook almost over- 

 night. 



After Groningen's size was realized in 1962, seismic boats started probing the 

 North Sea. Several promising, large structures turned up. It was a good bet that 

 conditions responsible for Groningen could exist offshore. 



Bordering nations in 1964 divided the sea according to the Geneva Continental- 

 Shelf Convention, and a mad scramble was on. While Holland's Parliament 

 dawdled, Britain — with the next-best prospects — promoted a highly competitive 

 licensing arrangement that attracted 2.5 operating groups representing 66 com- 

 panies. A 10-company combine won rights in Germany's federal v/aters. Den- 

 naark awarded its acreage to a single group composed of five-companies. Norway 

 inked pacts with 9 operating combines made up of 18 firms. 



Operators contracted for a hundred million dollar>;' worth of rigs and agreed 

 to spend another quarter ))illion to explore their license.'-- — all before the bit had 

 yielded one shred of evidence that the gamble would pay off. But the market was 

 there ; the prospects were there ; and, if they could find gas deposits of sufficient 

 size and could get a price comi)etitive with other energy sources, the return would 

 compensate for the ri;-k. 



German drillers hit a fevr pockets of mostly nitrogen gas and so far haven't 

 got a whiff of salable methane. British prospectors punched dovrn a string of 

 dusters between 54° and v5n° North latitude. Then in December 196.". a billowing 

 flare atop British Petroleum's Sea Gem rig in U.K. Block 48/6 heralded the 

 North Sea's first commercial strike. All told, the British North Sea has given 

 up three definitely commercial gas fields, and four more strike.s — one with a good 

 show of oil — remain to be evaluated. 



Five of the seven U.K. fields resemble Groningen in everything but size. Gas 

 flows from the Permian Rotliegendes sand, which is covered with a cap rock of 

 salt and lies between 7,000 and 10,000 ft. Pay thickness runs 500 ft. or more. 

 Porosity and permeability compare favorably with Groningen. Well deliver- 

 abilities for the most part are everything operators had hoped for. Too, the gas 

 contains a very small amount of nitrogen, whereas Groningen gas is about 15% 

 nitrogen. 



Arpet's Block 48/29 field produces from the Triassic Bunter sand at about 

 4,000 ft. Burmah's find in Block 48/22. which produced 4,000 bbl of oil along 

 with gas in a 4-day test, produced from the Magnesian (Permian Zechstein) 

 limestone at about 7.000 ft. 



Reserves: 14 trillion. In British waters, an average of one wildcat in five ha.s 

 hit commercial gas. But lest anyone project this better-than-usual ratio into 

 dreams of another Middle East or offshore Louisiana, exploration managers 

 stress they are drilling best prospects first, and no single field uncovered to date 

 begins to approach Groningen's reserves. 



Shell-Esso's Block 49/26 field, for example, contains about 6 trillion cu ft. No 

 other individual field estimates are available. However, the British Gas Council, 

 monopoly buyer of all U.K. gas and an operating partner in the Amoco group, 

 estimates total reserves at a minimum of 14 trillion cu ft. This figure will go 

 much higher if Phillips' find in Block 49/6, two Amoco group discoveries in Blocks 

 49/18 and 49/23, and the Burmah strike eventually prove up. 



