Onshore oil
The highest production was September 1943, when 10,049 tons produced, or 335 tons per day. This record would be next exceeded in March 1963, when 10,478 tons, or 338 tons per day were produced. [2]
In 1958, it produced 80,000 tons, with oil, in the 1950s, taken to Pumpherston in Scotland. In 1960 it produced 85,000 tons, and in 106,000 tons in 1961. [3] In 1964 the East Midlands fields produced 127,491 tons, and in 1974, the East Midlands produced 80,000 tonnes. [4]
But in 1979, the North Sea produced 76 million tonnes. If production was less than 250,000 tonnes per six months, no Petroleum Revenue Tax was applied. [5]
By 1967 Dorset was producing 10,000 tons per year. [6] Wytch Farm was discovered in 1973 by the Gas Council, on the Isle of Purbeck directly south of Poole, at 3,000 to 4,000 ft depth, [7] with production from May 1979. [8] But, importantly, only after further geophysical exploration in December 1977, did anyone realise how huge the oil field was, when drilling took place at 5,000 ft. [9] [10]
This discovery made companies look much more for onshore oil. But subsequently nothing was anything remotely as enormous as Wytch Farm. The oil, from Dorset, was taken by train to South Wales.
In 1980, UK onshore oilfields produced 240,000 tonnes of oil, mostly from Wytch Farm. This had doubled from the year before. [11]
Until 1990, relatively little oil was produced by UK onshore oil industry. This rapidly increased to peak between 1991 and 1999, where around 5 million tonnes of oil was produced each year - 5.4 million tonnes, the most, was produced in 1996. Since 1999 it has gradually declined to around 1 million tonnes a year. Onshore UK natural gas peaked in 2001. Cumulatively, onshore oil production has produced around 2% (around 500,000,000 barrels (79,000,000 m3)) of offshore (North Sea) production. The Wytch Farm oil field in Dorset, the largest onshore oilfield in Europe and run by BP, has reserves on its own of around 500,000,000 barrels (79,000,000 m3) of oil. The East Midlands Province provides 11% of UK onshore oil, 65% of the total excluding Wytch farm. So far, the Province has provided around 6 million tonnes of oil. In total, the UK has around 15 million tonnes of onshore oil left.
Planning permission for drilling was much quicker in Lincolnshire than in Hampshire and Dorset.
Although onshore oil reserves are much less, it costs much less to find and develop onshore oil. Depleted onshore oilfields at Gainsborough and Welton will be used for gas storage, of which the UK has little allocated reserves. The UK has reserves of 12 days of gas, compared to 91 days in France and 77 days in Germany.
Discoveries
Oil was discovered at Kelham Hills in the 1920s. In June 1939, BP (then the D'Arcy Exploration Company) discovered oil at Eakring; although this was not announced until September 1944. During the war the field produced over 300,000 tons of oil or 2,250,000 barrels from 170 pumps. [12] Oil was also drilled for during the war at Caunton and Kelham Hills.
It was a discovery of oil between Scothern and Sudbrooke in September 1980 that led to the Welton field being discovered. [13] [14] More drilling was conducted in Welton in 1981, and the French company CGG conducted seismic surveys. [15]
BP drilled near Doddington in November 1980. [16]
Eakring was only abandoned in 1986, after producing 7MMbbl. Eakring had secondary recovery, with compressed water from the end of the war. By the end of war Eakring production had dropped to 20,000 tons per year.
Oil companies
In February 1976, Tony Benn, the Secretary of State for Energy, gave permission for British Gas, BP Petroleum Development and Candecca Resources (on the Unlisted Securities Market, mostly owned by Sceptre Resources of Canada, originally called Decca Resources) to drill in the area. [17]
Candecca bought Cambrian Exploration in January 1980, [18] which gave it joint ownership of the Humbly Grove field in Hampshire. [19] In February 1982 Esso bought Candecca. [20] Trafalgar House bought Candecca in January 1984 for £79m. [21] BP bought Candecca in July 1987 for £21m [22] from Trafalgar House. Candecca Resources Ltd was a subsidiary of BP. It was bought by Kelt UK Ltd in April 1992. Kelt UK Ltd was a subsidiary of Kelt Energy plc and Edinburgh Oil and Gas plc.
Most of the oilfield licences were owned by BP Exploration, when they were bought by Pentex Oil of Aberdeen in March 1989. Star Energy bought Pentex Oil in August 2005 for £38.5m.
