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The Tudors
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People had been looking for supplies of oil and gas under the sea for many years. Most oil came from countries in the Middle East or South America and they could fix their prices as they wanted. In 1971 the Shell Oil Company discovered a large oil field in the North Sea about 100 miles off the Shetland Islands in Northern Scotland. It was called the Brent field. The oil was at a depth of 460ft (140 metres). It began to produce oil in 1976,

Since then many oil fields have been found and their oil used in industry and the home. Drilling for oil is a dangerous occupation and there have been many deaths. The supply found is also not limitless and that Brent field found by Shell has now been discontinued.

Round about the same time, gas was also found under the North Sea and was piped ashore to be used in homes. I remember that cookers and gas fires had to be converted to run on North Sea Gas which, it was said, had no smell unlike the gas we had been using. Needless to say this factor worried my mother, who was an Olympic Champion when it came to worrying. At the time, end of the sixties, we used to have family holidays in Norfolk and there was a vast gas terminal built at a place called Bacton. I must go back and see if it's still there. Fancy coming with me? Good.

Being able to have a supply of these fuels, gas and oil, was essential for our well-being although, as we will find out, new methods of power are being developed.


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