Britain: Down to the Sea in Rigs

The drilling platform went into position more than two months ago, 70 miles off the coast of Britain in the bleak, inhospitable waters of the North Sea. Crammed into submarine-tight quarters at night, buffeted by wind and wave, 36 men worked in staggered shifts, 20 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep the drill boring slowly into the sea floor beneath. Last week the punishing grind paid off: the rig’s owner, Continental Oil Co. of England (a subsidiary of the U.S.’s Conoco), struck a promising, 64-ft.-thick pocket of natural gas that is yielding 3,600,000 cu. ft. per day.

Continental’s find is the third such discovery in as many months in the British sector of the North Sea. Since 1959, when Esso and Shell discovered the mammoth Groningen gas field on the Dutch coastal plain, fuel-needy Europeans—and an international array of ambitious oilmen—have suspected that the world’s biggest bubble of natural gas may lie beneath the North Sea. Except for one inconclusive well drilled off The Netherlands last year, that dream was long based on geological speculation and nurtured largely by faith.

Whether Continental’s discovery, or British Petroleum’s two other finds nearby, will be rich enough for commercial exploitation may take months to determine. The Continental announcement was more than enough, however, to trigger a scramble in oil shares on the London stock exchange last week and heat up the race to get down to the sea in rigs. Of the 23 consortiums that Britain has licensed to explore its area of the North Sea, only five (Continental and British Petroleum, plus Shell-Esso, Signal and the Phillips Group) are actually drilling. Holding up the others: the slowness of British shipyards in building the rigs, which cost up to $10 million.

Because the stakes are so enormous, the North Sea hunt has become a no-holds-barred game. Industrial spies now fill the sea and air off the British coast, in chugging trawlers and hovering helicopters, seeking to detect strikes before they are announced. The work pays well. Gas fever has become so hot that competing oil companies and stock speculators reward the spies for information with checks as large as $70,000.