First Oilfields of the Central and Northern North Sea

SWARBRICK, RICHARD E., University of Durham, Durham, U.K., and JOHN A. MARTIN, Clyde Petroleum, Ledbury, Herefordshire, U.K.

Only 25 years ago the areas now termed the Central and Northern North Sea were true frontier exploration basins. Stratigaphy and structure were essentially unknown, except inferences drawn from the Mesozoic outcrops of Britain and Denmark. At that time the majority of small British onshore oil fields were reservoired in Paleozoic strata.

In the Central North Sea, oil was first discovered in Paleocene deep-water sandstone and Upper Cretaceous chalk reservoirs. The first commercial reserves were proven with the discovery of the Ekofisk field (Upper Cretaceous) in 1969 and Forties field (Paleocene) in 1970, both now classed as giants. Subsequently stratigraphically deeper reservoirs were established, including Jurassic sandstones (Piper field) and Permian carbonates and sandstones (Auk and Argyll fields). Diversity of trap type and reservoir age is now a hallmark of the Central North Sea basin.

In the Northern North Sea, the first exploration well in 1971 on the Brent field structure, a true wildcat whose nearest UK well control was 320 mi to the south, found oil in Middle Jurassic deltaic sandstones. A spate of discoveries on similar tilted fault blocks with Middle Jurassic and underlying Triassic alluvial-fluvial sandstone targets followed. Later, Upper Jurassic deep-water sandstones became established as a further significant reservoir with the Brae field and Magnus field discoveries.

Original seismic data, well prognoses, and structure maps tell the story of these early discoveries. Public response in Norway and the UK to the emergence of the North Sea oil province on their doorstep will be reviewed.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91004 © 1991 AAPG Annual Convention Dallas, Texas, April 7-10, 1991 (2009)