British Petroleum at Eakring
The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company operations were to continue
in Persia until the 1950's when Dr Mosaddeq took power in that country. He
was to nationalise the Oil Industry there and BP failed to reach
satisfactory arrangements with the new government. Therefore BP decided to
shut down it's operations in Iran and evacuate it's personnel.
This led to an influx of people to Eakring who were
experienced in exploration and production. This proved a boon for the
UK onshore Oil industry as the first post war oilfield was discovered at
Plungar in the Vale of Belvoir, Leicestershire. There were more successes at
Egmanton, Bothamsall and South Leverton in Nottinghamshire, Corringham,
Gainsborough and Glentworth in Lincolnshire and Kimmeridge in Dorset. All
operations were initially run from Eakring. The research centre was at
Kirklington Hall, Kirklington much of BP's research was carried out at
Kirklington Hall and was visited by many prominent scientists and engineers.
One visitor was Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine, who also
invented the world's first jet powered drill which was first used at
Plungar, Nottinghamshire. Kirklington Hall is now a private school.
Gainsborough posed a problem not hitherto encountered, a
part of the reservoir lay directly beneath the town and could not be reached
by conventional vertical drilling. It was here that Britain's first deviated
wells (arguably the world's first) were slant drilled from a railway yard at Gainsborough Central Station.
Operations being run from Eakring
There were further discoveries at Torksey and Wareham and
by 1964 BP's annual oil production figures had surpassed the 1943 peak
reaching 127491 tons. But this year the government ended the preferential
tax treatment for producers of indigenous light oils to meet the obligation
entered into under the European Free Trade Agreement. This had a
catastrophic effect on Eakring.
With a cheap and plentiful supply of oil from the Middle
East and interest now turning to the North Sea, BP suspended development of
the Gainsborough and Wareham fields and concentrated funds on North Sea Oil
exploration.
But Eakring still had a significant role to play and
continued as an important operational centre in the offshore business. In
1965 Eakring operated BP's first offshore well in UK waters at Lulworth Bank
in Weymouth Bay.
But more significantly Eakring played a major part in the
company's sortie into the North Sea with the Sea
Gem jack-up barge the
drilling section of which had been pre-assembled and run up in the Eakring
yard. The rig included a number of Eakring based staff and was joined to its
platform section and floated out from a Teeside yard and spudding an
exploration well in June 1965.
But it was to be an expedition that
experienced both success and disaster. The rig was to make the first
hydrocarbon discovery in the British Sector in the North Sea, into what is
now the West Sole field. However on Boxing Day 1965 the Sea
Gem sank with the tragic loss of fourteen lives. Details
of the disaster can be found at the Dukes Wood Oil Museum.
The find was significant however and
spurred BP on to explore further in the North Sea and their operations based
was moved to Great Yarmouth. At this time they also moved operations to the
Tetney heliport and later to Dundee, Easington, near Hull and Sullom Voe in
the Shetlands and to Dyce near to Aberdeen Airport.
In 1973 world oil price rises and the
discovery of the Wytch Farm field in Dorset BP renewed interest in onshore
activities. In 1979 Eakring assumed ownership of the field from British Gas
with the production of 6000 barrels a day but with very firm plans to
develop it into Europe's largest onshore oilfield.
In the 1980's another oilfield was discovered
near the village of Scothern in Lincolnshire and this led to the development
of Britain's second largest onshore oilfield at Welton. Three further
discoveries were made at Stainton and Scampton North nearby to Welton.
By the mid 1980'a Eakring was drilling
more onshore wells than the company was offshore and this renewed
exploration programme led to many other smaller finds.
By 1987 BP had become the largest holder
of net onshore acreage in Britain through the acquisition of exploration and
production licences of smaller independent companies.
