UK: RESURGENCE OF THE DRILLING FIELDS - NORTH SEA OIL.

Surprisingly, this year's North Sea oil production will exceed output at any time during the 1980s. Resulting revenues, however, will not. David Smith explains why - and why it isn't such a bad thing.

North Sea Oil, as everyone knows, was discovered in the 1960s, developed in the 1970s and exploited in the 1980s. But it now seems a distant memory. Politicians trade in insults about the extent to which the oil wealth was squandered in tax cuts and an unsustainable consumer boom. The days when the pound could accurately be described as a petrocurrency are long gone.