Aberdeen and its first sight of Oil

Extracted from the Book- Aberdeens Billionaire - Sir Ian Wood

The first significant hint of potential Oil & Gas Deposits in the North Sea emerged in August of 1959. While Ian was just beginning his second year at Aberdeen University, he came across an article in the local newspaper reporting Shell & Exxon had uncovered the vast Gronnigan gas field off the coast of Holland. While smaller Oil & Gas fields had been stumbled upon as early as the 1930s, none of them proved substantial enough for commercialization. Ian was mesmerised by the article, and even at a young age thought there must be significant Oil & Gas still to be discovered in the rest of the North Sea. The market for Oil wasn't large, and the market for gas even less so, with fewer cars and homes heated by wood and coal, no one really yet knew what to use gas for. These early discoveries were in fact only incidental findings during subsea dredging efforts for other marine activities taking place at the time. The Gronnigan field marked a monumental departure from anything previously unearthed. The reservoir, spanning 19 miles in length, 14 miles in wide, and thousands of feet thick, saw Shell and Exxon extract a staggering 6 billion cubic feet of gas daily, making it the largest gas field worldwide. This unforeseen revelation of hydrocarbons in such close proximity to the major energy markets of Europe captured the attention of major Oil & Gas companies worldwide, and a young Ian Wood. Despite the immense challenges faced extracting Oil & Gas from the harsh North Sea environment, the clamour for new discoveries prompted a surge in exploratory drilling. The prevailing belief was, the rock formations across much of the North Sea resembled those of the recently found Groningen gas field.

In the late 1950s, the European Oil & Gas Market was in its infancy, with no established agreements on territorial rights among the countries bordering the North Sea. Governments of these countries began discussions to formalise a set of guidelines that would define agreed territorial jurisdiction over specific areas of the North Sea. While each country automatically assumed rights for all Oil & Gas exploration within 3 miles of its coastline, uncertainties persisted in political and legal realms concerning national rights to the vast expanse of the North Sea beyond the 3 mile limit. In 1958, the UN addressed these concerns at its conference on the law of the sea, adopting the Geneva convention for the North Sea Continental Shelf. This convention specified that each country with a North Sea coastline held sovereign rights over its continental shelf, up to a defined subsea boundary. The continental shelf was delineated by the seabed and its subsoil, extending from the termination of a country's existing waters to a depth of 200 metres, or deeper if Oil & Gas extraction was feasible. The continental shelf Act needed 22 signatures of other European countries before it could be enshrined in law. While the Act was waiting to be ratified, Shell and Exxon conducted 4 unsuccessful drilling campaigns in Dutch waters before suspending operations fearful they may waste many millions of dollars to come up with nothing or find a huge tranche of Oil over which any foreign government could later claim ownership. On the 14th of May 1964 Britain became the final and twenty second signatory ratifying the Continental shelf act. Under the agreement, the UK secured an impressive 40% share of the North Sea area Oil & Gas rights, Denmark 10%, Netherlands 11%, and Norway 27%. Germany (West) around 2%. 

Despite the financial setbacks and their previous lack of oil discoveries to that point, the Oil majors exploration frenzy kicked off. Unprecedented amounts of money were invested in Oil & Gas exploration, an endeavour unprecedented in its scale, and unmatched since. Britain joined the race, issuing 51 exploration licences covering 348 blocks, each block spanning 100 x 100 miles. These concessions represented a huge chunk of the available explorable area of the North Sea. The initial Oil prospectors of the time were little more than financial gamblers with drilling rigs playing what amounted to the highest-stakes poker game in history.

American Oil giant Conoco was among the first companies to receive UK exploration licences and invested millions in their early efforts yielding no success. After 5 years and ready to give up, they conducted exploration and drilling in 1963 in an area that would later become the extensive Viking Gas field. In 1965 BP drilled approximately 55 miles away from Conoco's original site hoping to replicate the find. This prompted Conoco to return to the area and after 18 months of drilling and exploring the company discovered what would become the West Sole Oil & Gas field, and it emerged as the first North Sea Oil find containing commercially viable quantities of Oil.

EXTRACTED FROM THE BIOGRAPHY - SIR IAN WOOD ABERDEENS BILLIONAIRE

WHAT DO YOU GET THE ABERDONIAN MAN IN YOUR LIFE THIS CHRISTMAS?

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Billionaire industrialist Sir Ian Wood stands as the wealthiest homegrown founder of a company in Scotland. When he stepped down from the helm in 2013, his creation—Wood Group plc—had grown into a global powerhouse valued at $12 billion, operating in more than 60 countries, employing 60,000 people, and elevating his personal fortune to over £2 billion.

A figure both formidable and fiercely debated, Sir Ian Wood’s life unfolds as an extraordinary saga—one marked by relentless effort, unwavering determination, profound personal sacrifice, moments of tragedy, brushes with disaster, and the darker currents of betrayal, greed, immense wealth, and influence.

Beginning with his family’s modest fishing-boat repair business in 1967, he boldly steered the company into the emerging world of oil and gas just as the industry reached Britain’s shores in the 1970s. From there, he built a sprawling empire that touched shipping, energy, fishing, technology, travel, electronics, power generation, offshore drilling, and property development. His leadership oversaw the most dramatic industrial transformation Aberdeen had ever seen.

Now, for the first time, the story long hidden behind closed doors is revealed. This is an explosive, deeply revealing journey into the sometimes shadowy, often ruthless, yet undeniably electrifying world of the Aberdeen oil and gas sector—its power brokers, its high-stakes decisions, and the man whose influence shaped an era.

Sir Ian’s real-life ascent makes HBO’s Succession seem like little more than a gentle bedtime tale.

His achievements stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the greatest entrepreneurs in any industry, at any point in history.

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