
Extract from chart in London Times (print edition), 14 Jan 2003
"Forties, the largest oilfield
discovered in the UK North Sea, is to be sold by BP in a deal
that marks a watershed in Britains declining offshore oil
industry... Discovered in October 1970 by the Sea Quest drilling
platform, production was inaugurated five years later by the
Queen. The field rapidly came to symbolise Britains North
Sea oil boom. Within three years, Forties was pumping 500,000
barrels per day down a 170-kilometre pipeline to the
companys refinery at Grangemouth in Scotland. Forties has
delivered 2.5 billion barrels of oil over three decades but today
its produces little more than 45,000 bpd"
BP sells off Forties field as oil
output dwindles
London Times, 14 January 2003