Introduction

In the 1990s the British offshore oil industry underwent a profound change of direction. This shift irrevocably altered the character of the production regime on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS), and with that, transformed the investment strategies of two of Britain’s biggest multinational companies, Shell and BP. In terms of corporate policy, the change of direction marked a new drive for market dominance by the UK oil majors within the European Union and a switch of investment priorities back towards the traditional overseas oil production bases that had been their staple prior to the 1970s. These changes were not limited in their impact to the oil industry itself. Because of the size of the industry and its linkages to the rest of the economy – over the past two decades the UKCS had absorbed between 10 and 20 per cent of all UK industrial investment – this transformation was of significance for the orientation of economic policy at governmental level.