The Sea of Lost Opportunity

Norman Smith holds degrees from Oxford University (M.A.), the City University (M. Phil.) and Aberdeen University (Ph.D.). He has also participated in development programmes at Harvard and INSEAD/CEDEP. He is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and of the Society of Business Economists. His career began in engineering manufacture where he first became involved with the offshore oil and gas industry. After a spell in merchant banking, he was seconded to the Department of Energy. On his return to the private sector, he co-founded and managed an energy consulting company, Smith Rea Energy Associates Ltd (SREA) , and served as director of eight private companies in the oil and gas industry, becoming chairman of three. After retirement, he researched and authored this extensive study of the British supply chain supporting exploration and production activities in the North Sea: The Sea of Lost Opportunity: North Sea Oil and Gas, British Industry and the Offshore Supplies Office. He felt it was important that the story of this extraordinary episode in British economic and technological history should be chronicled by somebody who had been closely involved in it and that he was well qualified to undertake the task. Though now formally retired, he continues to write and would always consider a speaking engagement or even a tantalisingly interesting piece of advisory work. His website is http://normanjsmith.wordpress.com/

1. In Europe’s Sick Bay – Britain Before North Sea Oil2. The Genesis of the North Sea Oil and Gas Industry3. Motivations and Constraints in Early North Sea Activity4. Before OSO: Offshore Supplies 1963-19725. OSO’s Formative Years 1973-19806. OSO’s Long March into History7. Assessing OSO8. Case Studies and Expert Testimony9. Looking Back on a Thirty Year Journey10. Postscript