| Administrative History | The 'Capturing the Energy' project was set up in 2006 with the aim of ensuring that important records relating to the UK offshore oil and gas industry are retained and preserved for the future. The purpose of doing this is to document the industry's achievements, increase awareness of its importance and assess its economic and social impact.
The initiative was established in conjunction with a joint British and Norwegian project to develop an archive of the Frigg offshore gas field, which straddled the maritime boundary between the two countries. Subsequently, Capturing the Energy commissioned a scoping study of the UK oil and gas industry's historical records, to be carried out by the Business Archives Council of Scotland's Surveying Officer. On the basis of this report and with funding from Oil & Gas UK, a full-time Development Officer was employed on the Capturing the Energy project between 2013 and 2018.
During this time, Capturing the Energy developed a collection of oral history interviews with 'pioneers' - those who had experience of the industry around the time of the initial discoveries of oil and gas in the North Sea in the 1960s and 1970s, and subsequently, to the early 21st century. The objective was to capture verbal accounts and personal perspectives of this period, which would supplement the formal written records that Capturing the Energy also seeks to collect.
Interviewees were identified through research and using the collective knowledge and contacts of the Capturing the Energy steering group, which includes representatives from operating companies, heritage organisations and academia, as well as other individuals with a particular interest in preserving the history of the industry. Most interviews were conducted by an Aberdeen-based former broadcast journalist, and many were recorded in the interviewee's home or place of work, with others held at the University of Aberdeen's Sir Duncan Rice Library. |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of Special Collections and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |