北海油田是世界著名的石油集中出產區，每日產約600萬桶。位於大西洋的陸緣海——北海，介於歐洲大不列顛島、挪威和歐洲大陸之間，所出產之石油為沿岸英國，挪威和荷蘭等國所享有。
1970年代之前，以波斯灣為核心的亞洲中東地區，一直是西方工業國家石油能源的主要供應者，隨著第二次世界大戰以後西方國家經濟的恢復和繁榮，其對石油的需求量激增，但各大石油巨頭卻不願為亞洲石油國支付更高的購價，因此造成彼此的積怨。
北海是歐洲航運要道，且海底地形複雜，海上氣候惡劣，一直未有大規模地質勘探活動進行。而北海在1959年首先於荷蘭近海發現格羅寧根氣田（荷蘭語：Groningen），此後更進入大規模開發階段，先後於1969年發現埃克非思科油田（英語：Artsen non-Cisco），1971年發現布倫特油田（英語：Brent），大油田的相繼發現，不僅緩解英國與挪威等西歐國家的能源短缺，而且更使挪威成為除沙烏地阿拉伯和俄羅斯之外的第三大非歐佩克石油出口國。
North Sea）是北大西洋的一部分，位於大不列顛島以東，斯堪的那維亞半島西南和歐洲大陸以北。北海海底有豐富的石油儲藏。
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid oil and natural gas, produced from oil reservoirs beneath the North Sea.
In the oil industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and the area known as "West of Shetland", "the Atlantic Frontier" or "the Atlantic Margin" that is not geographically part of the North Sea.
Brent crude is still used today as a standard benchmark for pricing oil, although the contract now refers to a blend of oils from fields in the northern North Sea.
United Kingdom Continental Shelf production was 137 million tonnes of oil and 105 billion m³ of gas in 1999.[27] (1 tonne of crude oil converts to 7.5 barrels).[27][28][29] The Danish explorations of Cenozoic stratigraphy, undertaken in the 1990s, showed petroleum rich reserves in the northern Danish sector, especially the Central Graben area.[30] The Dutch area of the North Sea followed through with onshore and offshore gas exploration, and well creation.[31][32]
Exact figures are debatable, because methods of estimating reserves vary and it is often difficult to forecast future discoveries.
Peaking in 1999, production of North Sea oil was nearly 950,000 m³ (6 million barrels) per day. Natural gas production was nearly 280×109 m³ (10 trillion cubic feet) in 2001 and continues to increase, although British gas production is in sharp decline
The extraction rights and licenses over oil in the North Sea (let's ignore gas for the moment which is mostly offshore from England) are claimed by the United Kingdom and agreed by treaty even though most of the area claimed lies outside UK territorial waters.
It seems a little presumptuous to think that just by claiming independence that any of this money would revert to a new Scottish government. The rights are all granted by the Crown and royalties are paid pursuant to licensing agreements. It seems to me that the UK government would have little interest in assigning those rights and in the absence of any amendments to treaties it would be quite entitled to maintain its interest in any oil fields outside Scottish territorial waters.
Scottish Oil and Gas Boom
布蘭特原油(Brent crude)是指在歐洲北海生產以及在西歐提煉，是由北海布蘭特及Ninian區，共15種原油綜合而成，屬於輕甜原油，但品質略低於西德州原油，平均含硫量為0.37%，適合提煉汽油、柴用與噴射燃油。
布蘭特原油在倫敦國際原油交易所交易的原油，從中東、非洲輸往西方的原油均依照布蘭特原油訂價，俄羅斯、奈及利亞乃至於中東和亞洲其他地區的原油生產商也以它為參考指標，所反應的是全球原油供需的狀態。
