Exploring the Big Bubble

WESTERN EUROPE

From a giant offshore drilling rig buffeted by gale winds and 20-ft. waves, crews of the American Overseas Petroleum Ltd. last week began boring into the shallow center of the North Sea. Their quest-for natural gas to supply fuel-shy Europe-will be one of the world's most closely watched explorations. The wildcat operation off Dogger Bank, a favorite ground of herring fishermen, is the first to probe Britain's portion of the continental shelf. It is involved in a prospecting race that has roiled the waters of the North Sea and shows promise of reshaping Europe's entire energy market, which now imports 42% of its needs.

Inconclusive Results. Last week, despite the hazard of winter storms with hurricane winds, two other rigs also drilled off West Germany for a German-American consortium. More rigs are converging on the area from as far off as Borneo, and shipyards from Belfast to Kiel are turning out drilling platforms to overcome a worldwide short age. All this activity is a result of the mammoth pocket of gas that was discovered in 1959 by Esso and Shell in the coastal Dutch province of Groningen near the German border. Seismic tests have since convinced oilmen that the North Sea may contain the world's biggest bubble of natural gas. Though drilling has so far yielded nothing further off the Dutch coast and only inconclusive results in German waters, the scramble to find the undersea riches now involves at least 85 companies.

Next big jump in exploration will come off the British coast. In the past seven months, Britain has not only claimed mineral rights beneath half the North Sea under a 1958 convention unratified by Holland or Germany, but has also swiftly licensed 22 consortiums to explore 34,000 sq. mi. of that domain. Oilmen plan to spend some $225 million on the exploration over the next six years.

Undersea Pipeline. Whatever gas or oil the sea may yield, the Groningen field's proved reserves (1.1 trillion cubic meters) already constitute 70% of Europe's gas resources and bulk larger than all of Canada's. Dutch officials estimate privately that the field harbors nearly 2 trillion cubic meters. Groningen gas now reaches some 500,000 Dutch consumers, and early in December the Esso-Shell export consortium and the British Gas Council began jointly studying the feasibility of a $75 million pipeline across the North Sea that would let Dutch wells supply half of Britain's present gas needs. Belgium and Germany have signed up to buy a total of 10 billion cubic meters a year, starting in 1966, and France is dickering for 5 billion a year.

While natural gas supplies only 2% of Western Europe's energy now, some experts predict that it will grab 10% of the market by 1975-probably at the expense of coal's 48%. Gasmen are eager to hurry that day along. After the year 2000, the Dutch experts figure, atomic power will begin to steal the market from gas.

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