'I think there is little doubt that this is a major bonanza.'
'... one of the most exciting things that's happened in Europe for centuries.'

This is the year of the million-to-one shot, the year when some of us struck it rich. The finding of oil and gas under the North Sea has been called the most important discovery since James Watt's application of the uses of steam but, incredibly, there has been little or no public debate about who gets what, about the risks, about the social and economic implications of what is going on. In Holland the discovery of an immense reservoir of natural gas has started what could be an economic and industrial revolution. Farther north, the Norwegians have found themselves being called 'The Libyans of Europe' because off-shore oil drilling seems certain to provide them with four times their domestic needs.
Tonight's film takes the viewer into a world where investment runs into thousands of millions of pounds and, at the same time, shows what it's like for the rough-necks and roustabouts, the divers and helicopter pilots who are taking part in one of the world's great treasure hunts.

(from Scotland)