Brent Charlie Oil Rig

The Brent field was operated by Shell, and lay off the north-east coast of Scotland, midway between the Shetland Islands and Norway. It was one of the largest fields in the North Sea and is served by four large platforms – Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. Each platform had a ‘topside’ which is visible above the waterline and houses the accommodation block, helipad, as well as drilling and other operational areas. The topsides sit on much taller supporting structures, or ‘legs’, which stood in 140 metres of water and serve to anchor the topsides to the sea bed.

When the Brent field was discovered in 1971, it was one of the most significant oil and gas finds made in the UK sector of the North Sea. At that time the expected life span of the field was 25 years at the most. Continuous investment and a redevelopment in the 1990s by the field’s equal partners, Shell and Esso Exploration and Production UK (ESSO), have extended the life of the field well beyond original expectations. Since production began in 1976, two thirds of the revenue generated from the field has been paid to the Government as tax – amounting to more than £20 billion (in today’s money).

To date, the Brent field has produced around three billion barrels of oil equivalent. At its peak in 1982 the field was producing more than half a million barrels a day. Its production that year would have met the annual energy needs of around half of all UK homes. The site has now been fully decommissioned after reaching the end of its economic life. All four platforms were removed from the field between 2017 and 2024 with ‘Charlie’ or ‘Brent-C’ which is the subject of this report being the last one.