CHAIRMAN

John Parker

Tel. 07970 568425

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

Martin Harris

Tel. 07720 823364

SECRETARY

Allan (Mac) Black

Tel. 07512 022949

TREASURER

Duncan Pickard

Tel. 01334 870203

TALK CONVENOR

Graeme Hogg

Tel. 01334 653043

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Jim Lawrence

David Martin

Maurice Shepherd

David Sinclair

ASSIST. TALK CONVENOR

Bill Bowman

TALK RECORDERS

Jim Lawrence

Tony Miklinski

Graham Pirie

MEMBERS PAGE

To access the MEMBERS page enter your password in the box above

...........................

Next Meeting...

Wednesday

14th October 2026

'The Tay Bridge Disaster'

Presenter - Mairi Shiels

Club News

Secretary email: macblack2525@gmail.com

It was a well filled room when Chairman, John Parker, welcomed the speaker for today, Jim Gray, one of our own members, and new member, Ray Riley.

Ray Riley,  born in London with Kirkcaldy relatives. Ray had an extensive career as an HGV Driver for the Tullis Russell Paper company and also served with the Territorial Army for various periods. He has also been a Bell Ringer. Now retired and living locally we welcome Ray to Cupar Probus Club.

Jim retired in 2012 after 38 years in Oil & Gas Exploration & Production. as a Geophysicist/Geologist. Worked mostly in NW Europe but also in Australia, Africa and USA. He worked with Seismograph Services Ltd on seismic acquisition and processing crews in the UK, Australia, Gabon and Nigeria, joined the British National Oil Corporation/Britoil in Glasgow as a Geophysicist/Geologist then BP in UK and USA, returning to work in the North Sea with Reservoir Management Ltd and finally as an Independent Consultant.

Oil & Gas - the what where, how and why...

After 38 years in the Oil Industry as a Geologist Jim Gray was superbly well qualified to give us an overview of this complex and economically vital industry. He opened his presentation with a soundtrack clip from ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ a 1960’s comedy TV show about finding oil. Jim then explained the mechanism of ‘Pyrolysis’ the thermal decomposition of organic materials at high temperatures leading to the formation of oil and gas deposits.  Covering the history of oil exploration from the first discoveries in 1859 in Titusville USA, Jim covered developments in Baku 1916 and Oklahoma 1922 and explained how the invention of the Benz engine in 1855 and later Henry Fords 1908 start of mass motor car production drove the demand for oil. Plus later the emerging plastic and petro chemical industries. The rise of the oil magnates such as Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockerfeller and companies such as Standard Oil lead the industry for many years. Standard Oil became such a monopoly that the US Government eventually forced it to be broken up.

Wider afield, politics in the Middle East such as the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement setting out British and French spheres of influence and the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia led to further dramatic expansions of the industry. Nearer home, in the North Sea the first wells appeared off the Netherlands in 1959 with the first UK discoveries of natural gas in the West Sole Field in 1965, and oil from the Argyll Field in 1975. UK production peaked in 1999, when the UK was the 9th largest producer in the world, but that situation is nowadays much reduced with currently most major oil companies having left the North Sea.

The economic impact of oil has been considerable. Around 100 years of roughly stable oil prices came to a halt after the 1973 Yom Kipper War and there have been significant increases in oil prices ever since. A barrel of oil is equivalent to 42 US gallons or 35 Imperial Gallons and there are 7-8 barrels per metric tonne depending on density.  Diagrams showed us ‘The Petroleum System’ illustrating the importance of interpreting geology and seismic surveys plus the interactions of MRI scans and remote sensing methods when seeking oil and gas deposits. North Sea Oil has driven the development of offshore technology in this very demanding environment. Jim closed by illustrating the size of the worlds largest oil field at Ghawar in Saudi Arabia, which in Scottish terms would run from Elgin to Dumfries. So, our thanks to Jim for such an informative and well-presented talk.

Jim Lawrence

Would you like to join us?

New members will be very welcome, so, if you are someone who has retired and you are looking for something to do on Wednesday mornings, please contact our Secretary or, better still, pop-in to one of our meetings. If you know of someone, encourage them to attend.

Our next meeting will be on 14th October, and the speaker will be Mairi Shiels. Her talk is entitled 'The Tay Bridge Disaster'. We hope to see you there!