Enterprise Oil

Enterprise Oil was formed in 1983 to exploit the North Sea oil production assets of the then state-owned British Gas plc: it was privatised and its shares first listed on the London Stock Exchange in February 1984.[1] In 1994 the Company was involved in a high-profile but unsuccessful bid to acquire Lasmo.[2]

The Corrib gas field was discovered off the coast of Ireland by Enterprise Oil in 1996, and has proved especially troublesome for Shell (see Corrib gas controversy).[3][4] In the last few years of the Company's existence it was also investing significant sums in its Brazilian oil interests.[5]

The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury and former Bishop of Durham, served as Group Treasurer from 1984 to 1987.[6]

The Company was purchased by Royal Dutch Shell for £3.5bn in 2002.[7]

The Company had interests in some 41 fields, mainly in the North Sea; it had also made at least one major discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.[8] It was initially based in London but whilst keeping its head office there, in 1998 it moved its UK operations to its office in Aberdeen.[9]