North Sea

North Sea is another venture into the combined realm of education and entertainment, developed by Shell Oil. Its goal is to both entertain and to inform people of (and gain support for) the efforts to develop oil fields off the coast of Great Britain.

Two to four players compete at running their respective oil companies. Players will need to temporarily go into debt to bring oil production on line. The first player to have two producing oil fields *and* to be out of debt is the winner.

No copyright date is given, but the "Oil and Gas" writeup included with the game describes events that took place in 1973 and expresses hopes "that the Brent oil field will be producing oil in 1976." This places the game firmly in the early to mid 1970 time frame.

Waddingtons' "North Sea" is a different game entirely from the North Sea Oil offering by Omnia around the same time frame.

Components:

Game box and plastic insert
Mounted game board
Rules booklet
2 six-sided dice
3 plastic pipe-laying barges
3 plastic exploration rig bases
4 monthly-running-costs calculators (one per player)
4 sets of colored plastic pieces (one per player), each containing:
3 supply boats
1 exploration rig derrick
2 production platforms
1 refinery
10 personal markers
1 player token


20 Field cards
24 Chance cards
12 Loan cards
Play money in 7 denominations:
20 notes for £50,000
20 notes for £100,000
20 notes for £500,000
20 notes for £1,000,000
10 notes for £5,000,000
10 notes for £10,000,000
10 notes for £50,000,000


Shell information booklet: "Oil and Gas from the North Sea"
Information sheet on Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology