To witness the beginning or end of a great industry or a way of living isn’t unusual. Each generation has its list of comings and goings – great grandfathers who remember the advent of the motor car, grandmothers who recall the last factory hooter in Accrington, fathers and mothers who can say where and when they last used a typewriter or first saw a mobile phone. But for the same generation to know both – the end, say, of the car or the typewriter, as well as their beginning: this is exceptional. North Sea oil is coming close to that distinction. Its life seems to be passing with remarkable speed.

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