You don’t have to have an awful lot of gray hair to remember the excitement around England’s massive North Sea oil fields . While discovered in 1969, it wasn’t until well into the 1980s, on the back of surging oil prices , that the fields came into full production. Turning up the taps, the United Kingdom (as well as Norway and Germany, who also have North Sea production) became a significant exporter of oil. But then, in 1999, something happened: the UK’s North Sea production hit peak… that tipping point after which reservoirs go into decline, setting in motion both reduced production and progressively higher…