Three oil industries.

This was the scene in Peterhead harbour this morning. As always the harbour was busy with fishing boats and ships associated with the North Sea oil industry.

The colourful vessel in the centre is the Normand Oceanic an offshore supply ship equipped to operate in deep waters. She was built in Norway in 2011 by Vard Brattvaag. She is equipped with 400 and 100 ton offshore cranes, immense winches and at the bow with a heli-deck.

The current exploitation of petroleum oil in the North Sea is Scotland's third oil industry. Back in the 19th century Peterhead was the also base for Scotland's first oil industry, based on whaling around Greenland. One of the quays in the harbour is still known as blubber box quay.

The second oil industry came about thanks to one James 'Paraffin' Young. In 1851 he began to distil oil, at first from coal and later from rock shales, near to Bathgate, in West Lothian. This was the foundation of the modern oil industry, providing the raw material for a new range of chemicals. His legacy can still be seen in the landscape of West Lothian in the form of huge red mounds or bings, of spent shale from which oil has been extracted.