Was the price now posed for a great fall? Most of the exporters thought so, but they expected no more than a drop to $18 or $20 a barrel, below which, they thought, production in the North Sea would not be economical. On that, they were mistaken. The tax rates on the North Sea were so high that, for instance, in one field, called Ninian, a drop in the oil price from $20 to $10 would cost the companies only 85 cents. The big loser would be the British Treasury, which was taking most of the rents. Actual operating costs in Ninian—the cash costs to extract oil—were only $6 per barrel, so there
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