Even so, Mr Brown's comparison with North Sea oil highlights risks as well as rewards.
In fact we had this in the UK when North Sea oil was at its peak.
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The 1988 North Sea oil platform tragedy saw 167 men die, the world's worst such incident.
George Osborne believes that cheap gas could boost the economy just as North Sea oil once did.
All modern industries are complex, the North Sea oil industry is complex, the City is complex, the television is complex.
In 1975, Queen Elizabeth opened an underwater pipeline to bring the first of Britain's North Sea oil ashore.
North Sea oil companies were told last week that more must be done to improve their offshore safety record.
North Sea oil workers forced to remain on offshore platforms after last week's helicopter ditching are being picked up by boat.
Nationalists argue that, mostly thanks to North Sea oil and gas, Scotland subsidises the union and would be better off alone.
There have been one or two high-profile disputes in recent years: a long-running one concerned representation on North Sea oil rigs.
It's commonplace to say Britain has squandered North Sea oil, while Norway has built up a colossal fund from 30 years of revenues.
For one thing, the rise in oil prices has handed him a substantial windfall from higher tax revenues on North Sea oil production.
But, as Mr Storm sees it, selling car insurance, personal pensions or protection for a North Sea oil rig are entirely different things.
There is more hope for offshore wind, which is technically trickier, since North Sea oil has left a legacy of marine-engineering expertise in Britain.
The power station in Hatfield would have captured millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide which would then be stored on North Sea oil fields.
Welcoming the deal, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said it was a "massive vote of confidence" in the North Sea oil and gas industry.
And it is also because high energy prices, while hurting consumers, boost government revenues thanks to the remnants of North Sea oil and gas production.
Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser, convener of the Scottish Parliament's energy, economy and tourism committee, said taxes should be favourable to North Sea oil and gas.
Many British independents grew out of the North Sea oil boom.
The North Sea oil industry will see you through your lifetime.
Nor, he suggested, had she sufficiently digested the fact that the Scottish government had already been preparing a revised estimate of substantial North Sea oil wealth.
The service will be held in Aberdeen's St Nicholas' Kirk and conducted by the Rev Andrew Jolly, chaplain to the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Oil and Gas UK - the offshore industry body - said oil transported through the Brent pipeline system represented 10% of the UK's North Sea oil production.
Speaking to John Humphrys, he attacked George Osborne's "smash and grab raid" on North Sea oil revenue, which he says could cost 10, 000 jobs and billions of pounds.
The index of production grew 0.3% in November, compared with October, but had been expected to grow more as some North Sea oil and gas production resumed following maintenance.
As I pointed out in a piece for BBC News at 10 on Monday, UK growth has been pushed down quite a lot recently by declining North Sea oil and gas output.
He referred to a secret memo written in the 1970s by Scottish Office adviser Gavin McCrone on North Sea oil and the difference it could have made to Scottish economy.
In the UK, meanwhile, in addition to massive savings on the slimmed down military, the government had also found its coffers swollen by the proceeds of the North Sea oil boom.
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Married, with two children, Mr Hayward considered going into academia, but instead went to BP in 1982 and was posted first to Aberdeen, home of the UK's North Sea oil boom.
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