[2] Appraisal of the discovery was not possible until 1972 due to the severe winter weather conditions of the Northern North Sea and the limited capabilities of contemporary drilling rigs.

[3] The field was developed with 4 large fixed platforms: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, which were installed between 1975 and 1978.

[3] A total initial investment of £3 billion was required to develop the field, install the infrastructure, drill the wells and bring the oil and gas to shore.

[4] Brent was once one of the most productive parts of the UK's offshore assets but has now been fully decommissioned after reaching the end of its economic life.

Shell initially named all of its UK oil fields after seabirds in alphabetical order by discovery – Auk, Brent, Cormorant, Dunlin, Eider, Fulmar and so on.

[5] Situated in the East Shetland Basin, the Brent is the archetype for many of the fields in the area, consisting of a tilted fault block exposing the eponymous Brent formation, next to bounding faults which allowed migration from deeper adjacent "kitchen" areas where the Kimmeridge Clay Formation becomes fully mature and releases hydrocarbons.

Unusually on a worldwide scale (but common in this basin), the seal or cap rock for the reservoir (which stops the hydrocarbons from migrating further towards the surface) is also the Kimmeridge Clay, or technically the Heather Formation immediately below.

This converted them to low-pressure operation, which unlocked significant quantities of natural gas from the reservoir and extended the field life beyond 2010.

The GBS subsea storage cells were used to temporarily store crude oil before pumping to tankers or pipeline.

The topsides of the Brent Delta platform, weighing approximately 24,200 t, was removed in a single-lift in April 2017 and transported to Hartlepool for recycling.

The legs of the Brent Bravo and Delta platforms remain in place with their GBS subsea storage cells.

On 31 July 1979, a Dan Air fixed wing aircraft crashed attempting to take off from Sumburgh Airport.

[13] On 6 November 1986, a Boeing Vertol BV234 Chinook helicopter G-BWFC crashed on approach to Sumburgh airport.