Enterprise Oil was a major UK independent exploration and production company based in Europe, with core areas of activity in the United Kingdom and Ireland, mainland Europe, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico.

Enterprise Oil was formed in 1983 to exploit the North Sea oil production assets of the then state-owned British Gas plc: it was privatised and its shares first listed on the London Stock Exchange in February 1984.

[3][4] In the last few years of the Company's existence it was also investing significant sums in its Brazilian oil interests.

[5] The Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury and former Bishop of Durham, served as Group Treasurer from 1984 to 1987.

[7] The Company had interests in some 41 fields, mainly in the North Sea; it had also made at least one major discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.