 This gamble despite considerable opposition within Thomson management, proved highly successful and within a few years Thomson became a market leader in European travel.In the early 1970s, Brunton instigated ITOL's highly risky and calculated gamble into the North Sea oil venture with the late Dr Armand Hammer and Occidental Petroleum and J. Paul Getty.Initially a speculative consortium seeking new fields, it established both the Piper Alpha and Claymore fields and the Flotta Refinery on the island of Orkney.