Tom
I think the 1986 and 1999 price collapses really did hit Aberdeen very badly - I remember tales of people just upping sticks and going back to the USA and leaving the house keys in the door
The oil companies might be well versed in riding out cycles but they normally do it be laying waste to the workforce - management can't do anything about the price, nor the large lumps of steel they have building so to show their skills they fire a herd of people - and that goes in spades for the contractors and people like chopper operators
In 1986-88 the rest of the UK economy was booming but the oil patch was a disaster IIRC - a lot or people went into the City and never came back