This turned out to be quite an adventure! It all began a few months back when a colleague mentioned a Daily Mail article showing images of twelve oil rigs parked up in a bay in Scotland. He thought I'd be interested in looking at the pictures. Little did he know I instantly started planning a trip a to get on one!
Fast forward a few months, boat purchased, and a lot of planning later, @SpiderMonkey and I were stood on the shoreline of Cromarty Firth, wind howling, rain in our faces, freezing cold. The 1000 mile round trip was scuppered by bad weather, but we'd caught our first glimpse of these crazy huge structures and had to get back!
The second attempt went much better, but still luck was not on our side. We got up close to the Ocean Nomad, one of several rigs parked up in a cluster, but looking at the shards of metal protruding from the base we realised we couldn't safely pull our rigid-inflatable alongside it without getting stranded, the protection we had brought just wasn't going to cut it. We learnt a lot. Mainly that we needed some better fenders.
Cromarty Firth and the docks at Invergordon have for many decades been an important centre for maintenance of oil rigs and cruise ships; the sheltered bay provides a safe haven for parking up the massive structures.
2015 saw a global downturn within the oil industry, resulting in the lowest price of oil for years, falling from more than $115 a barrel in summer 2014 to less than $30. The North Sea drilling industry suffered greatly due to the fact that it sees some of highest production costs in the world. It became more expensive to to produce a barrel of oil than it could be sold for. As a result, the drilling companies saw their contracts with the oil giants cancelled and had no choice but to stack their rigs.
There are two kinds of stacked rigs - dependant upon how long they expect to be parked there for. Warm stacked rigs are ready to go with minimal work - they still have power and a crew manning them. Cold stacked rigs are parked up for a longer term, their systems powered down and crew laid off. Although the lights and running equipment of a warm staked rig would be nice, we decided pretty quickly that we didn't fancy bumping into crew members and facing the wrath of the oil industry. I hear they don't take kindly to outsiders!
We set our target - the Ocean Nomad. It is parked about a mile and a half offshore, not the closest, but looked the most promising in terms of being able to get on board. It's an Enhanced Aker H-3.2 column stabilised drilling platform, designed to move around the North Sea and drill holes into potential oil fields. It entered service in 1975, can operate in 1,200 ft of water, drill to 25,000 ft and accommodate a crew of 105 people. These things are huge!! Despite weighing 125,000 tonnes this thing floats on two submerged pontoons and can propel itself at up to 6 knots.
Three. They say it's a magic number and you know, they might just be right. On our third attempt, 3000 miles later at 3am, this time in the company of @darbians, we find ourselves standing on the shoreline looking out at these monsters once again. This time we hit the jackpot and manage to get aboard! We find a lot of locked doors, which was to be expected, but manage to get around all of the main areas and see what we wanted to see, with the exception of the on-board power plant - which would only be a few diesel generators anyway. 41 years in the sea has taken its toll - these things are built to last, but rust will always find a way and certain areas felt very dodgy.
A few hours later the weather was starting to close in, and the firth was getting busier and busier with ships and small craft. Not wanting to outstay our welcome we head back to shore feeling pretty fulfilled!
The Ocean Nomad with the Ocean Princess in the distance.
Seatrax crane and the back of the rig
The front of the rig
View from the lifeboat gantry with the bridge just left of centre
The bridge where positioning is controlled, and where the rig is "driven" from whilst in transit.
View above the bridge where radar and positioning equipment is installed.
Another view above the bridge.
Lifeboats and crane at the rear of the rig.
Tank and crane of the top deck.
Starboard crane.
Port crane.
Crane operators cab.
Galaxy III and Monarch jack-up rigs in the distance.
Ocean Princess viewed between engine room vents.
75 tonne anchor.
Anchor motors.
Workbench outside the mechanics workshop.
Transfer pumps.
Non-smokers tea-room (the smokers tea-room smelt too horrendous to go near!)
Aft lifeboats.
The helipad.
Fast forward a few months, boat purchased, and a lot of planning later, @SpiderMonkey and I were stood on the shoreline of Cromarty Firth, wind howling, rain in our faces, freezing cold. The 1000 mile round trip was scuppered by bad weather, but we'd caught our first glimpse of these crazy huge structures and had to get back!
The second attempt went much better, but still luck was not on our side. We got up close to the Ocean Nomad, one of several rigs parked up in a cluster, but looking at the shards of metal protruding from the base we realised we couldn't safely pull our rigid-inflatable alongside it without getting stranded, the protection we had brought just wasn't going to cut it. We learnt a lot. Mainly that we needed some better fenders.
Cromarty Firth and the docks at Invergordon have for many decades been an important centre for maintenance of oil rigs and cruise ships; the sheltered bay provides a safe haven for parking up the massive structures.
2015 saw a global downturn within the oil industry, resulting in the lowest price of oil for years, falling from more than $115 a barrel in summer 2014 to less than $30. The North Sea drilling industry suffered greatly due to the fact that it sees some of highest production costs in the world. It became more expensive to to produce a barrel of oil than it could be sold for. As a result, the drilling companies saw their contracts with the oil giants cancelled and had no choice but to stack their rigs.
There are two kinds of stacked rigs - dependant upon how long they expect to be parked there for. Warm stacked rigs are ready to go with minimal work - they still have power and a crew manning them. Cold stacked rigs are parked up for a longer term, their systems powered down and crew laid off. Although the lights and running equipment of a warm staked rig would be nice, we decided pretty quickly that we didn't fancy bumping into crew members and facing the wrath of the oil industry. I hear they don't take kindly to outsiders!
We set our target - the Ocean Nomad. It is parked about a mile and a half offshore, not the closest, but looked the most promising in terms of being able to get on board. It's an Enhanced Aker H-3.2 column stabilised drilling platform, designed to move around the North Sea and drill holes into potential oil fields. It entered service in 1975, can operate in 1,200 ft of water, drill to 25,000 ft and accommodate a crew of 105 people. These things are huge!! Despite weighing 125,000 tonnes this thing floats on two submerged pontoons and can propel itself at up to 6 knots.
Three. They say it's a magic number and you know, they might just be right. On our third attempt, 3000 miles later at 3am, this time in the company of @darbians, we find ourselves standing on the shoreline looking out at these monsters once again. This time we hit the jackpot and manage to get aboard! We find a lot of locked doors, which was to be expected, but manage to get around all of the main areas and see what we wanted to see, with the exception of the on-board power plant - which would only be a few diesel generators anyway. 41 years in the sea has taken its toll - these things are built to last, but rust will always find a way and certain areas felt very dodgy.
A few hours later the weather was starting to close in, and the firth was getting busier and busier with ships and small craft. Not wanting to outstay our welcome we head back to shore feeling pretty fulfilled!
The Ocean Nomad with the Ocean Princess in the distance.
Seatrax crane and the back of the rig
The front of the rig
View from the lifeboat gantry with the bridge just left of centre
The bridge where positioning is controlled, and where the rig is "driven" from whilst in transit.
View above the bridge where radar and positioning equipment is installed.
Another view above the bridge.
Lifeboats and crane at the rear of the rig.
Tank and crane of the top deck.
Starboard crane.
Port crane.
Crane operators cab.
Galaxy III and Monarch jack-up rigs in the distance.
Ocean Princess viewed between engine room vents.
75 tonne anchor.
Anchor motors.
Workbench outside the mechanics workshop.
Transfer pumps.
Non-smokers tea-room (the smokers tea-room smelt too horrendous to go near!)
Aft lifeboats.
The helipad.
Continued...
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