A Town Called Charlie

[Music] next week goodbye C see you next week we be back in time for the school concert no promises better do my very best all right all right okay goodbye morning I leave for work early in the morning before most people are up but then I've got further to go than most [Music] people I start from Dice airport abedine it's like a commuter station and the rush hour starts before 6:30 most of us are on our way to work in the oil fields of the North Sea I'm headed for the Brent field myself a platform called Brent Charlie the journey to work begins with a flight from abedine to to sbur in Shetland that's 170 Mi to start with from Shetland you have to go out to the oil field by a helicopter that means getting into a survival suit always a bit of a struggle but it's a must when you're flying over the North Sea flying conditions are good today that makes a nice change they can be terrible storms in Winter fog in summer just getting people to and from work in the North Sea can be a major headache in itself in this Chopper it's about 1 and 1/4 hours 1 and 1 half if there's a headwind an expensive way to commute maybe but everything offshore is expensive a lot of people don't realize just how far offshore that really is for the supply boat is 24 Hours hard slog out to see there's my home for the next 7 Days 180 of us will be working eating and sleeping on a town on legs in 140 M of water a town called Charlie Brent Charlie does two jobs it collects and pumps the oil from the other three Brent platforms and it drills to extract its own oil from the reservoir below that's why we're all here to drill and produce oil some people say the platform looks like a bit of Mao sticking out of the sea but it's designed and built to withstand winds gusting at 160 mph and waves the height of a 10 story block of flat as o IM offshore installation manager the platform is now my responsibility there's a hell of a lot of walking to do and most of it up and down stairs if all the equipment that squeezed into this platform was spread out on dry land it had cover about 10 acres and I'd get a car to go around it to support human beings in a region that's fit only for fish and seagulls there's a power station big enough to light a small town desalinate us to help out with the fresh water supply and a heating system we've even got our own sewage work and our rubbish is taken off by boat so we don't pollute to the Sea around us a lot of people don't realize that on this platform we have 40 Wells uh each one is drilled out not vertically but uh drilled out in a different direction so if you looked at it from above it would be rather like a a star I suppose with Wells radiating out in different directions every well has a Target which we drill towards and that Target area is usually as small as 50 ft and that's quite small when you consider that the hole is 10,000 ft deep and 7,000 ft away from the platform in the laboratory we make round the-clock chemical checks on the quality of the oil the pump room is the heart of Brent Charlie this is where we receive the oil from the other three platforms and pump it with our own 120 Mi under the sea to the terminal of shore every inch of the platform is put to work the legs and the concrete foundations they rest on are used for oil storage because it's so vital to continue producing oil the maintenance schedule is never ending there's a constant program of modification and Improvement we're learning all the time because out here we're doing what's never been done before excuse me Bonnie call in the safety vessel we intend to have men working over the side safety vessel men over the side which side you going on the northwest corner northwest corner okay stand by one uh Prince Phillip Prince philli the BR Charlie uh Char pH good afternoon uh we're planning to put some men to work over the northwest corner visibility permitting is it likely that you can come in and keep a watch on them over okay Charlie this is the Prince Philip we've got you in visual contact you go down when you're ready hello the number of cabins on board is 53 accommodating 180 odd people they are looked after by four stewards who is responsible for changing the beds every day supplying clean fresh towels every day should St some of these guys come down I mean it's just not real I've seen some of these guys want a Bo now you can just see the be pair of eyes just cover the mud for head to fot you know and their feet are absolutely soaking but it just means you've got to clean up after them I'm a state register nurse the SI Bay is very well equipped for minor accidents to the major accidents where you can stabilize the man to getting him a fit state to either be evacuated from the platform or as we have now we have a doctor in the field and if you were in real emergency you would call him up if you required his immediate assistance the food part of the game is a very important thing it's the highlight of their day to come into the mes and to have a good wholesome meal well the largest meal I've ever seen anybody a chop came along and a 4 lone stakes and he came back and had another two with all the trimage and he devoured a lot no trouble the evening meal rounds after the day for some of us for others it's more like a breakfast that's because the platform never sleeps extracting the oil and pumping it a Shore goes on 24 hours a day 7 days a week bread charliie deck bread charliie deck this is GF Bravo Delta India Lima for practice only for practice only requesting immediate emergency landing over we have anything from 10 to 60 flights a day so the helck crews train regularly for emergencies okay Tony KN off clear the deck nothing in the L Charlie deck to deck is clear you are clear to [Music] land other the kids all right super yeah yeah everything's yeah fine uh I'll be home tomorrow should be no problems that's the end of another week off show Mostly work problems and responsibility it may not be everybody's idea of a good life but I enjoy the challenge it's about the best platform in the north SE I've done seven the hardest thing is coming back out again I'm terrified of flying I've always got my friend I hold it in his arm with the sun rises and sunsets out here that no other person would see it's such a tremendous experience to come offshore and see a platform like such as this it's like being in the front line for the first [Applause] [Music] time your dad's going to see for you and me to buy some [Music] sugar

Channel: Shell

Views: 55,832

Keywords: Brent, Brent Field, Brent Charlie, decommissioning, North Sea, helicopter, offshore, oil, gas, oil and gas, O&G, town called Charlie, OIM, platform manager

Id: ZvrlfYreETE

Length: 8min 8sec (488 seconds)

Published: Mon May 22 2017