Off-Shore Oilrig - North Cormorant (Limited Edition)

It was in 1859 that the first oil well was successfully drilled underground to a depth of 21m by Colonel Drake in Pennsylvania, USA. It was not until 70 years later that the first hazardous steps were taken from land into water. In 1927 the first offshore drilling was done in California to a depth of only 6m. The oil policy of the OPEC countries made undersea oil exploration and production much more interesting. There are now about 380 off shore drilling rigs in operation world wide. In addition to off the coasts of North and Central America, a second major field was found in the North Sea. In 1975 the Forties Field went into production. The substructure of the North Cormorant was towed to its site 160km north east of the Shetland Isles at the beginning of 1980. When it was finally anchored to the seabed with 32 gigantic steel pins it had covered a record distance of 1400 km by sea from the French shipyard at Cherbourg. The whole drilling platform was installed in the period from May to August 1981 and went into production in December. The oil and gas extracted is transported to dry land in pipelines. The deck of the platform has a total area of 4000 square meters. The gigantic substructure with a height of 170m and a weight of 24,500 tons is bigger than all its predecessors in the history of North Sea oil. While it was being built the North Cormorant was home to 240 men. Now it is operated by over 100 seamen in all weathers.

Miniatures are supplied unpainted and some assembly may be required.