Put it there - positioning engineering structures.

For twenty years from 1975 to 1995 my job was to place large engineering structures, such as oil platforms, at sea.


I became involved with this as a consequence of my training as a Radio Officer in the U.K. Merchant Navy. In the mid 1970's the Merchant fleet was reducing fast due to the Oil crises and the growth of low cost Greek and Liberian fleets, so I was fortunate to be invited to join a specialist group using innovative acoustic techniques - similar to echosounders - to position the research vessels then working to explore the North Sea Oil Fields.

In those pioneer days, GPS had never been thought of so we used land based Radio wave systems which had been adapted from WWII bombing aids, accurate to only about 200 metres, at best. However in the early 70's a very clever man called John Partridge designed a way of using echo sounders to locate "beacons" on the seabed with an accuracy of about one metre. We used the radio systems to lay networks of these seabed beacons and these were then adjusted to give very accurate results for oil drilling platforms. It was exciting "leading edge" stuff, and made us feel pretty cocky.

Most of the early North Sea work was geological sampling using core samplers and sediment grabs. The geologists used sensors to sniff for oily gas in the mud. We young blades learned a lot of this tehnology which stood us in good stead as the UK oil industry grew and carried us with it on a wave of investment capital. After the testing came the drilling, and we steered the "Rigs" onto location with our magical techniques. Good money, great food and very little time off!

Once the oil was discovered we learned about the construction of, and positioning of the huge production platforms which sit on the seabed rather than floating - more new ideas, invention and excitement. My contributions (and I will defend this) were the Underwater Gyrocompass and the electronic azimuth sensor, both devices which helped steer vessels and connect pipelines. My landmark moment was being on the team which positioned the 200.000 ton Ninian Central platform. This concrete monster was floated out from Loch Kishorn in Scotland to a site between Scotland and Norway. The circular base had a diameter equivalent to Trafalgar Square, and we placed it within three metres, and orientated less than 1.5 degrees from the design specs. A proud, but sweaty moment.

Over the next few years as these solid objects such as oil platforms created new "landmarks" we established radio beacons on them and soon the satellite age arrived and suddenly we had another tool. Satellites helped us confirm the thousands of points we had established out in the North Sea on platforms, however this brought it's own problems. The "Median Line between countries states who owns the oil below, and one of our tasks was to inform the Oil comapnies that we'd found a 200 metre error in the line. Long Story Short - it cost an American Oil Company about 200 million dollars in potential revenue when we moved the line!

In 1981 I moved to Spain where some oil work was taking place off Tarragona. Although I was then considered "old" by industry standards (I was 30) I soon managed to wangle my way back to operational status, out of the office and back onto "the Rigs". The routine was to set up a network of radio beacons on shore and fly a team, by helicopter, to the rig which would be under tow to the site, usually with three tugs. The equipment on board would compute the position, then the "towmaster" could use that information to bring the rig to the desired point where previously, seismic vessels (using the same positioning network) had detected a subsea structure which might contain oil.

By 1985 Oil prices had fallen to about $12 barrel so the industry was looking weak. I bought out the Spanish company along with a partner and good Friend, Victor Valck and kept it running while looking for new markets. We soon discovered the Telephone Cable business. British Telecom was in contact with the Spanish "Telefonica" company who planned to lay a network of the new fibre optic cables between the U.K. , U.S.A. , Africa and the Canary and Balearic Isles. This was perfect as we had both the positioning technology, and the local knowledge to provide diving and support services to the "beachmasters" who arrange the jointing of the cables at the landing points. there followed a series of dream jobs in Asturias (North Spain) the Canaries, Morocco, France, Majorca, Menorca, Lisbon and Madeira, then one day someone in STC laboratories in England discovered a way to multiply the number of phone calls through a hair thick fibre optic cable (the technology is staggering!) from 100,000 to 10 million! End of cable laying, end of market.

Onwards and Upwards. At this point Victor decided to quit so we parted on good terms and he went on to live with his wife in Tenerife while I chased new horizons. Those included the gas pipeline over the strait of Gibraltar to Morocco, and the Electrical cable in the same area and eventually a series of dredging surveys for ports and beaches all around the coast of Spain, however in 2005 even these markets had dried up. There are now no private Oceanographic survey companies in Spain. Consultants from Holland do most of the work so I finally decided to quit and concentrate on my other businesses. It was sad parting company with my small boat, and selling off equipment which had cost, in its day, as much as five large Mercedes cars but now was worth nothing - such is progress in technology.

Whatever, I still have the memories of these marvellous pioneer days, those wonderful beaches, Rigs, Cable ships, long stormy nights in the North Sea on pipelaying barges, great food, good comrades and being immersed in non-stop technology growth and opportunity. Now I have new opportunities in other directions and I still have my zest for discovery!