Oil+and+gas

Norwegian oil history
In the autumn of 1962, an American oil company called Phillips Petroleum oil company asked for permission to search for oil off the coast of Norway, and soon other oil companies followed their lead and began searching. After several months, they had all give up, except for Phillips petroleum, and on 23 of December the same year, they finally found oil, but Norway didn’t yet have the needed technology to pump up the oil, so the production didn’t start until 1971. The first Norwegian oil field was Ekofisk. From here it went only uphill, and Norway has found many new oil and gas fields. Here you can see a picture of the Ekofisk oil field. The oil rigs may not look very big on the water, but underneath, they are huge constructions. One of the oilrigs in the north sea, the Troll A rig, is with its 472 meters, the tallest construction ever moved by man. The oil now make up most of the Norwegian economy, and Norway now is the third largest oil exporter, and eighth largest oil producer in the whole world Here you can see how tall the Troll A rig actually is.

**The people that work offshore**
Today there are 25 000 people working offshore. There is about 3 000-4 000 people offshore at all times, 10% of these is women. They are offshore 14 days at the time. The worst accident in the Norwegian oil history is when the platform “Alexander L. Kielland” tipped over. 123 people died and 89 peoples survived.