1965 Disasters - 1965 Fires, 1965 Natural Disasters, Sea Gem, Hope Slide, Chatsbury Bushfire, Kakanj Mine Disaster (Paperback)

Chapters: 1965 Fires, 1965 Natural Disasters, Sea Gem, Hope Slide, Chatsbury Bushfire, Kakanj Mine Disaster. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 19. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Sea Gem was the first British offshore oil rig, and the first British offshore rig disaster when in 1965, the rig's legs collapsed, killing 13 of the crew. In the early 1960s, oil companies had found some oil in Great Britain, as well as in Holland and Germany, and suspected that there was more to be found under the North Sea. Unfortunately there were some barriers that had to be overcome before it was to be possible to search for oil and gas. First of all, there had been no international agreements that addressed the rights to the various minerals and areas outside the three mile (5 km) limit. Also, the technology required was not yet developed, or hadn't matured enough to be commercially usable. The main factor, however, was that the oil companies generally didn't think that there were significant enough reserves in the North Sea to warrant the usage of resources to search for oil. This situation changed however, when fields such as Groningen in Holland, and to a certain extent Eakring in the UK, proved to contain fairly large reserves, thus prompting the oil companies to begin a search in nearby areas, including the North Sea. The Sea Gem made the first British discovery of gas on August 20, although the find was too small to be commercially profitable. The Sea Gem was originally a 5600 ton steel barge, converted to function as an oil rig by British Petroleum in 1964. The barge basically consisted of 10 steel legs which made it possible to raise the barge 15 meters over the water's surface, as well as a helipad, living quarters for the crew of 34 and a drilling tower with associated structures. On ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=7924404