Rosebank: Life on the oil field at the centre of a political storm
Scotland editor James Cook finds out what life is like on board a ship in an untapped oil field awaiting its fate.
The Rosebank oil field, larger than Jackdaw, sits further north-west of Shetland in the North Atlantic. This summer, journalists were the first to visit Rosebank, just days before Storm Boelo hit. The floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), Petrojarl Rosebank, is a large ship chartered by the field's owners from Aberdeen-based Altera.
The crew, including Nicola Boyd, a veteran offshore worker, described the job as fun, interesting and physically demanding. The ship constantly rolls on the North Atlantic swell, with winter weather posing additional challenges. Despite the harsh conditions, the crew described the facilities as excellent, with single-man cabins, gym and rec rooms.
The ship rotates around a fixed central point called the turret to face into the weather. If production is approved, oil and gas will be pumped up from wells in the field below, containing an estimated 300m to 500m barrels. Environmental campaigners strongly oppose the project, arguing it's a disastrous decision and a terrible deal for ordinary people in the UK.
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