A fascinating project that offers a unique insight into the personal and professional lives of the people working in the North Sea oil and gas industry will feature on a BBC radio programme this Saturday (September 18).
University of Aberdeen Research Fellow Hugo Manson is the Project Manager for the Lives in the Oil Industry project. He will present the one-hour show on Radio 4’s Archive Hour, to be broadcast at 8pm.
Lives in the Oil Industry is an oral history project, initiated by the University of Aberdeen and the British Library Sound Archive, and led by University of Aberdeen senior history lecturer Terry Brotherstone.
The project now comprises over 700 hours of archival recordings and is one of the biggest collections of its kind in the world. The researchers’ focus is on the origins and evolution of the UK North Sea oil and gas industry and the people who have worked in it or alongside it.
Mr Manson is delighted that the project is to be featured on BBC national radio. He said: “The North Sea industry is one of the biggest stories of the last 50 years which affected the lives of everyone living in this country. Yet surprisingly little is known about the people who made it happen.”
More than 40 extended interviews per year have been recorded since the start of the project in 2000.
The people interviewed include men and women representing all sectors of the industry – management, offshore workers, technical professionals and specialists, personnel from government and regulatory bodies.
Interviews have been recorded in many parts of the UK, with an emphasis on centres such as Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe, the Great Yarmouth area, Shetland and Orkney. People have also been interviewed in the United States.
The archive includes recordings with people from organisations and communities, which have been connected with the UK North Sea industry. The completed archive, due for completion in May 2005, will comprise some 200 interviews.
The Radio 4 programme will trace the development of the oil and gas industry in the UK as far back as the secret wartime oilfield under Sherwood Forest, through to the fledgling offshore industry of the 1970s, the Piper Alpha disaster in the 1980s, and the lives of those working in, and linked to, the industry in the present day. Material from the BBC archives will also be heard.
A Lives in the Oil Industry website is due to be launched in the next few weeks. It will feature many aspects of the project, its content and development. It will also contain links to other relevant information on the UK North Sea industry.
Mr Manson added: “The personal stories and the human voice of the North Sea industry and its impact on people were at risk of being lost. Now, thanks to the project, we have preserved the stories and the voices for researchers far into the future.”