PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: TODAY (Tuesday, December 5) at 5.30pm, Linklater Rooms, University of Aberdeen
A major oral history project that has recorded the stories of people who have helped make North Sea oil and gas happen, will be officially closed today as the archive is handed over to the University of Aberdeen.
Lives in the Oil Industry is one of the world’s largest ‘life-story’ projects documenting a particular industry and tonight (Tuesday, December 5) sees the formal culmination of six years work to create an archive of the personal and professional lives of the people connected with the UK North Sea energy sector.
The project began in the summer of 2000, initiated by the History Department at the University of Aberdeen and the British Library Sound Archive. It now comprises over 700 hours of archival recordings.
The people interviewed include men and women representing all sectors of the industry including finance, management, offshore workers, technical professionals and specialists, personnel from government and regularly bodies. They include Fred Hamilton whose US company brought the first oil onshore (on June 18, 1975), Alexa Reid, one of the people who helped keep the platforms clean and provide food for the tens of thousands of offshore workers, and the late Bob Ballantyne, a survivor of the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster.
Interviews were 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 were also interviewed in the United States.
Lives in the Oil Industry Director, Terry Brotherstone, and Project Manager, Hugo Manson, will officially mark the close of the project at a special reception tonight at the University of Aberdeen where they will symbolically ‘hand over’ the archive to the Principal of the University, Professor C Duncan Rice.
Mr Manson said the project has created a unique collection of personal stories from a key North-east industry. He said: “It has been a huge privilege to work with people who were involved in the North Sea offshore industry or were affected by it. Together, we have provided a unique record of the personal memories and reflections of these remarkable people.
“The Lives in the Oil Industry oral history project has been a fascinating venture and now that it is complete, it is time to start making it more widely known. Our very substantial and representative collection of interviews will provide future historians, social scientists, and interested amateur scholars with a real insight into this unique workforce, and into the impact of this vital industry.”
Further information on Lives in the Oil Industry is available by logging on to: www.abdn.ac.uk/oillives
The University of Aberdeen offers opportunities for postgraduate study in oral history and the award of both M Litt and PhD degrees. Enquiries concerning postgraduate work in oral history should be addressed in the first instance to Terry Brotherstone at: t.brotherstone@abdn.ac.uk