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Centrica Energy's pioneering gas platforms preview on Discovery

23 April 2012 Posted by Suzanne Edmond

Last Friday (April 20^th) saw the broadcast of the Discovery programme "Mega Rigs", which followed two of Centrica’s pioneering projects from design and construction through to installation and ultimately production. The story is told by the people doing the jobs, both on and offshore, which makes it different than the normal presenter run programme.

For an industry once described as one of Britain’s best kept secrets, this all access view of the industry both on and offshore is truly something special. It follows the journey to overcome technical and commercial challenges to bring two of our projects on stream. F3-FA in the Netherlands is the largest self-installing platform in the North Sea and celebrated its first year of successful production back in January, while Ensign uses new drilling technologies to reach hard to reach gas in the UK’s Southern North Sea.

As one of the people involved in the project, I would have to declare my bias.  However, what has delighted me in the last couple of days has been everyone else's reaction and comments. There's a real sense of pride about the projects and there is no better endorsement of everyone’s hard work than seeing the results shown on the big screen. When we premiered a sneak preview in Aberdeen, with some rather tasty popcorn I might add, it created a real buzz across the office and I was pleased also to see many of (our sometimes reluctant) stars in the room.

In an industry where projects must overcome a range of technical and commercial challenges, which are often unforeseen especially when we're looking to get hard to reach gas in the North Sea, it's fantastic to have the story told in such a compelling way. Mega Rigs highlights some of the unknown and often less glamorous sides of our industry and the people working hard behind the scenes to find gas safely and efficiently.

Filming this project at the various locations was an incredible experience. We met some great characters along the way and managed to capture an insight which will hopefully show everyone at home the hard work and effort by the people behind securing energy supplies for the UK.

Further information on the programme can be found at:
http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=1041&newsid=2435

See my earlier blogs about our pioneering gas platforms that I did while working with the film crew making this programme:

Telling our upstream story
 http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=1042&blogid=282

Telling our upstream story - constructing an offshore platform
http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=1042&blogid=290

A week in the life of an offshore Tigress
http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=1042&blogid=302

How the Scottisch Coast and a Big Orange is helping us find gas
http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=1042&blogid=310

Drilling in all directions
http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=1042&blogid=329

A year of discovery
http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=1042&blogid=338
 

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