Oil Rig Rocks From Big Waves Like A Bathtub Toy

6 years ago
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It is believed that storms in the North Sea make living aboard the Borgholm Dolphin very challenging. In extremely rough weather conditions, huge waves crash against the Borgholm Dolphin installation in the North Sea, making it look very fragile.

Filmed by James Eaton, an offshore worker on the nearby Lomond Platform, the storm began on January 10 but had been known about for some time. Offshore worker James Eaton captured a footage of the severe storm that swept across parts of Scotland. When a gale blew through the North Sea recently kicking up a huge sea state, the Aker H3-design accommodation platform Borgholm Dolphin was caught right in the middle of it. The rig is located adjacent to BG Group’s Lomond platform in the central North Sea.

Watch this terrifying footage as giant waves crash into a swaying oil rig. The petrifying footage shows North Sea oil rig battered by waves when a massive storm swells off the coast of Scotland. This footage alone is enough to make you seasick. Luckily, this nearby worker managed to catch the phenomenon on camera. The Borgholm Dolphin is currently on contract to BG Group according to Dolphin Drilling’s most recent fleet contract status.

The oil rig is stationed in the North Sea, about 145 miles east of Aberdeen. The weather system was so strong that power was cut to approximately 140,000 properties in Northern Scotland at its worst. The storm lasted about two days with big seas. There are a lot of storms in this part of Scotland, but there is usually no one to witness and capture it, so this is an unusual footage.

Built in 1975, the Borgholm Dolphin is a platform that measures 108m × 61m. A massive structure weighing almost 15,000 gross tonnes and is part of the larger Dolphin Drilling fleet, which also includes rigs off the coast of Norway.

If you too wonder and dream abut the power of the sea, take a look at this next video where a ship rocks vigorously in heavy sea storm. Dramatic footage, filmed 100 miles out at sea, has emerged showing what it's like on a large ship during a major storm. The video, filmed during Storm Gertrude from the bridge of a ship on January 29, shows powerful surges of water crashing against the vessel as it rocks and sways over the waves. You can even hear the ship creaking under the wrath of the storm. It really made our stomachs drop! As if the sight wasn’t bad enough, the hand-held camera also managed to pick up the sounds too!

The footage worthy of a Hollywood disaster blockbuster was shot by Chief Officer Graeme Hatley aboard the ERRV (Emergency Response & Rescue Vessel), a 150 foot long, 1100 tonne ship, as it is being thrown around in the rough sea. C.O. Hatley says that he has seen much worse in his career of 25 years rescuing boats on the wild seas.

Mr. Hatley said that they were expecting it to be like this two days prior. The storm was ‘quick to blow, quick to go’, meaning that the bad weather was intense, but died out quickly. “We were expecting the ferocity and the wave height and had gusts of over 100 knots before we lost our anemometer,” says officer Hatley. “We were, for the first time ever, given the chance to run for shelter but didn’t take it since most of us have been in worse weather and for a longer time.”

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