Round 10,000 offshore oil and gasoline employees are spending the Christmas and New Yr vacation “far out on the darkish seas round Britain’s coasts, offering the vitality to warmth properties, cook dinner turkeys, and energy fairy lights”, business physique Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) highlighted in an announcement despatched to Rigzone just lately.
“As most individuals are consuming, ingesting, and open[ing presents]… with household and buddies, this huge military of women and men will probably be ensuring the warmth and energy is there to make all of it occur, engaged on gasoline and oil installations that may be greater than 200 miles from the UK mainland,” OEUK mentioned within the assertion.
The business physique famous within the assertion that this workforce helps to provide the every day common of 265 million cubic meters of gasoline the UK wants on Christmas Day and every of the next days of the Christmas break “to cook dinner our meals, warmth our properties, and run the 35 gas-fired energy stations that stay the spine of the UK’s electrical energy producing system”.
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OEUK highlighted within the assertion that, regardless of the expansion of wind-generated electrical energy, greater than 25 % of the electrical energy the UK makes use of remains to be generated by gasoline, including that this determine can attain as much as 55 % on days when there isn’t any wind.
“There are nonetheless greater than 21 million properties on this nation that depend on gasoline for his or her central heating, and 11 million kitchens which have gasoline ovens,” OEUK identified within the assertion.
The business physique went on to notice that, “though an enormous expanse of waves separates offshore employees from house and family members”, Christmas on rigs offshore the UK “is way from a depressing affair”.
“Once I first began working offshore 18 years in the past there was no WIFI – simply three cellphone containers and large queues to make use of them,” Andy Pulford, who’s managing a Christmas workforce of 90 and a posh of 23 gasoline wells round Spirit Power’s Morecambe Bay central processing advanced, mentioned within the assertion.
“Now there’s web and video calling, however folks can nonetheless really feel remoted having Christmas offshore. We don’t need that to occur and we attempt to maintain the crew collectively as a lot as we are able to,” he added.
“I all the time get everybody collectively on Christmas morning for a chat and run by way of what’s going to occur. We’ve got snooker, pool and desk tennis tournaments, music and quizzes, a raffle with excessive worth improbable prizes, plus essentially the most improbable meals which I am going down into the galley and assist serve,” he continued.
OEUK Chief Government David Whitehouse mentioned within the assertion, “it’s simple to neglect that whereas we’re sitting all the way down to lunch there are literally thousands of offshore employees in UK waters – on rigs, vessels, windfarms, and different vitality initiatives – who will probably be working by way of the vacation to maintain the nation powered,” he added.
“We must always by no means take them with no consideration,” he went on to state.
OEUK’s 2025 Workforce Perception report, which was revealed final month and targeted on “the folks powering the way forward for the North Sea”, highlighted that the UK’s built-in vitality workforce totals 154,000 folks.
There have been a complete of 40,023 offshore oil and gasoline employees in 2024, with 22,342 of those categorized as core employees, in line with the report, which described these spending over 100 nights per 12 months offshore as core employees. Of the whole offshore oil and gasoline employee determine of 40,023, 17,957 had been based mostly in Scotland, 10,734 had been based mostly in England, and eight,832 had been non-UK based mostly, the report confirmed.
“Our sector helps over 150,000 jobs and contributes greater than GBP 25 billion [$33.7 billion] yearly to the UK economic system,” Katy Heidenreich, OEUK Director, Provide Chain & Individuals, mentioned within the report.
“It’s a strategic nationwide asset, one we should nurture, put money into, and champion,” Heidenreich added.
OEUK describes itself on its web site because the main consultant physique for the UK offshore vitality business and a not for revenue membership group “with a historical past stretching again 5 a long time”.
To contact the writer, e-mail andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
