| Administrative History | 'Lives in the Oil Industry' is a collaboration between the British Library's National Life Story Collection and the University of Aberdeen. The oral history project aimed to collect and preserve the experiences of those who had first-hand experience of the North Sea Oil and Gas industry in the twentieth century. Interviews were conducted with people employed in virtually every aspect of the oil and gas industry, and some of the close family members of the workers. While those interviewed were, for the most part, involved in the North Sea oil and gas industry in some capacity, the programme also included people whose lives or work had, in other ways, been affected by the industry. The objective was to document the personal perspective of one of the United Kingdom's most important industries, its impact on the United Kingdom and the affect on the lives of those connected to it.
Interviews were recorded in many parts of the UK, with an emphasis on centres such as Aberdeen, the ‘Oil Capital of Europe’ and the Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft area, centres of the industry before it moved north in the 1970s. Other prominent locations in the recording programme were Shetland and Orkney, hosts to the great Sullom Voe and Flotta oil and gas terminals. Other areas were also covered. People interviewed for the project were tracked down in many parts of the UK and in the United States. Americans have played such a significant role in the history of the North Sea oil and gas industry, particularly in the early developing years, that their perspective was essential to the understanding of the history.
The occupations of the interviewees and the sectors in which they work include:
Administration, Airports, Asset management, Banking, Brent Spar, Business development, Business travel, Catering, Chaplaincy, Chemical laboratories, Construction, Construction camps, Contract market, Contracting, Drilling, Eakring, Early pre-North Sea industry history, Engineering, Equipment supply, Exploration, French personnel, Gas companies/organisations, Geology, Health and Safety, Hook-up, Human relations, Joint ventures, Law, Local authorities, Lowestoft personnel, North East Scotland Development Authority (NESDA), Norwegian perspective, Offshore Supplies Office (OSO), Oil companies, Oil industry artist, Oil industry clothing, Oil pollution control, Oil wives and children, Oil/gas industry information systems, Oil/gas industry trades, Orkney, Petroleum engineering, Police/Security, Post Office, Shetland, Supply vessels, Tankers, Tankships, Unions/Offshore Industry Liaison Committee (OILC), US personnel, Well services and Wire manufacture.
The 173 main interviews (189 people interviewed) total over 700 hours of recordings. Interviews were held in the United Kingdom and United States.
Hugo Manson, the project's manager, pioneered oral history at the National Library in New Zealand before coming to Aberdeen.
Further information available at: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/oillives/index.shtml |
| Custodial History | Retained by Terry Brotherstone (Project Director) and Hugo Manson (Project Manager) until transferred to Special Libraries and Archives. |