Rosebank: Life on the oil field at the centre of a political storm

ByJames CookScotland editor, Reporting fromRosebank oil fieldPublished3 hours agoWhen we landed by helicopter at Rosebank, this oil field was at the centre of a political storm - and set to be in the path of a real one.

We arrived on Wednesday morning, just a few hours after the UK government had granted consent for the production of gas from the Jackdaw field in the North Sea.

But already attention was shifting to this wild and windy patch of the North Atlantic – the next big decision for Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh.

Rosebank is bigger than Jackdaw, it would generate higher greenhouse gas emissions, and it could be far more lucrative for its owners, Adura and Ithaca.

This summer, along with a camera crew, I travelled to Jackdaw, 150 miles east of Aberdeen.

We came here - days before Storm Boelo arrived with strong winds and heavy rain - to scrutinise a controversial project which is at the heart of a national debate about climate change, energy policy and the economy.

"It's good fun, it's interesting, every day can change," said Nicola Boyd, who runs the helideck, and greeted us as we struggled out of our lifejackets and survival suits.

Boyd has worked offshore for nearly a decade, including a year on Rosebank - where she spends two weeks at a time followed by three weeks' leave.

Unlike the fixed Jackdaw platform, this installation – 80 miles north west of Shetland – is a large ship, a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) named the Petrojarl Rosebank.

It's been chartered by the field's owners from Aberdeen-based Altera and, during my 48 hours on board, it was constantly but gently rolling on the North Atlantic swell.

With the understatement typical of an Orkney islander, lead mechanical technician Ewan Leonard told me the winter weather could be "a bit of a challenge."

"Last week we had a 30m heave coming through," he said, referring to the swell, "so we'll probably suffer more of that as the winter goes on."