Six years in the Shetlands: A Donegal man's North Sea Oil story

John McAndrew was born in Portnoo in 1950.

At the tender age of 15, he joined the Killybegs fishing fleet, working the Atlantic and North Sea aboard trawlers. The conditions were brutal and the work seasonal, with no guarantee of wages. But it built resilience and perseverance.

In 1969, news of oil discoveries in the North Sea reached Donegal. For John and many others from coastal communities, it opened new horizons. He secured work as a general operative at the Sullom Voe Terminal in the Shetland Islands, then under construction as the largest oil processing facility in Europe. At its peak, 6,000 men were employed there. According to John, around 600 were from County Donegal. He worked for JMJ Civil Engineering Contractors Ltd, which, due to the prevalence of Donegal men, local workers jokingly rebranded as "Jesus, Mary and Joseph."

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Life on the trawlers had toughened John, but nothing, he said, could fully prepare a man for six years on the Shetlands. From October to May, winter dominated. Temperatures remained below freezing and daylight dwindled to three hours a day. He worked 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, for a month at a time, followed by a single week off to return home. He described it as a six-year stretch that felt like a lifetime, with one week of freedom granted each month. Freezing fog, sleet, snow, and high gales were constant. "It reminded me of what Shackleton and his men must have faced in Antarctica," he recalled. Yet the wages were excellent and the food surprisingly top quality.

The Shetland Islands were so desolate and cold that trees didn't even grow and rats never took up residence either. Even nature had the sense to stay away.

John described the work as highly dangerous, explaining that between 1970 and 2010 around four hundred operatives were killed. One of his close friends, Donegal native John Campbell, was lost in the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988, along with another 165 workers. In 1986, 45 workers were also killed in the Chinook helicopter crash at Sumburgh. At the time, little regard was paid to health and safety, with most emphasis on production and profit.

"Desperation, Americans, and the Hunt for North Sea Oil"
After World War II, Europe, particularly Great Britain and Ireland, were in a poor state economically and infrastructurally. Both countries faced high unemployment, budget deficits and social unrest. Geologists believed oil might exist in the North Sea, but finding and extracting it was a monumental challenge. Oil had previously been found in calmer, shallower waters like the Gulf of Mexico or onshore in the Middle East. So, exploration rights were issued to experienced Americans who arrived in droves in Aberdeen in the mid-60s. Locals described them as arrogant, obnoxious and condescending. It took five relentless years of trial and error before oil was finally struck in 1969. The whole country celebrated, believing the Black Gold would solve all their problems and make them as rich as the Arabs.

"Engineering the Impossible: Rigs, Pipelines, and the Race to Bring Oil Ashore"
After locating viable reserves, rigs had to be designed and built from scratch, as none existed in Scotland. These vast steel structures were floated more than 100 miles offshore and anchored in hostile waters. Subsea pipelines stretching 100 miles had to be laid with precision, often in severe weather. One major terminal at the Shetland Islands, Sullom Voe, became the largest oil processing facility in Europe. John spent much of his working life on that site. The foundations alone demanded the removal of 30 metres depth of peat bog, a task symbolic of the wider industrial scale required to move oil from 2.0 miles below the surface to shore.

Most North Sea rigs sit about 100 miles from land, with a few even farther. Laying the transfer pipes was among the most dangerous jobs. Of the 400 operatives killed, 80 were deep sea divers. A monument in Aberdeen honours their sacrifice. Some divers worked at depths of 400m, under pressures 40 times normal atmospheric levels. Pressurised underwater chambers were later introduced, allowing divers to live below for up to a month. Long-term health impacts of four weeks of constant pressurised living were poorly understood. Still, the pay was enough to tempt many, whilst one diver famously bought a Porsche after surfacing.

"Oil, Ownership, and Outrage: The Political Storm Beneath the North Sea"
Running parallel to exploration was a major political fallout. London claimed the oil rights, but due to the enormous upfront cost and risk, initial rights were granted to the American explorers. They invested billions before earning revenue. Their agreement with the British Government guaranteed recovery of initial exploration and setup costs before taxes applied. Though oil was struck in 1969, it wasn't until Thatcher's 1980s government that the British Exchequer received significant benefit.

John recalls the resentment among Scottish workers. Many believed the oil belonged to Scotland and resented seeing the wealth flow to Westminster. The discovery fuelled talk of independence and self-sufficiency among the men on site, though their protests changed nothing.

"Scarred Men, Scarred Oceans: The Untold Toll of the North Sea Rush"
John explained that the oil project took a terrible toll on both workers and families. Four hundred families lost loved ones. Operatives endured all weathers, snow, sleet, rain, gales. Many died on site, others suffered long-term health issues. Spotting a North Sea worker was often easy because many bore the scars of the job, most notably missing fingers, a brutal testament to the dangers they faced daily.

While Black Gold helped revive the British and Irish economies, it came at a high human and environmental cost. Today, oil is seen as toxic to the environment and a huge driver of climate change. At the time, safety and environmental concerns were an afterthought. In the 90s, one company planned to tow a hazardously contaminated rig 200 miles into the Atlantic and detonate it. If successful, 200 more would follow. Greenpeace intervened and stopped it. The rig was eventually taken to a Norwegian fjord and safely dismantled. Dumping one would have been disastrous, dumping 200 would have been catastrophic.

It is now understood that had similar investment been made in renewable energy back then, the planet today would be in a far healthier state.

"Endurance and Aftermath: The Cost and Pride of a Life Offshore"
John described the work as six hard years with one week's relief each month. Still, he made lifelong friends and was treated with respect by Shetlanders and the oil companies alike. The cold, darkness, bitter frost and wet made the work barely bearable. The loss of friends through preventable accidents haunted him. Still he considers himself a strong operator having endured what rats wouldn't. He outlasted the storms, the steel, the solitude and the silence of that hostile sea.

Now aged 75 and living in Lockerbie, Scotland, when asked if he'd do it again, he confidently replied without hesitation, a convincing Yes. The experience shaped him. He made lifelong friends and took pride in the project.

After leaving Sullom Voe, John worked at the Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant. Life at Sellafield might be the follow-up story.

Eamonn Coyle is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist