Norways black pride: Meet the dying monster

[koenau]

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It looks a bit like a UFO has landed at Stavanger harbour. A glittering round-tower stands there, next to a cut-off pyramid, right by the water near the harbour of the southern Norwegian city. The Norwegian Petroleum Museum - in norwegian language ["Norsk Oljemuseum"](https://www.norskolje.museum.no/) - is a museum dedicated to the dying industry. Oil has helped the Scandinavian country achieve unexpected wealth in recent decades. Since Norway granted the first exploration licenses in the North Sea in 1963, the former poorhouse in northern Europe has become one of the most prosperous countries on earth. Even today Stavanger, the kingdom's oil capital, lives on oil. Thousands start their shifts on the drilling platforms from here, supply the offshore workers by ship and look after the infrastructure of the most important source of income for all Norwegians.

With the Oil Museum, https://www.norskolje.museum.no opened in 1999, the Norwegians have created a memorial to the industry that made Norway great. While elsewhere oil is considered an environmentally harmful raw material, here a cathedral stands for the material from which fuel, plastic and even medicine is made. For 15 dollars entrance fee the museum, which is open daily, gives a comprehensive insight into the history of the black gold in Norway. It began in 1969 when the Phillips Petroleum Company discovered the "Ekofisk" field in the Norwegian sector - at that time one of the 20 largest oil fields in the world - an inexhaustible supply of high-quality low-sulphur oil. Production began in 1971, the Ekofisk oil was first brought ashore in tankers, and from 1975 it was transported to Cleveland in the United Kingdom by a specially built pipeline.

Display boards, models and original equipment of the oil workers give visitors an impression of the hard work of the men who nail huge platforms far out in the sea into the seabed of the Bordsee, and then produce offshore oil with drill installations that are higher than most skyscrapers. It's seems unbelievable for normal ones that an offshore plattform has concrete legs multiple times as long like a Nasa-Spaceship. The teeths of th original drill heads that are on display are reminiscent of the voracious aliens from the film of the same name - you know immediately where Ridley Scott got his inspiration for his monsters.

Nevertheless, the spectacular architecture of the museum is by no means modelled on a UFO, but rather inspired by one of the incredibly large drilling platforms - for Stavanger it is the city's landmark, as it arouses curiosity for every visitor.

In the museum, in addition to numerous models of drilling platforms and drilling ships, which are half cut open to allow a view inside, there is also information on the geological history of oil. You can walk through real control centres and have a look at the baskets in which drilling workers are wind down to the islands. A film shown in a 3D cinema explains the origins of oil, and a cinema next door shows a dive on a drilling platform. In a shop you can buy souvenirs, including T-shirts with the picture of a monster drill head with its tearing diamond teeth.

Those who visit Stavanger should not miss a visit to the Ojlemuseum. This is an special experience especially for people interested in technology and for children - and Stavanger usually has enough rainy days to look for an indoor activity ;-)

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Comments

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[mehmetfix]

Your photos are really good!

[sofathana]

Awesome post!

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[ssygmr]

Thanks for this nice sharing!

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[scubahead]

great post. Totally different to the last one I viewed and yet still you make the images really grab you. Keep em coming. It's great stuff

[marcybetancourt]

Although Norway is cold to my bones, it's a place I want to visit.

A very interesting publication @koenau

[wanderein]

Cool and unique museum! Never seen anything like that. :)

By the way, do you have a YouTube channel? You may want to check out TravelFeed's contest, you still have a week to join :)