Steve Jeffrey, who has worked in the oil industry for over 25 years, remembers life on the rigs in the early days.
The living conditions on board the rigs in those days were fabulous. There was no expense spared on food. The chefs were top class. There were four excellent meals every day, every six hours there was a meal. We'd work twelve-hour shifts. You were so tired after you finished working because everything was done manually. There was no need for watching films or any other kind of recreation, all you did was sleep. And I worked my way up through the ranks on a drilling rig. Next thing I became was a rough neck which was a labourer working on the rig floor. The next job I was promoted to was derrick man and he's the chap who works up in the derrick, 110ft above the rig floor, pulling the pipe or putting the pipe in when your tripping out to change the bit. Then I was promoted to assistant driller and then I became a driller in 1977 which, for a Scotsman, was quite an achievement because in those days all the assistant drillers, drillers and tool pushers and all the bosses were all Americans. And we were 'third country nationals' as we were called.
