The gods of oil must have a fine sense of humor

Engineers and other workers described their building of the oil pipeline to Alaska in these few words : We've been baked in the Gulf, drenched in the North Sea and frozen in Alaska.

They didn't mean to complain. They were extremely grateful for having been involved in many of the key oil discoveries of the 20th century so far.
They mentioned three of the most famous.

If you were to stick pins in a map of the world, you couldn't pick three more dangerous, inhospitable and downright inconvenient places on Earth to explore and drill for oil.

Persia, at the turn of the century, was a virtually, lawless land and work was continuously delayed by heat stroke and sickness. The drinking water was according to one engineer, " best described as dung in suspension.

Alaska, meanwhile, was a mean, nasty, unforgiving place to work. This according to a geologist.
The tundra freezes to concrete in winter and thaws into a sponge like prairie in summer. Beneath the permafrost, so called because it is permanently frozen to a depth of 300 meters. An enormous challenge for those charged with building 380km of pipeline across it.

Successfully completed, the trans-Alaskan pipeline remains one of the greatest feats of engineering ever undertaken. The same can be said of the North Sea platforms.

Taller than Big Ben, these have to withstand hurricane force winds and 15 meter waves. As one Skipper put it " There's nothing quite as vile as the North Sea when she's in a temper."

Admittedly they have been a little more fortunate with the latest discoveries. In the mountains of Colombia and the waters of the Mexican Gulf where they only have the occasional hurricane to contend with.

Nevertheless, is it too much to ask that the next time they strike oil, the gods could exercise a bit more restraint...?

Sources : Wikipedia, National Geographic, Websters Encyclopaedia, Pixabay