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t Norwegians Build Unique Storage Vessel Designed To Rest On North Sea Floor Referred To Affectionately As "The Thing," The Largest Man-Made Object Ever To Float In Any Ocean Will Become The Centerpiece Of An Oil Drilling City Hundreds Of Miles Offshore In The Ekofisk Field A unique ocean "vessel" that will set records in beam, bulk, floated weight, and draft depth when it sails, is rapidly nearing completion in Norway 'for its scheduled one- and-only voyage into the North Sea sometime this summer. Built in massive form of con- crete and reinforced hy thousands of miles of high quality tensile steel cable to enable it to resist buffeting by ocean storms, this special "ves- sel" will ultimately function as a stationary petroleum storage tank in the midst of the turbulent North Sea. However, before it rests on the bottom of the ocean for its fu- ture role, it will make a record- breaking maritime voyage from the Port of Stavanger as the largest, the most cumbersome, and the deepest draft man-made object ever floated on a specific course in world history. A concept of an international oil consortium headed 'by Phillips Pe- troleum Company, of Bartlesville, Okla., the concert tank is designed to become the centerpiece of an emerging oil-drilling city hundreds of miles offshore from Norway and Great Britain at a North Sea site known as Ekofisk. When finally in place later this year in some 235 feet of water, the tank will 'be capable of holding one million barrels of oil—an esti- mated three days of petroleum production at the Ekofisk site. As noted by the Phillips Norway Group, an affiliate of Phillips Pe- troleum, it will have the holding equivalent of a tanker of from 132,- 000 to 145,000 deadweight tons de- pending on whether long or short ton terms are used. Still only about 20 per cent of its height of 300 feet will be seen above water. To dramatize the massive pro- portions of the project, its build- ers say it is equal to 'building a 19- story structure on the surface of the sea and gradually sinking the bottom 17 floors underwater. Standing at exactly 295 feet from top to bottom, the tank will show only 65 feet above the waves of the rough North Sea. However, in the process of get- ting to that position at Ekofisk, the tank "vessel" will float under tow of four tugs from Norway's key harbor on its southwest coast some 250 miles to the southwest. When the voyage takes place—it is now expected in late summer— all maritime records concerning (Continued on page 13) When the one-and-only-one sea voyage takes place under tow of four tugs, the tank "vessel" will break all mari- time records for weight moved, draft below the waterline, beam of vessel and sheer volume of a man-made object in controlled sailing. The photo above shows the tank just prior to being anchored in Hillevagen Bay at Stavanger. February 15, 1973 11
