By Ilze Filks and Gwladys Fouche

OSLO, July 27 (Reuters)– Bored with palm-fringed coastlines and blue-green seas? Then the big oil systems of the North Sea bid. The very first “rig-spotting” cruise ship simply finished off the shore of Norway, and those onboard the four-day journey stated it was jawdropping.

“I couldn’t believe that these big buildings could be made,” stated guest Kari Somme, 86, after seeing Statoil’s Troll A system– the heaviest framework ever before relocated by the human race– looming 200 meters (650 feet) over the surface area of the sea.

“It’s just wonderful, just wonderful. I was so excited because I didn’t know much about it. So when I came here and we went from rig to rig, or platform to platform, I was amazed,” she stated.

The North Sea is normally recognized for its chilly and tornados.

The team of 120 travelers, all Norwegians with the exception of a German and a Swedish pair, paid in between 6,000 crowns and 30,000 crowns ($ 700-$ 3,500) for 4 days aboard the advanced offshore vessel Edda Fides.

The journey was arranged by Edda Accommodation, a company that gives real estate for oil employees functioning offshore. It was seeking brand-new means to attract organization: oil companies are reducing expenses to handle a 60-percent decrease in the rate of oil considering that mid-2014.

“There was little activity, so we used our creativity to come up with ideas. We organized this trip in six weeks,” Bjoern Erik Julseth, the resort supervisor aboard, informed Reuters by phone.

The team visited oil setups at the Troll, Balder or Ringhorn areas. Right hereafter finished, a 2nd excursion left for a journey better north to the areas of the Norwegian Sea.

Many wondered to see Norway’s oil manufacturing initially hand. Oil brought riches to a once-poor nation of 4.2 million within a generation, and is still its leading market. But the mass of the job is hidden as it occurs offshore.

“Every Norwegian knows that the oil has brought us wealth and welfare that can’t be compared to nothing or to no one,” stated guest Arnt Even Boe, a reporter.

The travelers were not enabled to board the gears for protection factors, however the overseas employees appeared enjoyed obtain site visitors.

“Some of them fired flares or used water canons to welcome us … We even had a rescue helicopter, with one worker dangling above us,” stated Julseth, including that the firm would certainly currently assess whether to do one more cruise ship excursion once more.

Passenger Nils Olav Nergaard brought his drone on the journey and stated it had actually been “a real adventure.”

“To be a part of a high-tech offshore vessel, almost as a crew, and get the experience to go to the oil platforms and see them for real, that was very amazing,” Nergaard stated.

($ 1 = 8.5643 Norwegian crowns) (Writing by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Copyright( c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.