Paparazzi Ethnography

I visited the Petroleum Museum in Stavanger. Impressive indeed. The museum is well designed and offers quite a few distinct installations providing easy to grasp information.

In this way, the viewer gets a quick understanding of an incredibly complicated set of operations. The ticket salesman started me on my tour, and even gave me a discount (25Kr less) because I had arrived toward the end of the day.














As I entered, I came face-to-face with the “largest drill bit in the world”. I wrapped my arms around it, and gave it a good TSA-style pat-down.

From there I passed a set of panels describing Norway as one of the world’s oil nations, and read up on the loads of money in billions of Kr that flow into the Norwegian government coffers from oil exports.

On my way, I passed by a fancy bar and restaurant inside the museum. The Sunday Brunch menu looks yummy as did the premium wines and hard liquor, not a standard in American museums.

The first installation is the History of the Earth room, which answers the question of “Why does Norway have oil?”




There are a number of, what appear at first glance as slot machines. That is, there are well-lit up kiosks that provide a natural history lesson covering billions of years of geographical history. Also, there is a movie projected on an earth-like orb that hangs from the ceiling. It depicts the movement of tectonic plates and the continents over billions of years in about 8 minutes.

This floating earth above my head was mesmerizing, especially when it shows a meteor screaming down on to the Gulf of Mexico, exploding and sending ash into the atmosphere. I stayed to watch the movie a few more times, even though I knew the museum would soon close. I took snap shot after snap shot.

A collection of various types of drill bits was interesting, especially since there was a window above the bits, where I could see the bar/restaurant, which made me a little hungry. The bits were adorable, almost like I was in a jewelry store and looking at some fabulous gems that were placed on artistic mounts.

From there, one finds a number of dioramas that depict a series of models on a scale of “1:750” showing the innovative methods of drilling and production at increasing depths. I like dioramas. It reminds me of when I was in the third grade. Back then, we were asked by the teacher to bring in a “shoe box” to create some kind of story through paper cut-outs and glue.



I remember quite vividly the story I depicted. It was the Battle of Hastings, in England, because my father said we had a relative who fought in the battle. The diorama depiction, however, was not as practical as I would have hoped, with my colleagues suggesting that I had put “raisins” in the shoe box. They were supposed to be “people” charging down a hill to battle.

There is a fabulous collection of models of vessels and installations that my photography did not do justice to.

Soon after the models, the viewer is invited to Take a Journey Offshore — passing through a room that resembles a helicopter cabin to create the illusion of a journey to an offshore platform.

Technology in Depth, is one of the best depictions I have seen about explaining the complexities of oil and gas development. At first, I was not too excited about it. It is movie that recounts the pioneering technology for a very deep water installation that provides natural gas for export to the United Kingdom.

Outside the mini-theater, a little poster mimics the kind of posters one sees at a regular movie theater.

Also, there is a timer to indicate when the next movie showing will occur. Walking into the last few moments, I was not impressed with what was playing. An actor from England had just arrived home to realize that he had not paid his bills and that his electricity was being shut off.

But I waited for the next showing of the film.

And I did this, because while I was in the theater, I overheard someone who just finished watching the entire movie state, “amazing, that is an amazing installation”. So, with that recommendation, I wanted to see what the hubbub was all about.

The movie was fantastic.

Basically, the actor leaves his home in the UK, flies to Norway to see where his stove pipe natural gas (for “making a cup of tea”) is coming from. He ends up, in his first location on an off-shore rig off the North Sea coast of Norway.

There, the movie depicts with animation, the laying down of pipelines along the sea floor to bring the natural gas to shore for processing and then, the export by pipe, the longest underwater pipe in the world, to the UK.

From there, the actor heads over to various locations where different operations are taking place, including a housing site for all the steel pipe. The massive interconnections of everything in the video made me really think about what small aspect of the industry that I cover, and how it is that so many of the people that I work with have nothing in common with the daily practices that put this vast infrastructure into place.

Two other movies are available, one that depicts divers working in underwater to realize the Norwegian Oil Adventure.

Again, I was almost quick to run through the movie, but it was fascinating, a combination of real live video and animation, demonstrating the installation of deep sea pipelines.

Finally, Petrorama provides a wide view of Norway’s oil history, and is a mural that surrounds a cinema for the movie Petropolis.

This is a 3D film about oil and gas with cartoon creatures talking to the audience. By this time, even though it was in Norwegian language (the other films were in English), I decided to step in and take a seat.

I was not disappointed.

A photo of the museum above, depicted as stratigraphic layers of sedimentary basin.