Made in 1963 by British Petroleum and presented in French, “Un Risque Calcule” / “A Calculated Risk” shows the search for oil in Abu Dhabi. The film was directed by Julian Spiro and produced by James Carr, with cinematography by Kenneth Reeves and underwater photography by Paul de Roubaix.
The film opens with shots of a floating oil rig designed to extract petroleum from the deep sea near the new Umm-Shaif Oil Field
adjacent to the United Arab Emirates. The Umm Shaif Oil Field is an oil field 84 km north west of Abu Dhabi Islands. It was discovered in 1958 and developed by Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Ltd, a joint venture between British Petroleum and Compagnie Française des Pétroles (CFP—later Total). The oil field is now operated and owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The total proven reserves of the Umm Shaif oil field are around 3.9 billion barrels (550×106tonnes), and production is centered on 300,000 barrels per day (48,000 m3/d).
At 2:00, underwater shots show the apparatus used as a platform for the oil rig. At 3:00, the negotiation is shown with the local authorities to obtain permission for the extraction. At 6:40, the building of a jetty and industrial area to serve as an oil depot is shown. At 7:10, a floating barge is placed into position. At 7:24, the drilling platform which was built in Europe is towed out to sea sea before arriving in the Persian Gulf. At 10:20, crops are raised with water pumped using energy from the hydrocarbons. In this way the oil can change the way of life in Abu Dhabi in ways that it has not changed in thousands of years. At 13:00, an on-shore radio station communicates with the offshore oil platform. At 13:44, operations on board the platform are seen, going on all day and all night. At 16:20 pipes are shown allowing oil to be placed on board waiting tankers or sent to land via pipeline. At 17:14 a pipeline is laid in concrete and then at 18:45 placed underwater to service the offshore rig. At 20:33 the finished jetty is seen with its oil terminal, and a tanker (with its control center amidships) named British Valour arrives to take the first shipment of oil. Valour was built in 1957 and was a “special” ship built to government standards as an emergency reserve vessel and supposedly had a top speed of 21 knots.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
