Our Proud History

The charitable aims of the business were again modified to take account of new Charity Commission regulation, and brought about the Petans Bursary whereby local people wishing enter the energy business could access significant funding assistance if they were of limited means.The charity's objects are currently as follows:

'To promote and advance the theoretical and practical training of persons engaged in the energy industry and members of the public generally. The advancement of education in particular by the provision of grants to undertake training in the energy industry'.

Being a charitable organisation means that the level of investment that Petans is able to make into its facilities and site is far higher than for similar commercial operations. The fires are no smaller or cooler than they used to be but they are much, much more realistic.

The construction of the new pool which is 2.5m deep at the shallow end going to 3.5m deep at the deep and allows for much more training on escape and survival. Fully heated this is one of the largest of it kind in East Anglia and entirely solar heated. The solar heating covers the entire roof and heats over 1 million gallons of water.

The organisational structure was flattened, with the Chief Executive & Site Manager positions reduced
to one General Manager for the Company.

New investment in equipment meant for a safer training environment and the construction of more realistic
fires to fight, and it allowed proper water and foam usage on the heli deck.

The present Company Board structure was formed to meet modern business and personnel needs. The charity's Aims and Objectives were revised to better meet the needs of its beneficiaries. The move to the Norwich site was rapidly followed but much improved fire fighting safety equipment.

Further investment led to the move away from the Lowestoft College pool and to a dedicated pool at the Norwich
site with an bespoke downed helicopter simulator the 'Clockwork Orange' and Lifeboat davits built in Norwich.

Survival training moved to a new environmental pool at the Lowestoft College. Dedicated Fire
training site built near the Norwich airport and moved from the Lowestoft Fire station.

The first Helicopter was a Bedford Rascal here at Norwich.

The initial fire fighting suits look here to be plastic!

But it didn't stop some very brave men from training.

The Lord Cullen Report required the setting up of HSE Offshore, OPITO and nationally agreed standards were set.
There were also a limited set of high quality providers approved who could deliver the training Petans was one of them.

The Piper Alpha disaster occurred a platform owned by Occidental Petroleum Caledonian with again a terrible loss of life, 167 men died and only 62 survived.

In the same year PETANS bought a site by Norwich airport to do the Fire fighting training on the open ground rather than at the Lowestoft Fire station as you can see from the photograph it does not have a lot of equipment at this stage!

PETANS Ltd was formalised as the business name and it became a Registered Charity 290458. Today it retains
charitable status and so is governed by a Board of Trustees, who also act as the Limited company's Directors.

The Petroleum Training Association North Sea Ltd (PETANS) was created as a 'not for profit' organisation to provide safety and survival training for the offshore industry. At the same time HOTA and SCOTA were created in other UK regions. Operated from Lowestoft HQ and training ground. Survival training was done in the Hotel Victoria pool and Sea survival was done in the sea.

Fire fighting training was done in the local Fire station. Below is the Helicopter Fire training with
a helicopter engine but no helicopter

Sea Gem rig foundered in the North Sea with a loss of 13 men. Recommendations from
the disaster made formalised training a requirement for going offshore in UK waters.

Image courtesy of the Dukes Wood Oil Museum