Cooking on an oil rig!

In the summer of 2010, chef Colin Johnstone was cooking in the galley of the Janice oil production platform out in the North Sea. He was cooking in every sense of the word!

His old electric hotplates, although performing well pumped out more heat into the kitchen than they did into the food. He contacted Control Induction with a view to replacing his old electric cookers with an alternative low energy and more important less waste heat, induction stoves

Traditional marine catering equipment - electric hot plates are sturdy but very inefficient and very hot for the chef! Typically less than 25% of the energy used by a commercial electric cooker actually ends up going into the food. electric_stoves_maersk_oil_janice_production_platform_800x600.jpg
Maersk Oil Janice production platform. Located in the North Sea about 175 miles south east of Aberdeen in Scotland.  janice_oil_rig.jpg
Safety Officers move things along!

Colins new kitchen was going to happen but......nobody knew when. During the winter of 2010/2011, during a normal safety inspection the safety officer along with an executive of Maersk Oil happened to look into the galley on the Janice rig. Because a rig has the potential for many possibly disastrous accidents the safety officer is spoilt with interesting aspects of rig safety to explore. For this reason the kitchen is one of the less likely areas that would be inspected but, this safety officer happened to look into the kitchen. Whilst it was clean and tidy, it was also very hot! If working in high temperatures reduces concentration and increase the chances of accidents it was clear that an error in the kitchen had the potential to effect every member of the team on the rig!

In short the high ambient temperature in the kitchen could indirectly stop production on the oil rig.

Suddenly the replacement of the electric stoves became an important issue and an inspector was sent to the Control Induction factory to check that manufacturing methods, spares stocks, quality, reliability, etc. etc. were suitable for supplying an oil rig. Control Induction gained approval and soon the new stoves were being made.

Induction Stoves ordered Following the factory inspection and agreement of specifications, two four ring induction stoves (a total of 8 induction hobs) were ordered in the spring of 2011.
Unusual power supply One unusual factor effecting the installation of these induction hobs was the fact that the Janice does not have a neutral available for high power equipment. Control Induction quickly developed a system to convert the power removing this possible barrier.
Induction stoves in position new_induction_stove_janice_0031_800x600.jpg
A Happy Chef!

Following the installation, Control Induction contacted Colin Johnstone to check everything was working ok, his head chef said:

"Yes they are great, the temperature of the galley is better now, thanks for your help and kind regards, Fab." 

The figures below show very comfortable working temperatures in the galley, with the old electric hobs temperature in the galley regularly reached 35-38°C.
A cool kitchen! kitchen_temperatures_janice_new_induction_stove_0041_800x600.jpg
Chef Colin Johnstone's comments in August 2011  
Hi Geoff,
 
Hope all is well with you.
 
Just thought I would drop you a quick email to say that I and the team are enjoying cooking on our new stoves!!.
 
I know it took a while to get sorted out but eventually we did & I then ended up in the office for a few months so did not get out to use them until last week.
 
They have had the desired effect and have reduced the overall temperature in our galley by approx 5c-8c which is exactly what I thought they would, making our working environment much more comfortable for all of us.
Additionally they are far more efficient than our old stoves so lots of improvements from the chefs too haha.
 
Once again many thanks for all your time & help getting the stoves made & out to us and I would not hesitate to recommend you to anyone in the future.
Kind regards

Colin Johnstone