Foundation stone and prized drawing

This ceremony took place at the Norwegian Contractor’s dry dock in Stavanger’s Jåttåvågen suburb, where NC had started work on the platform’s concrete gravity base structure (GBS) a month earlier.

“… An exemplary company on the Norwegian continental shelf [NCS] in terms of collaboration with national industry and not least its close contact with the government,” Reitan declared.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Shell Internt, no 5, September 1990. “Grunnsteinsnedleggelse for Draugen plattformen”.

In his speech, the minister also praised the project as an outstanding example of new technology and advanced solutions in the collaboration between an oil major and Norwegian industry.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Dagens Næringsliv, 29 August 1990. “Grunnsteinen lagt for Draugen”. This festive occasion for Norske Shell and the Draugen project was hardly the appropriate place for analyses or criticism, of course.

Jåttåvågen swarmed with celebrities. In addition to the minister, who hailed from Møre og Romsdal county, a delegation had arrived from Kristiansund with mayor Harald Stokke and chief administrative officer Anton Monge in the lead. International top executives from the Shell system as well as the whole senior management of the Norwegian company and the Draugen operations organisation were also present. In addition, veteran Stavanger politician Arne Rettedal, now chair of Rogaland county council, had the opportunity to add his plaudits for Shell, NC and the field’s operations team.

Show stealer

The show was nevertheless stolen by an eight-year-old girl. Lisa Kristin Haugen from Ålesund had been specially invited to the ceremony after winning a drawing competition.

This contest had been organised by Norske Shell for schoolchildren in Møre og Romsdal, and attracted more than 3 000 entries.[REMOVE]Fotnote: Tidens Krav, 29 August 1990. “Nå kommer Draugen”.

When Lisa Kristin’s class took part, the girl – then seven years old – had no idea where this would lead. The assignment was to draw or paint the draug – a phantom who haunts the living – and she painted this wraith without thinking any more about it.

Local paper Sunnmørsposten visited her class on 15 May 1990 and asked if anyone recognised the painting. Since some time had elapsed, she was unsure whether to raise her hand. “It was pretty overwhelming for a shy seven-year-old to win such a contest, be interviewed by the local paper and attract a lot of attention,” Lisa Kristin now recalls.[REMOVE]Fotnote: E-mail from Lisa Kristin Haugen, dated 31 May 2018.

She won NOK 1 500 – a lot of money for such a young girl at that time. To cap it all, the prize was presented on her eighth birthday. A trip to Stavanger had not been part of the competition, but Lisa Kristin was later invited to pay her first visit to the oil town together with her mother and older brother. During the two-day excursion, the trio was well looked after by Shell representatives. They took them on a tour of the city, and placed them in a hotel with a swimming pool.

Dinner was taken at Cafe de France, the best restaurant in town, where Lisa Kristin was served a specially ordered spaghetti bolognaise, since the rest of the menu was not particularly child-friendly.[REMOVE]Fotnote: E-mail from Lisa Kristin Haugen, dated 31 May 2018.

The Haugen family also attended Stavanger’s ONS oil show, which was perhaps more interesting for her four-year-older brother. Then came the foundation stone ceremony. Such events can be fairly tedious for a young girl. But she was eventually introduced to Reiten and had a good story to tell her class back home.
Dressed in national costume, she came up on the stage and presented the framed original painting to the minister for hanging in his office.

As a memento, she received a porcelain model of the Draugen platform as well as a video and photographs from the ceremony and from the presentation of her artwork. It has not been possible to establish where Lisa Kristin’s painting is now to be found.