2-847-674 - Historic England Archive/Heritage Images

An aerial view of Graythorp I floating in the flooded basin of the dry dock at Graythorp, with the dock gates removed prior to the launch of the oil platform. In the early 1970s Laing Pipelines Offshore constructed the Graythorp fabrication yard and dry dock on the site of the old William Gray Shipyard. The company created a dry dock which was used for the construction of fixed platform North Sea drilling rigs for the BP North Sea Oil Project. Graythorp I had its christening ceremony on June 4th and was launched on Saturday 29th June 1974, heading off for the Forties Oil Field 250 miles away.