
Transocean Winner: How to Re-Float an Oil Rig
In August 2016, a storm off Scotland's Atlantic coast snaps the towline hauling the Transocean Winner, a semi-submersible drilling rig the size of a football pitch, and drives it onto the rocks of the Isle of Lewis. The rig sits grounded on one of the UK's most environmentally sensitive coastlines, threatening a spill that could devastate local fisheries and wildlife. The film follows the salvage engineers tasked with getting sixteen thousand tonnes of steel off the rocks without breaking it apart, working against tides, weather windows, and the risk of fuel leaking into the sea. Interviews and on-site footage cover the assessment of the hull damage, the specialized heavy-lift vessels brought in, and the calculations behind refloating a structure never designed to be moved this way. It is a practical account of marine engineering under pressure, focused on the mechanics of the operation rather than the politics around it, and it stays close to the people doing the physical work of pulling the rig free.