Tigress Ltd's new website was launched in May 2005. This
comprehensive site gives details of all of the company's
products and
services, and
offers additional features for exploration and production
(E&P) professionals, such as a list of industry events and
useful Internet
links.
The information on the website is split into a number of
sections, and includes, for the first time, an archive of company
news and
press releases, and a page of frequently asked questions (FAQs). Users can
download brochures, press releases and newsletters in
PDF format, and there are links to Tigress's Russian subsite and
its secure support site for existing customers.
If you want to find out more about using our website, read our
Help page.
Website creation
The new Tigress website was designed by website agency
3internet, and built using its content management
system Inigo. The project was run by Karen Packham,
an experienced freelance website project manager and content
editor. Her previous website clients include the Transport and General
Workers' Union (T&G) and the Royal National
Institute for Deaf People (RNID).
Website design
The UK is extremely rich in geological history, and the images
at the top of the pages on the Tigress website (except for the
tiger!) show sites of geological interest, covering a cross-section
of ancient and modern contexts. Here we tell you about the images
used in each section:
These images were supplied by UK
Landscape.
News and events
The Hills of Blackmount, Rannoch Moor, Western Highlands
This is a wild and windswept landscape famous for its views of
heather-draped hills and rocky backdrops of glens and mountains.
Perhaps the most famous reference to the moor is found in Robert
Louis Stevenson's novel, Kidnapped: "A wearier looking desert a man
never saw". In the North Sea petroleum era the land gives names to
the formations of the Brent Group: Broom, Rannoch, Etive, Ness and
Tarbert. The price of Brent oil is used internationally as a
benchmark for oil trading.
Photographer: John Carroll
Products
Durdle Door, Dorset
This spectacular arch is carved out of steeply dipping Portland
Limestone and Purbeck stromatolitic limestone. Lying above the
Kimmeridge clay, these limestones are used extensively as an
ornamental building stone thoughout Britain, and this stretch of
coast is a classic field location for many UK earth scientists. It
is a World Heritage coastline of outstanding natural beauty, where
185 million years of geology is exposed in the 95 miles of coast.
The name Durdle Door is thought to have been coined over 1,000
years ago, and is derived from an Old English word ‘thirl’ meaning
'to pierce'.
Photographer: Roger Holman
Services
The Seven Sisters, East Sussex
The imposing white chalk cliffs of the South Downs coast are the
type rock of the massive chalk deposits of the Cretaceaous.
Offshore, the fractured chalks are a major reservoir rock for
several North Sea fields, including the giant Ekofisk field,
discovered by Phillips Petroleum in 1969. The Ekofisk field was the
first major oil discovery in the North Sea and was a major catalyst
for the subsequent development of this region as one of the key
petroleum provinces in the world. The White Cliffs are an enduring
emblem of the United Kingdom, and have been welcoming view for many
of the visitors to the British Isles over the millenia.
Photographer: Alex
Rosen
Publications
Dartmoor, Devon
Dartmoor in Devon is one of Britain's largest National Parks.
High, bleak and wild, it is southern England's only true
wilderness. Most of Dartmoor consists of a single type of rock:
granite. This granite was intruded during the late
Carboniferous/early Permian period (around 280 million years ago)
and Dartmoor marks the Northern end of a massive intrusion, or
batholith, formed by a number of granite domes within the Earth's
crust. The overlying rocks have gradually been eroded, exposing the
granite tors which are Dartmoor's most characteristic feature.
Dartmoor granite covers an area of 625 square kilometres (241
square miles).
Past hydrothermal activity led to a local concentration of
minerals in the granite and surrounding rocks, resulting in tin and
copper ore veins, as well as arsenic and lead ores, and many other
metals and minerals. Many of these have been worked commercially in
the past, while the granite itself has been mined and used for
building as it is extremely durable and can be beautiful when
polished. Weathering of Dartmoor granite also led to kaolinisation,
and hence formation of china clay. This is used in toothpaste, to
make porcelain and to treat the surface of paper to make it smooth
and glossy.
For more information visit the Dartmoor National
Park Authority website.
Photographer: Mike Busselle
Training
Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset
The shale beds in this bay are the type rock for the Kimmeridge
clay formation of the Upper Jurassic and are the major source rock
for the hydrocarbons of the North Sea. The ‘Kimmeridge coal’ or
‘Blackstone’ is an oil-shale that was mined in the past for fuel,
the peak period being during the First World War. The rock has also
been carved since Roman times for decorative stone.
Exploration for oil in Kimmeridge Bay began in 1936, and there
has been minor oil production here since 1959. The Kimmeridge
field, although small, is an unusual one where production has now
exceeded the capacity of the reservoir, indicating that a dynamic
replenishment mechanism is active. Nearby is the Wytch Farm oil
field, with reported recoverable reserves of 460 million barrels,
making it the largest onshore field in Northern Europe. The bay is
a site of special geolocial and ecological interest, and is the
location for three of the best surfing breaks on this section of the South
coast.
Photographer: Mark Bauer
Customer support
Stonehenge, Wiltshire
As one of the greatest prehistoric monuments in Europe,
Stonehenge has long beeen a place of wonder and speculation. How
and why was it built? The first evidence of construction at
Stonehenge is the enclosure ditch, dated at about 3000 BC, although
other earthworks nearby are dated into the 4th millenium BC. Flint
artifacts date human activity in the area as far back as the 7th
millennium BC. The main stone circles seen today are believed to
date from 2550 to 1400 BC.
It is the historical evidence for a continued development,
modification and re-modelling of the stone settings over a period
of more than 1,000 years, and the consequential need for
communities, economies and organisations able to deliver this, that
makes Stonehenge such a facinating monument. Ron Yorston, senior
Tigress engineer and keen theoretical archaeologist, has
co-authored a book on Stonehenge, integrating computing and
phenomenological study, to give a 3D-assisted insight into the
spatial and chronological development of this landscape.
Read more about Stonehenge
Landscapes.
Photographer: Mike Busselle