Life on the North Sea can now be explored from your sofa as the world’s first Google Street View tour of an offshore platform is launched today.

This fun and informative feature on Cygnus, the largest single producing gas field in the North Sea, has been commissioned by operator Neptune Energy and its partner Spirit Energy.

The Cygnus Street View can be toured here: https://www.neptuneenergy.com/en/activities/operated-fields-in-production/cygnus-uk

This is the first time that Google Street View has ventured to an offshore oil and gas platform and it allows users to tour Cygnus, click on explanatory notes and watch some of the workforce talk about their jobs and life on a producing North Sea gas installation. Visitors have the opportunity to experience areas including the helipad, wellhead, control room and accommodation, fitness, leisure and restaurant spaces. Notes provide detailed information on the structure, its role in the UK economy and explanations about life and work offshore.

Cygnus consists of two installations, Alpha and Bravo. Alpha has three platforms and Street View even allows users to brave the elements by walking across the bridges linking the platforms in the middle of the North Sea.

Based in the southern North Sea, approximately 150km off the UK coast, the Cygnus field has been producing gas since December 2016. It contributes up to 8% of UK gas production, enough gas to heat the equivalent of 1.5 million UK homes.

The Cygnus field is the biggest discovery in the southern North Sea for 30 years. It exports gas via a new 55km connection to an existing pipeline, which ends at the Bacton terminal.

Neptune Energy is excited to have hosted this world first and has launched the feature to bring the experience of working and living on a North Sea platform into the lives of those who would otherwise never have such an opportunity. As well as throwing light on life offshore in the North Sea to a worldwide audience, Neptune is sharing the feature with the education sector to encourage interest in careers across the oil and gas industry.