Life on North Sea's Rough gas storage facility 18 miles off Yorkshire coast

ITV Calendar reporter Jonathan Brown spent the day on the Rough gas storage facility, 18 miles off the Yorkshire coast, where there are plans to adapt to provide fuel for years to come.

With 100 staff working on rotation, a restaurant, a gym, a sauna and a cinema it's easy to see why those who run it call it the "hotel".

But this is far from your average holiday retreat.

Only accessible by helicopter, the Rough gas storage facility is a huge platform in the middle of the North Sea managing the flow of natural gas from a vast cavern of porous rock 2.7km beneath the water's surface to the Yorkshire coast 18 miles away.

I was given special access to hear about plans to create a similar site for hydrogen, which could see Rough's underground storage system used for a different fuel in decades to come. But I was equally keen to find out what life at sea is like on board a facility that even those with relatives who work there rarely experience firsthand.

As the helicopter becomes airborne to begin its journey from Humberside Airport to Rough, the views over the Humber are a taster of the vistas to come. You hover over wind farms as your landing spot appears in the distance.

The flight itself is a mere 20 minutes, but once on board the platform, it feels like the most remote location on earth.

Staff work 14 days straight - 12 hours a day - so the platform has to function as a home as well as a workplace.

Jon Wason, who is in charge of catering on board, says the restaurant tries to provide as varied a menu as possible.

"We do a roast of the day and filled baguettes and things like that and there's always fish on twice a day and then night times we do spicier things," he says.

"They got really good selection. We don't charge the prices the restaurants charge, but we sell with the ingredients we got. We try and make it as nice as we can."

It's important, he says, that staff are able to enjoy their down time.

"You haven't got much to look forward to when you're finished, right?" he says.

"Maybe phoning your loved ones, watching telly and your food so you've got to try and make sure the food's as good as you can."

And it gets good reviews from the customers it serves.

Operation superintendent Dave Burnett tells me: "The food is awesome, it's pretty good I can't complain. I'm going to be on at Christmas this year and Christmas is usually pretty good."

Dave is part of a vast engineering operation that doesn't stop for life events on dry land - his young daughter and heavily pregnant wife are waiting at home.

In the meantime, he and his colleagues bunk two to a room.

"It comes with some real positives, but it also comes with some some negatives," he said.

"I've got a daughter, Phoebe, who's seven, so we've got to come up with some imaginative ways over the years to kind of convince her that I'm home for Christmas. That can be quite difficult. I've got another child on the way in January as well - a little boy. So it's always the lottery of making sure that I'm going to be home for when the baby's due.

"That can be a little bit nerve wracking, but fingers crossed the decks line up and it'll be okay."

During their down time, as well as the cinema and gym, workers have access to a pool room and dartboard - and even a yoga space.

The work itself is demanding - staff manage the flow of billions of cubic feet of methane in and out of the national network. Maintaining a structure that's spent 40 years semi submerged in salt water is a big task - and not short of risk.

That's why help is on hand - even in the most remote of workplaces.

Zoe Long is the platform's own medic - the only woman among 100 men.

"I was an NHS paramedic for 16 years," she says. "And then I decided I wanted to go into, like, remote and offshore.

"You kind of have to think out of the box a little bit more. And how are you going to keep someone alive whilst waiting for a helicopter."

Zoe has dealt with broken bones and even heart attacks.

"When I tell people I'm the only woman here with 100 guys they're like what 'why would you do that?' But it's like having 100 brothers it's nice.

"I quite like being in the middle of the sea. Sometimes we get some crazy weather here and, and it feels very wild. And other days it can be completely flat calm and there's dolphins and seals going past."

So while it stands alone - stranded miles from civilisation - this unorthodox outpost offers a way of life few ever get to experience.

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