South-east Pipeline

Many of south east England's petrol needs are met by oil flowing invisibly beneath Surrey and Kent, via a pipeline starting at Esso's refinery in Fawley, Hants to its terminal in Purfleet, Essex. Esso commissioned this thoughtful film to record the new stretch of pipeline being laid (from Alton to Purfleet, via Gatwick) and to tell the story of the complex planning aimed at reducing environmental impact.

Talented writer-director Derek Williams is best known for earlier films made for BP, often touching on environmental issues. By the time of this, his first Esso commission, the industrial film tradition was sadly in serious decline. Stylistically, South East Pipeline is a shadow of earlier films' painterly visuals and lyrical commentaries, and the Home Counties are a far cry from the exotic global locations to which Williams' BP work had taken him. Providing a clear and measured account of a complicated project, the film is ultimately, of course, supportive of a petro-centric world-view: "oil is indispensable... the prime mover of a motorised mankind".