As Christopher Boodram blinked his eyes open, stinging crude oil seeped through his lashes.
He was lying flat on his back, straining to lift his head out of the viscous sludge to sip breaths from a tiny pocket of dirty air.
It was so completely dark, he thought he might have gone blind.
‘I wasn't sure if I was alive - or if this was hell,' he tells the Daily Mail's Pipeline podcast, his soft voice edged with fear, 'I'm in pitch black, in pain, hearing screaming and bawling.'
Christopher, 39, reached out with his hands and feet, trying to determine where he was, and felt a ring of harsh metal all around him, barely wider than his shoulders.
