Oil, Sweat and Rigs is the story of one of the greatest industrial recovery and repair operations since the Second World War, and the biggest ever mounted by the oil industry.

It's also the untold epic story behind the headlines about something that concerns us all: soaring fuel prices.

Everyone knows that hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast. What is not known is that the storms also threatened the national security of the United States. They ripped apart our main oil fields, and almost overnight 20 percent of our oil supplies were closed down, putting us at a higher level of risk from unstable regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere than ever before.

The hurricanes destroyed 121 platforms and rigs, severely damaged 71 platforms and rigs, breached 148 oil and gas pipelines, and laid waste to five major refineries.

Oil riggers working on the front lines of the recovery operation face extraordinary technical challenges, and work in uniquely dangerous conditions. At sea they have to battle waves in excess of 30 feet, 80-mph winds and driving rain.

In each episode, some of the world's biggest machines do battle as riggers attempt mind-boggling feats of engineering, including the biggest lift ever carried out at sea and repairing pipelines 1,000 feet beneath the ocean. To meet the challenges they face, the oil companies have chartered a flotilla of ships from every corner of the world and a veritable army of workers. Oil, Sweat and Rigs weaves fantastic technology and science with the human drama of rough and tough people working at the very limits of human endurance, in difficult and sometimes terrifying conditions.

These men — and a few women — aren't used to thinking of themselves as heroes. But all of us depend on the success of their mission: to secure America's oil supply.