Offshore Platform

Offshore platforms are oftentimes “offshore oil rigs” that are “platforms that hold all of the drilling equipment, storage areas, and housing for work crews” and that either “stand on stilt-like legs embedded in the ocean floor” or are “floating platforms” which are “attached to the ocean floor by large cables and anchors” [4]. They can be “truly gigantic structures” where some are “basically floating cities” that “employ and house hundreds of people” [2]. In terms of location, “nearly all offshore oil and natural gas leasing and development activity currently occurs in the central and western Gulf of Mexico” [4].

For drilling to find oil, there are “four main types of MODUs,” which are “Mobile Offshore Drilling Units,” including “a submersible or barge MODU” which has “steel posts that extend above the water line” and are “typically used in areas with calm water." The visual characteristics of other offshore platforms include those of the “jack-up rig” which is “a rig that sits on top of a floating barge,” “drill ships” which are “ships with drilling rigs on the top deck” and “semisubmersibles” which float on “submerged platoons” serving as the base for the exploration rig [3].

Further elaborating on these characteristics, “jack-up rigs” will “stand on three (sometimes four) legs secured to the ocean floor” that it “can raise and lower itself on,” semi-submersible platforms “rest on massive columns that are secured to large platoons,” and “drill ships” can be spotted in more “remote locations with fewer supply trips required” [1], [2].

With the oil found, a permanent “production platform” takes over, and visual features of these may include “tall vertical sections” of “tubular steel members” which have “a deck placed on top,” or “flexible towers” and “piled foundations” or a “large diameter single vertical cylinder supporting a deck” [3].

References

[1] Arnold & Itkin Trial Lawyers. (2015, December 10). The 3 Primary Types of Offshore Oil Rigs. Retrieved (2021, July 17), from https://www.arnolditkin.com/personal-injury-blog/2015/december/the-3-primary-types-of-offshore-oil-rigs/

[2] Lamb, R. (n.d.). How Offshore Drilling Works. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved (2021, July 17), from https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/offshore-drilling.htm

[3] National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA). (n.d.). The Basics of Offshore Oil & Gas. Retrieved (2021, July 18), from https://www.noia.org/basics-offshore-oil-gas/

[4] U.S. Energy Information Administration (US EIA). (2020, December 7). Oil and petroleum products explained – Offshore oil and gas. Retrieved (2021, July 17), from https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/offshore-oil-and-gas-in-depth.php