Living With Oil and Gas Platforms
Living With Oil and Gas Platforms along the Gulf Coast. If you have ever been to Dauphin Island south of Alabama, you will see quite a few of these rigs out in the gulf. We went out on a ferry ride to cross the gulf and we went by one of these so I took a few photos.
So I had to look up some information on these, to learn more about them. Following are some quotes from an interview with Mr. Conklin who is an engineer and knows about these wells. I will put the link to the complete interview that was given in 2008 here.
Mr. CONKLIN: Well, what we operate with one portion of our company is what’s called a shore base. All those platforms that anybody sees offshore, everything they get that the people need out there, from spare motors, replacement valves to their groceries and their drinking water, comes to them by a vessel, a boat, and that boat has to go to some central location to pick everything up. Those are called shore bases,
Mr. CONKLIN: You’ve got two main kinds of what we call fixed platforms. You’ve got manned and unmanned. Your unmanneds typically could just be as small as a stem, just one pipe sticking out of the ground with nothing on it, and it can be serviced by a vessel that comes up to it as a ladder so a guy can get to the top and that would be about as small as they can get.
But your typical platform will have anywhere from three to six caisson legs driven into the ground, and it will be a large, steel superstructure supported on top, and it will look, to a lot of people, a lot like a drilling rig.
Mr. CONKLIN: The largest platform in our area is owned and operated by Exxon Mobil and they can have upwards of 45 people out at there at a time with a typical number probably in the thirties. The smallest has two.
CONAN: So what advice would you have for people in California or Florida or in North Carolina if they were given the power to make their decision by the Congress and decide whether to start offshore drilling?
Mr. MCGRATH: If they’re asking me, I would tell them, you do not want those contraptions off your shoreline. For matters of safety, for matters of health, aesthetics, of course, they are ugly. I mean, there are people on the island who’ve grown up with them and some of my neighbors say they’ve gotten used to them and they find kind of a comfort in them, but I’m thinking – and of course, I’ve only lived on the island for three years,
It is quite the controversy on whether to have these or not. On tomorrow post I will be showing you some Container ships that passed by these rigs and by us when we were on the ferry boat. Along with a video of both. I thought the Container ship I saw on the Gulf was huge, but after doing some research it isn’t even close to the largest container ship built.
Living With Oil and Gas Platforms
26 Replies to “Living With Oil and Gas Platforms”
Thanks for sharing stunning post
You are very welcome, thank you 😊
Sorry spotted a typo…basket ball court. Apologies
I used to work for a multi national oil drilling company. Semis, Jack Ups, Deep Drill ships or Tender barges I had to crew up. I miss working for that company.
Wow, very impressive. We watched boats go out to the rigs all day. They must have been taking supplies and people out there I imagine. We talked to one guy that worked on one, he said it was hard on his family life. He was on a deep sea rig and worked so many weeks on then off.
Yes, crew change is 28 days on and 28 days off. The rig is their home during that time and it is equipped with a gym, basket bapl court, helipad or medical evacuations. I went up to a jack up once and was impressed with the drilling equipment as it was high tech. The tool pusher sits in a mechanised chair like the gaming chairs by Secret Lab with joysticks to launch the drill heads. The food served is hotel standard. I enjoyed my visits to the jack up rigs. I got to visit our HQ in Stavanger for meetings quarterly too. Those were the good days as the company was very generous. But with boom bust of cyclical oil cycles, I had to diversify and left that industry. But Putin has now escalated LNG prices, fuel shocks etc with his war on Ukraine.
Pretty cool what you did. Yes gas prices are going up fast.
Take care Sandra and if I have not said it before, I enjoy your posts, photos and all. 🐾😽💖Stay safe
Thank you 😊
I’ve never seen an oil rig before so thank you for posting these pictures Sandra. Very interesting.
Mi inquietano.
They are very impressing. Smile
Yes, 😊😉
They are very impressing and so huge!
You can find them platforms pretty or not , your pictures are amazing!!
Kindest regards,
Christa
Thank you very much Christa
Definitely saw a lot of those platforms while I was down there and agreed not the nicest to look at – here in the heartland I have the same opinion about Windmills (coupled with their impact on birds – I actually discovered Sartore due to his TED talk begging for windmill companies to turn off the turbines at wind speeds below a certain level). Thanks for sharing the info you learned!
Yes those windmills are an eye sore, completely ruin the landscapes and I do not really know the benefits of them if any. Besides they placed them on migratory routes because of the wind. I don’t see how any people benefit from them. We are still paying the same for all of our energy. Don’t get me started Brian, 😊
We definitely have similar opinions – forget I even brought it up hehehehe.
Very interesting information!
Thanks Sandra for giving us a look into this special world of oil and gas platforms. Great that you were able to photograph them.
Great 👍👍👍👍
What an interesting visit but they are ugly. Thank you for sharing.
I agree Sandra, they are ugly. 😊
Ugly but necessary! Thanks for the article.
Thank you for your fascinating and interesting article Sandra ..
You are very welcome Ivor.