I don’t understand how oil rigs just live out in the middle of the ocean??? how were they installed? do they float or are they stuck to the sea floor?? pls help
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For drilling rigs there are jack ups with long legs that embed into the sea floor, there are floaters (drill ships) that are basically boats with a hole in the bottom that the drill pipe goes through, and there are semi-submersibles (like Deepwater Horizon) that have giant underwater pontoons that fill up with water or air depending on sea conditions and stay in place using anchors and when necessary GPS-assisted propulsion. Source: spent 5-years as an LWD hand in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska (North Slope and Cook Inlet) in my “youth”.
Edit: there are also platforms that are usually production and not drilling and those things are typically semi-permanent installs constructed with framing all the way to the sea floor.
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