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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My dad works in the oil industry and explained this to me.
**How they are installed:**
When geographers and surveyors find (or expect) an oil reservoir underneath the ocean, they send a team to go down there and make a ‘plug’ that an oil rig can later attach themselves to to get out the oil. This part isn’t super clear, but also isn’t that important because we’re talking about oil rigs, here.
**Why oil rigs float:**
It’s important to realize what exactly is going on here. Sure, it may just sound like a big puddle of oil under the ground (which it essentially is), but it’s been down there for *millions* of years and has been under *extreme* pressure levels. If you break the seal, all that oil is going to explode out and leak into the water. That is bad. So, we make some kind of ‘cork’ to regulate the outflow of oil.
That cork CANNOT be directly attached to the rig. Even if the rig is stable, unexpected changes in the water can move the entire rig, breaking open that cork, dumping out all that oil into the life-rich ocean. (See the last section for more).
Oil rigs are crazy expensive, and oil reservoirs have limited supply. So it’s important that you make these oil rigs reusable and easily transportable over great distances. **This is why oil rigs float.**
When enough oil was pulled out, they seal it up the hole with concrete, wait for it to dry, then float away.
**Real-world context (*****Deepwater Horizon*** **@ 2010, optional):**
BP (British Petroleum) is one of the largest oil companies in the world. To save money, they picked up a “it hasn’t fucked up yet, so why would it now?” mentality, and chose to not follow through completely with sealing the hole at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The seal was unstable, and boom. 11 people were killed in an explosion that leaked 134 million gallons of oil into the ocean, equivalent to 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Hoped this was helpful and wasn’t too boring
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