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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In really deep water they are anchored to float in the same general place and there is a flexible connection to the sea floor.
It depends, some are on long legs and some float.
The floating ones are held in position by several anchors, although some exploration rigs just use motors and thrusters to hold themselves stationary.
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“Pls help” casual side note that you are kidnapped on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean
My husband worked next to a floating one. They built the rig and the fspo – floating, storage, production, offloading – vessel in Singapore, then towed them both to the North sea! It was so interesting!
The FSPO he was on (looks like an oil tanker ship with no engine) was anchored I think, but could re-position itself. Maybe. But it looked cool!
There are 4 main types.
FPSO – Floating Production Storage and Offloading. Basically a converted tanker anchored in place. (Multiple anchors, sometimes as many as 12-18).
Semi-sub. – Looks like a fixed oil rig above the water but basically has big pontoons just under the water level to make it float, and is again anchored in place.
Jack-up. – Exactly what it says on the tin. Normally a big floating body that gets owed in to place by tugs and then has legs that jack it up in the air.
Fixed. – Big steel structure that sits on the seabed. normally on concrete piles.
Then there are also some weird less common versions. e.g. Norway has one that is a set of giant concrete tubes and is held in place on a soft seabed by sucking itself into the ground.
In most cases they are not in really deep water. Most of the UK is less than 100m deep. Even when we do talk about “deepwater”, we normally mean 200-300m, not really deep ocean.
I’m not sure this will help you, but here’s a picture to think about:
[https://polarconnection.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/dales_voe-buchan_alpha_02-01-18-5286-1000×600-0d5.jpg](https://polarconnection.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/dales_voe-buchan_alpha_02-01-18-5286-1000×600-0d5.jpg)
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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