I can understand how the on-land drilling works. Oil exists, maybe under pressure under ground, and when you drill a pipe to the surface, you can start pumping things. Underwater though, I got questions. shouldn’t like, the oil start dispersing in the water? How do they make sure it goes into the pipe instead of leaking? How do they even detect it that far under water? I’ve seen oil gushers before, but how do you check for an oil gusher underwater, especially in the first oceanic oil wells?
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>Shouldn’t like, the oil start dispersing in the water?
No. It comes up a tube just like a straw and goes all the way out of the ocean.
>How do they make sure it goes into the pipe instead of leaking?
There is a seal around the straw.
>How do they even detect it that far under water?
Sound. Just like a bat.
>I’ve seen oil gushers before, but how do you check for an oil gusher underwater, especially in the first oceanic oil wells?
The staw is connected to a pressure gauge like the ones on a bicycle pump. If the pressure goes up superfast, you’ve got a gusher!
Hope this helps!
The oil isn’t in the water, it’s in the ground below the water, sometimes very deep underground.
Drilling rigs that drill in the ocean will assemble a long tube beginning at the seabed using the appropriate type of pipe. They add different parts to the pipe to help them control what’s going inside when they start to drill. Once all that has been done, they begin drilling and installing just like any other well.
The oil never comes to the surface while offshore rigs are working. It never goes to the rig. It will come up to the wellhead, which is usually attached to a pipeline where it will get diverted into a transportation system made up of underwater pipes. Where those pipes lead to depends on where they are. Sometimes it gets put onto a crude oil tanker and sometimes it gets routed to shore based facilities that will collect it and transport it to a refinery.
The drill goes down to the seafloor, where the oil is, so they use pipes to collect the oil and gas to bring them up to the platform on that floats on the water.
To stop oil from spreading in water, they use a pipe and valves to control the flow. Sensors and cameras help them detect leaks and gushers. They’re careful with pressure and use abunch of equipment to manage it.
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