Plataforma petrolera

Large offshore structure with oil drilling and related facilities

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Una plataforma de perforación petrolífera frente a la costa de Santa Bárbara, CA - 6 de diciembre de 2011

La plataforma petrolera P-51 frente a la costa brasileña es una plataforma semisumergible .

Plataforma petrolera Mittelplate en el Mar del Norte

Estación de reacondicionamiento de equipos de perforación - Bahía de Corpus Christi

Una plataforma petrolífera , una plataforma marina o una plataforma de perforación marítima es una estructura grande con instalaciones para la perforación de pozos para explorar, extraer, almacenar y procesar petróleo y gas natural que se encuentran en formaciones rocosas debajo del lecho marino. Muchas plataformas petroleras también contendrán instalaciones para acomodar a su fuerza laboral. Más comúnmente, las plataformas petrolíferas se dedican a actividades en la plataforma continental , aunque también se pueden utilizar en lagos, aguas costeras y mares interiores. Dependiendo de las circunstancias, la plataforma puede estar fijada al fondo del océano, consistir en una isla artificial o flotar .^[1] Lospozos submarinos remotostambién pueden conectarse a una plataforma mediante líneas de flujo yconexiones umbilicales . Estas soluciones submarinas pueden consistir en uno o más pozos submarinos o en uno o más centros múltiples para múltiples pozos.

La perforación en alta mar presenta desafíos ambientales, tanto por los hidrocarburos producidos como por los materiales utilizados durante la operación de perforación. Las controversias incluyen el actual debate sobre perforaciones en alta mar en Estados Unidos . ^[2]

Hay muchos tipos diferentes de instalaciones desde las que se llevan a cabo las operaciones de perforación en alta mar. Estos incluyen plataformas de perforación de fondo ( barcazas autoelevadoras y barcazas de pantano), instalaciones combinadas de perforación y producción, ya sea plataformas flotantes o de fondo, y unidades móviles de perforación en alta mar (MODU) en aguas profundas, incluidos semisumergibles y buques de perforación. Estos son capaces de operar en profundidades de agua de hasta 3.000 metros (9.800 pies). En aguas menos profundas, las unidades móviles están ancladas al fondo marino. Sin embargo, en aguas más profundas (más de 1,500 metros (4,900 pies)), los semisumergibles o naves de perforación se mantienen en la ubicación de perforación requerida utilizando un posicionamiento dinámico .

Historia

Plataforma costa afuera, Golfo de México

Alrededor de 1891, los primeros pozos de petróleo sumergidos se perforaron desde plataformas construidas sobre pilotes en las aguas dulces del Grand Lake St. Marys (también conocido como Embalse del condado de Mercer) en Ohio . El depósito, ancho pero poco profundo, se construyó entre 1837 y 1845 para proporcionar agua al canal de Miami y Erie .

Alrededor de 1896, se perforaron los primeros pozos de petróleo sumergidos en agua salada en la parte del campo Summerland que se extiende debajo del Canal de Santa Bárbara en California . Los pozos se perforaron a partir de muelles que se extendían desde la tierra hacia el canal.

Otras actividades de perforación sumergidas tempranas notables ocurrieron en el lado canadiense del lago Erie desde 1913 y el lago Caddo en Luisiana en la década de 1910. Poco después, se perforaron pozos en zonas de mareas a lo largo de la costa del Golfo de Texas y Luisiana. El campo Goose Creek cerca de Baytown, Texas, es un ejemplo. En la década de 1920, la perforación se realizó desde plataformas de concreto en el lago de Maracaibo , Venezuela .

El pozo costa afuera más antiguo registrado en la base de datos costa afuera de Infield es el pozo Bibi Eibat que entró en funcionamiento en 1923 en Azerbaiyán . ^{[3] El} relleno sanitario se utilizó para elevar porciones poco profundas del Mar Caspio .

A principios de la década de 1930, la Compañía de Texas desarrolló las primeras barcazas de acero móviles para perforar en las zonas costeras salobres del golfo.

En 1937, Pure Oil Company (ahora Chevron Corporation ) y su socio Superior Oil Company (ahora parte de ExxonMobil Corporation ) utilizaron una plataforma fija para desarrollar un campo en 14 pies (4,3 m) de agua, a una milla (1,6 km) de la costa de Parroquia de Calcasieu, Luisiana .

En 1938, Humble Oil construyó un caballete de madera de una milla de largo con vías de ferrocarril en el mar en McFadden Beach en el Golfo de México, colocando una torre de perforación en su extremo, que luego fue destruida por un huracán. ^[4]

En 1945, la preocupación por el control estadounidense de sus reservas de petróleo en alta mar hizo que el presidente Harry Truman emitiera una Orden Ejecutiva que extendía unilateralmente el territorio estadounidense hasta el borde de su plataforma continental, una ley que efectivamente puso fin al régimen límite de 3 millas de " libertad de los mares ". .

En 1946, Magnolia Petroleum (ahora ExxonMobil ) perforó un sitio a 29 km (18 millas) de la costa, erigiendo una plataforma en 5,5 m (18 pies) de agua frente a St. Mary Parish, Louisiana .

A principios de 1947, Superior Oil erigió una plataforma de perforación / producción en 20 pies (6,1 m) de agua a unas 18 millas ^{[ imprecisas ]} de Vermilion Parish, Louisiana . Pero fue Kerr-McGee Oil Industries (ahora parte de Occidental Petroleum ), como operador de los socios Phillips Petroleum ( ConocoPhillips ) y Stanolind Oil & Gas ( BP ), quien completó su histórico pozo Ship Shoal Block 32 en octubre de 1947, meses antes de Superior en realidad perforaron un descubrimiento desde su plataforma Vermilion más lejos de la costa. En cualquier caso, eso convirtió al pozo de Kerr-McGee en el primer descubrimiento de petróleo perforado fuera de la vista de la tierra. ^{[5] [6]}

Los fuertes británicos de Maunsell construidos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial se consideran los predecesores directos de las plataformas marinas modernas. Habiendo sido preconstruidos en muy poco tiempo, luego fueron flotados a su ubicación y colocados en el fondo poco profundo del Támesis y el estuario de Mersey . ^{[6] [7]}

En 1954, Zapata Oil encargó la primera plataforma petrolera autoelevadora . Fue diseñado por RG LeTourneau y presentaba tres patas tipo celosía operadas electromecánicamente. Construido a orillas del río Mississippi por LeTourneau Company, fue lanzado en diciembre de 1955 y bautizado "Scorpion". El Scorpion se puso en funcionamiento en mayo de 1956 frente a Port Aransas , Texas. Se perdió en 1969. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

Cuando la perforación en alta mar se trasladó a aguas más profundas de hasta 30 metros (98 pies), se construyeron equipos de plataforma fija, hasta que se requirieron equipos de perforación en los 30 metros (98 pies) a 120 metros (390 pies) de profundidad del Golfo de México, las primeras plataformas autoelevadoras comenzaron a aparecer de contratistas especializados en perforación mar adentro, como los precursores de ENSCO International.

El primer semisumergible resultó de una observación inesperada en 1961. Blue Water Drilling Company poseía y operaba la plataforma sumergible de cuatro columnas Blue Water N ° 1 en el Golfo de México para Shell Oil Company . Como los pontones no eran lo suficientemente flotantes para soportar el peso de la plataforma y sus consumibles, se remolcó entre ubicaciones en un calado a mitad de camino entre la parte superior de los pontones y la parte inferior de la cubierta. Se notó que los movimientos en este calado eran muy pequeños, y Blue Water Drilling y Shell decidieron conjuntamente intentar operar la plataforma en su modo flotante. El concepto de una plataforma de aguas profundas flotante estable y anclada había sido diseñado y probado en la década de 1920 por Edward Robert Armstrong.con el fin de operar aeronaves con una invención conocida como "seadrome". El primer Ocean Driller semisumergible de perforación especialmente diseñado se lanzó en 1963. Desde entonces, muchos semisumergibles se han diseñado específicamente para la industria de la perforación de flotas marinas móviles.

El primer buque de perforación en alta mar fue el CUSS 1 desarrollado para el proyecto Mohole para perforar la corteza terrestre.

En junio de 2010, había más de 620 plataformas de perforación marinas móviles (Jackups, semisubs, buques de perforación, barcazas) disponibles para el servicio en la flota de plataformas competitiva. ^[11]

Uno de los ejes más profundos del mundo es actualmente el Perdido en el Golfo de México, flotando en 2.438 metros de agua. Es operado por Royal Dutch Shell y fue construido a un costo de $ 3 mil millones. ^[12] La plataforma operativa más profunda es Petrobras America Cascade FPSO en el campo Walker Ridge 249 en 2.600 metros de agua.

Principales cuencas marinas

Las cuencas costa afuera notables incluyen:

• el mar del norte
• el Golfo de México (costa afuera de Texas , Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama y Florida )
• California (in the Los Angeles Basin and Santa Barbara Channel, part of the Ventura Basin)
• the Caspian Sea (notably some major fields offshore Azerbaijan)
• the Campos and Santos Basins off the coasts of Brazil
• Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (Atlantic Canada)
• several fields off West Africa most notably west of Nigeria and Angola
• offshore fields in South East Asia and Sakhalin, Russia
• major offshore oil fields are located in the Persian Gulf such as Safaniya, Manifa and Marjan which belong to Saudi Arabia and are developed by Saudi Aramco.^[13]
• fields in India (Mumbai High, K G Basin-East Coast Of India, Tapti Field, Gujarat, India)
• the Taranaki Basin in New Zealand
• the Kara Sea north of Siberia^[14]
• the Arctic Ocean off the coasts of Alaska and Canada's Northwest Territories^[15]
• the offshore fields in the Adriatic Sea

Types

Larger lake- and sea-based offshore platforms and drilling rig for oil.

1, 2) conventional fixed platforms; 3) compliant tower; 4, 5) vertically moored tension leg and mini-tension leg platform; 6) spar; 7, 8) semi-submersibles; 9) floating production, storage, and offloading facility; 10) sub-sea completion and tie-back to host facility.^[16]

Fixed platforms

Main article: Fixed Platform

A fixed platform base under construction on the Atchafalaya River.

These platforms are built on concrete or steel legs, or both, anchored directly onto the seabed, supporting the deck with space for drilling rigs, production facilities and crew quarters. Such platforms are, by virtue of their immobility, designed for very long term use (for instance the Hibernia platform). Various types of structure are used: steel jacket, concrete caisson, floating steel, and even floating concrete. Steel jackets are structural sections made of tubular steel members, and are usually piled into the seabed. To see more details regarding Design, construction and installation of such platforms refer to:^[17] and.^[18]

Concrete caisson structures, pioneered by the Condeep concept, often have in-built oil storage in tanks below the sea surface and these tanks were often used as a flotation capability, allowing them to be built close to shore (Norwegian fjords and Scottish firths are popular because they are sheltered and deep enough) and then floated to their final position where they are sunk to the seabed. Fixed platforms are economically feasible for installation in water depths up to about 520 m (1,710 ft).

Compliant towers

Main article: Compliant Tower

These platforms consist of slender, flexible towers and a pile foundation supporting a conventional deck for drilling and production operations. Compliant towers are designed to sustain significant lateral deflections and forces, and are typically used in water depths ranging from 370 to 910 metres (1,210 to 2,990 ft).

Semi-submersible platform

Main article: Semi-submersible platform

These platforms have hulls (columns and pontoons) of sufficient buoyancy to cause the structure to float, but of weight sufficient to keep the structure upright. Semi-submersible platforms can be moved from place to place and can be ballasted up or down by altering the amount of flooding in buoyancy tanks. They are generally anchored by combinations of chain, wire rope or polyester rope, or both, during drilling and/or production operations, though they can also be kept in place by the use of dynamic positioning. Semi-submersibles can be used in water depths from 60 to 6,000 metres (200 to 20,000 ft).

Jack-up drilling rigs

400 feet (120 m) tall jackup rig being towed by tugboats, Kachemak Bay, Alaska

Main article: Jackup rig

Jack-up Mobile Drilling Units (or jack-ups), as the name suggests, are rigs that can be jacked up above the sea using legs that can be lowered, much like jacks. These MODUs (Mobile Offshore Drilling Units) are typically used in water depths up to 120 metres (390 ft), although some designs can go to 170 m (560 ft) depth. They are designed to move from place to place, and then anchor themselves by deploying their legs to the ocean bottom using a rack and pinion gear system on each leg.

Drillships

Main article: Drillship

A drillship is a maritime vessel that has been fitted with drilling apparatus. It is most often used for exploratory drilling of new oil or gas wells in deep water but can also be used for scientific drilling. Early versions were built on a modified tanker hull, but purpose-built designs are used today. Most drillships are outfitted with a dynamic positioning system to maintain position over the well. They can drill in water depths up to 3,700 m (12,100 ft).^[19]

Floating production systems

View of the Port of Las Palmas from the dock of La Esfinge

Main article: Floating production, storage and offloading

The main types of floating production systems are FPSO (floating production, storage, and offloading system). FPSOs consist of large monohull structures, generally (but not always) shipshaped, equipped with processing facilities. These platforms are moored to a location for extended periods, and do not actually drill for oil or gas. Some variants of these applications, called FSO (floating storage and offloading system) or FSU (floating storage unit), are used exclusively for storage purposes, and host very little process equipment. This is one of the best sources for having floating production.

The world's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility is currently under development. See the section on particularly large examples below.

Tension-leg platform

Main article: Tension-leg platform

TLPs are floating platforms tethered to the seabed in a manner that eliminates most vertical movement of the structure. TLPs are used in water depths up to about 2,000 meters (6,600 feet). The "conventional" TLP is a 4-column design which looks similar to a semisubmersible. Proprietary versions include the Seastar and MOSES mini TLPs; they are relatively low cost, used in water depths between 180 and 1,300 metres (590 and 4,270 ft). Mini TLPs can also be used as utility, satellite or early production platforms for larger deepwater discoveries.

Gravity-based structure

Main article: Gravity-based structure

A GBS can either be steel or concrete and is usually anchored directly onto the seabed. Steel GBS are predominantly used when there is no or limited availability of crane barges to install a conventional fixed offshore platform, for example in the Caspian Sea. There are several steel GBS in the world today (e.g. offshore Turkmenistan Waters (Caspian Sea) and offshore New Zealand). Steel GBS do not usually provide hydrocarbon storage capability. It is mainly installed by pulling it off the yard, by either wet-tow or/and dry-tow, and self-installing by controlled ballasting of the compartments with sea water. To position the GBS during installation, the GBS may be connected to either a transportation barge or any other barge (provided it is large enough to support the GBS) using strand jacks. The jacks shall be released gradually whilst the GBS is ballasted to ensure that the GBS does not sway too much from target location.

Spar platforms

Devil's Tower spar platform

Main article: Spar (platform)

Spars are moored to the seabed like TLPs, but whereas a TLP has vertical tension tethers, a spar has more conventional mooring lines. Spars have to-date been designed in three configurations: the "conventional" one-piece cylindrical hull; the "truss spar", in which the midsection is composed of truss elements connecting the upper buoyant hull (called a hard tank) with the bottom soft tank containing permanent ballast; and the "cell spar", which is built from multiple vertical cylinders. The spar has more inherent stability than a TLP since it has a large counterweight at the bottom and does not depend on the mooring to hold it upright. It also has the ability, by adjusting the mooring line tensions (using chain-jacks attached to the mooring lines), to move horizontally and to position itself over wells at some distance from the main platform location. The first production spar^[when?] was Kerr-McGee's Neptune, anchored in 590 m (1,940 ft) in the Gulf of Mexico; however, spars (such as Brent Spar) were previously used^[when?] as FSOs.

Eni's Devil's Tower located in 1,710 m (5,610 ft) of water in the Gulf of Mexico, was the world's deepest spar until 2010. The world's deepest platform as of 2011 was the Perdido spar in the Gulf of Mexico, floating in 2,438 metres of water. It is operated by Royal Dutch Shell and was built at a cost of $3 billion.^[12][20][21]

The first truss spars^[when?] were Kerr-McGee's Boomvang and Nansen.^{[citation needed]}The first (and, as of 2010, only) cell spar^[when?] is Kerr-McGee's Red Hawk.^[22]

Normally unmanned installations (NUI)

Main article: Normally unmanned installation

These installations, sometimes called toadstools, are small platforms, consisting of little more than a well bay, helipad and emergency shelter. They are designed to be operated remotely under normal conditions, only to be visited occasionally for routine maintenance or well work.

Conductor support systems

Main article: Conductor Support Systems

These installations, also known as satellite platforms, are small unmanned platforms consisting of little more than a well bay and a small process plant. They are designed to operate in conjunction with a static production platform which is connected to the platform by flow lines or by umbilical cable, or both.

Particularly large examples

Main article: List of tallest oil platforms

Troll A natural gas platform, a gravity-based structure, under construction in Norway. Almost all of the 600KT structure will end up submerged.

The Petronius Platform is a compliant tower in the Gulf of Mexico modeled after the Hess Baldpate platform, which stands 2,100 feet (640 m) above the ocean floor. It is one of the world's tallest structures.^[23]

The Hibernia platform in Canada is the world's largest (in terms of weight) offshore platform, located on the Jeanne D'Arc Basin, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. This gravity base structure (GBS), which sits on the ocean floor, is 111 metres (364 ft) high and has storage capacity for 1.3 million barrels (210,000 m³) of crude oil in its 85-metre (279 ft) high caisson. The platform acts as a small concrete island with serrated outer edges designed to withstand the impact of an iceberg. The GBS contains production storage tanks and the remainder of the void space is filled with ballast with the entire structure weighing in at 1.2 million tons.

Royal Dutch Shell is currently developing the first Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility, which will be situated approximately 200 km off the coast of Western Australia and is due for completion around 2017.^[24] When finished, it will be the largest floating offshore facility. It is expected to be approximately 488m long and 74m wide with displacement of around 600,000t when fully ballasted.^[25]

Maintenance and supply

A typical oil production platform is self-sufficient in energy and water needs, housing electrical generation, water desalinators and all of the equipment necessary to process oil and gas such that it can be either delivered directly onshore by pipeline or to a floating platform or tanker loading facility, or both. Elements in the oil/gas production process include wellhead, production manifold, production separator, glycol process to dry gas, gas compressors, water injection pumps, oil/gas export metering and main oil line pumps.

Larger platforms assisted by smaller ESVs (emergency support vessels) like the British Iolair that are summoned when something has gone wrong, e.g. when a search and rescue operation is required. During normal operations, PSVs (platform supply vessels) keep the platforms provisioned and supplied, and AHTS vessels can also supply them, as well as tow them to location and serve as standby rescue and firefighting vessels.

Crew

Essential personnel

Not all of the following personnel are present on every platform. On smaller platforms, one worker can perform a number of different jobs. The following also are not names officially recognized in the industry:

• OIM (offshore installation manager) who is the ultimate authority during his/her shift and makes the essential decisions regarding the operation of the platform;
• operations team leader (OTL);
• Offshore Methods Engineer (OME) who defines the installation methodology of the platform;
• offshore operations engineer (OOE) who is the senior technical authority on the platform;
• PSTL or operations coordinator for managing crew changes;
• dynamic positioning operator, navigation, ship or vessel maneuvering (MODU), station keeping, fire and gas systems operations in the event of incident;
• automation systems specialist, to configure, maintain and troubleshoot the process control systems (PCS), process safety systems, emergency support systems and vessel management systems;
• second mate to meet manning requirements of flag state, operates fast rescue craft, cargo operations, fire team leader;
• third mate to meet manning requirements of flag state, operate fast rescue craft, cargo operations, fire team leader;
• ballast control operator to operate fire and gas systems;
• crane operators to operate the cranes for lifting cargo around the platform and between boats;
• scaffolders to rig up scaffolding for when it is required for workers to work at height;
• coxswains to maintain the lifeboats and manning them if necessary;
• control room operators, especially FPSO or production platforms;
• catering crew, including people tasked with performing essential functions such as cooking, laundry and cleaning the accommodation;
• production techs to run the production plant;
• helicopter pilot(s) living on some platforms that have a helicopter based offshore and transporting workers to other platforms or to shore on crew changes;
• maintenance technicians (instrument, electrical or mechanical).
• Fully qualified medic.
• Radio operator to operate all radio communications.
• Store Keeper, keeping the inventory well supplied
• Technician to record the fluid levels in tanks

Incidental personnel

Drill crew will be on board if the installation is performing drilling operations. A drill crew will normally comprise:

• Toolpusher
• Driller
• Roughnecks
• Roustabouts
• Company man
• Mud engineer
• Motorman See: Glossary of oilfield jargon
• Derrickhand
• Geologist
• Welders and Welder Helpers

Well services crew will be on board for well work. The crew will normally comprise:

• Well services supervisor
• Wireline or coiled tubing operators
• Pump operator
• Pump hanger and ranger

Drawbacks

For fuller discussion, see United States offshore drilling debate.

Risks

The nature of their operation—extraction of volatile substances sometimes under extreme pressure in a hostile environment—means risk; accidents and tragedies occur regularly. The U.S. Minerals Management Service reported 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries, and 858 fires and explosions on offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico from 2001 to 2010.^[26] On July 6, 1988, 167 people died when Occidental Petroleum's Piper Alpha offshore production platform, on the Piper field in the UK sector of the North Sea, exploded after a gas leak. The resulting investigation conducted by Lord Cullen and publicized in the first Cullen Report was highly critical of a number of areas, including, but not limited to, management within the company, the design of the structure, and the Permit to Work System. The report was commissioned in 1988, and was delivered November 1990.^[27] The accident greatly accelerated the practice of providing living accommodations on separate platforms, away from those used for extraction.

The offshore can be in itself a hazardous environment. In March 1980, the 'flotel' (floating hotel) platform Alexander L. Kielland capsized in a storm in the North Sea with the loss of 123 lives.^[28]

In 2001, Petrobras 36 in Brazil exploded and sank five days later, killing 11 people.

Given the number of grievances and conspiracy theories that involve the oil business, and the importance of gas/oil platforms to the economy, platforms in the United States are believed to be potential terrorist targets.^{[citation needed]} Agencies and military units responsible for maritime counter-terrorism in the US (Coast Guard, Navy SEALs, Marine Recon) often train for platform raids.^{[citation needed]}

On April 21, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon platform, 52 miles off-shore of Venice, Louisiana, (property of Transocean and leased to BP) exploded, killing 11 people, and sank two days later. The resulting undersea gusher, conservatively estimated to exceed 20 million US gallons (76,000 m³) as of early June, 2010, became the worst oil spill in US history, eclipsing the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Ecological effects

NOAA map of the 3,858 oil and gas platforms extant in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006

In British waters, the cost of removing all platform rig structures entirely was estimated in 2013 at £30 billion.^[29]

Aquatic organisms invariably attach themselves to the undersea portions of oil platforms, turning them into artificial reefs. In the Gulf of Mexico and offshore California, the waters around oil platforms are popular destinations for sports and commercial fishermen, because of the greater numbers of fish near the platforms. The United States and Brunei have active Rigs-to-Reefs programs, in which former oil platforms are left in the sea, either in place or towed to new locations, as permanent artificial reefs. In the US Gulf of Mexico, as of September 2012, 420 former oil platforms, about 10 percent of decommissioned platforms, have been converted to permanent reefs.^[30]

On the US Pacific coast, marine biologist Milton Love has proposed that oil platforms off California be retained as artificial reefs, instead of being dismantled (at great cost), because he has found them to be havens for many of the species of fish which are otherwise declining in the region, in the course of 11 years of research.^[31][32] Love is funded mainly by government agencies, but also in small part by the California Artificial Reef Enhancement Program. Divers have been used to assess the fish populations surrounding the platforms.^[33]

Effects on the environment

Offshore oil production involves environmental risks, most notably oil spills from oil tankers or pipelines transporting oil from the platform to onshore facilities, and from leaks and accidents on the platform.^[34] Produced water is also generated, which is water brought to the surface along with the oil and gas; it is usually highly saline and may include dissolved or unseparated hydrocarbons.

Offshore rigs are shut down during hurricanes.^[35] In the Gulf of Mexico hurricanes are increasing because of the increasing number of oil platforms which heat surrainding air with methane, it is estimated that U.S. Gulf of Mexico, oil and gas facilities emit approximately 500000 tons of methane each year, corresponding to a loss of produced gas of 2.9 percent. The increasing number of oil rigs also increase movement of oil tankers which also increases CO2 levels which directly warm water in the zone, warm waters are a key factor for hurricanes to form.^[36]

To reduce the amount of carbon emissions otherwise released into the atmosphere, methane pyrolysis of natural gas pumped up by oil platforms can be performed. Methane pyrolysis produces non-polluting hydrogen in high volume from this natural gas at low cost. This process operates at around 1000 °C and removes carbon in a solid form from the methane, producing hydrogen.^[37][38][39] The carbon can then be pumped underground and is not released into the atmosphere. It is being evaluated in the BASF "methane pyrolysis at scale" test plant, in such research laboratories as Karlsruhe Liquid-metal Laboratory (KALLA).^[40] and the chemical engineering team at University of California - Santa Barbara^{[41][clarification needed]}

Repurposing

If not decommissioned,^[42] old platforms can be repurposed to pump CO2 into rocks below the seabed.^[43][44] Others have been converted to launch rockets into space, and more are being redesigned for use with heavy-lift launch vehicles.^[45]

Challenges

Offshore oil and gas production is more challenging than land-based installations due to the remote and harsher environment. Much of the innovation in the offshore petroleum sector concerns overcoming these challenges, including the need to provide very large production facilities. Production and drilling facilities may be very large and a large investment, such as the Troll A platform standing on a depth of 300 meters.

Another type of offshore platform may float with a mooring system to maintain it on location. While a floating system may be lower cost in deeper waters than a fixed platform, the dynamic nature of the platforms introduces many challenges for the drilling and production facilities.

The ocean can add several thousand meters or more to the fluid column. The addition increases the equivalent circulating density and downhole pressures in drilling wells, as well as the energy needed to lift produced fluids for separation on the platform.

The trend today is to conduct more of the production operations subsea, by separating water from oil and re-injecting it rather than pumping it up to a platform, or by flowing to onshore, with no installations visible above the sea. Subsea installations help to exploit resources at progressively deeper waters—locations which had been inaccessible—and overcome challenges posed by sea ice such as in the Barents Sea. One such challenge in shallower environments is seabed gouging by drifting ice features (means of protecting offshore installations against ice action includes burial in the seabed).

Offshore manned facilities also present logistics and human resources challenges. An offshore oil platform is a small community in itself with cafeteria, sleeping quarters, management and other support functions. In the North Sea, staff members are transported by helicopter for a two-week shift. They usually receive higher salary than onshore workers do. Supplies and waste are transported by ship, and the supply deliveries need to be carefully planned because storage space on the platform is limited. Today, much effort goes into relocating as many of the personnel as possible onshore, where management and technical experts are in touch with the platform by video conferencing. An onshore job is also more attractive for the aging workforce in the petroleum industry, at least in the western world. These efforts among others are contained in the established term integrated operations. The increased use of subsea facilities helps achieve the objective of keeping more workers onshore. Subsea facilities are also easier to expand, with new separators or different modules for different oil types, and are not limited by the fixed floor space of an above-water installation.

Deepest Platforms

The world's deepest oil platform is the floating Perdido, which is a spar platform in the Gulf of Mexico in a water depth of 2,450 metres (8,040 ft).

Non-floating compliant towers and fixed platforms, by water depth:

• Petronius Platform, 535 m (1,755 ft)
• Baldpate Platform, 502 m (1,647 ft)
• Troll A Platform, 472 m (1,549 ft)
• Bullwinkle Platform, 413 m (1,355 ft)
• Pompano Platform, 393 m (1,289 ft)
• Benguela-Belize Lobito-Tomboco Platform, 390 m (1,280 ft)
• Gullfaks C Platform, 380 m (1,250 ft)
• Tombua Landana Platform, 366 m (1,201 ft)
• Harmony Platform, 366 m (1,201 ft)

See also

• List of tallest oil platforms
• Accommodation platform
• Chukchi Cap
• Conductor support system
• Deep sea mining
• Deepwater drilling
• Drillship
• North Sea oil
• Offshore geotechnical engineering
• Offshore oil and gas in the United States
• Oil drilling
• Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf
• SAR201
• Shallow water drilling
• Submarine pipeline
• TEMPSC
• Texas Towers

References

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oil platform.

• Oil Rig Disasters Listing of oil rig accidents
• Oil Rig Photos Collection of pictures of drilling rigs and production platforms
• An independent review of offshore platforms in the North Sea
• Overview of Conventional Platforms Pictorial treatment on the installation of platforms which extend from the seabed to the ocean surface