Oil Rig : Huge Structure in The Middle of Ocean

An offshore oil rig, is a huge structure used for oilfield operation. An oil rig become one of the most important elements needed in oilfield industry. By using this oil rig, oil can be extracted from the layer of the earth and ship them to shore. An oil rig can be fixed to the surface of the earth it's built on the artificial land. Another kind of oil rig is floating rig. All are depends on the situation.

Most oil rigs are still located on the continental shelf, since the cost for the structure cheaper and easier. But today oil companies with their advances in technology build oil rig in the deeper water.A typical oil rig has around thirty wellheads located on the oil rig and directional drilling allows reservoirs to be accessed at both different depths from the oil rig.

The first modern oil rig structure had ever been built is The Thames Sea Forts . It was pre-constructed in a very short time. It's floating oil rig. In 1938 it was placed on the shallow bottom of Thames Estuary. But the period where it is accepted as offshore oil era is in 1947 when Kerr-Mc Gee Company producing oil rig out of sight of land.

An oil rig structure is equipped with many equipments needed for processing oil, transporting oil by pipelines or tanker. The elements including wellhead, manifold, gas compressor,pump and still many things that support production and transportation. An oil rig is equipped also with workers facilities such as housing, electricity generator, water and etc.

The world tallest oil rig can be as tall as an television and radio broadcasting tower. Here are the examples of The tallest oil rig structures

* Petronius oil rig, 610 meters (2,000 ft)
* Baldpate oil rig, 579.1 meters (1,900 ft)
* Bullwinkle oil rig, 529.1 meters (1,736 ft)

The widest oil rig in the world is The Hibernia oil rig located in the Atlantic ocean with 364 feet high and storage capacity 1.3 million barrels.


Read also the article about many different kinds of huge oil rig