Offshore platforms are remarkable engineering feats, therefor it is time for the 5 largest offshore platforms of the world! Massive in size, these structures take several years and often many billions of dollars to build - but when complete, they can extract oil and gas from some of the least-accessible spots on the planet.
The Mars B/Olympus Platform in the Gulf of Mexico
First oil production begun in February 2014 from the Mars B development through Olympus, Shell’s seventh, and largest, floating deep-water platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Combined production from Olympus and Shell’s original Mars platform is expected to deliver an estimated resource base of 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
The project is also directly investing $5 million dollars in community, social and environmental initiatives with the aim to benefit the communities of the US Gulf Coast, as well as in South Korea, where the hull of the Olympus platform was built.
The Hibernia Platform in the Canadian Atlantic
Hibernia is an oil field in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 315 kilometres (196 mi) east-southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, in 80 m of water. The production platform Hibernia is the world’s largest oil platform (by weight) and consists of a 37,000 t (41,000 short tons) integrated topsides facility mounted on a 600,000 t (660,000 short tons) gravity base structure. The platform was towed to its final site, and 450,000 t (500,000 short tons) of solid ballast were added to secure it in place. Inside the gravity base structure are storage tanks for 1.2 million barrels (190,000 m3) of crude oil.
The Petronius Platform in the Gulf of Mexico
Petronius is a deepwater compliant tower oil platform operated by Chevron Corporation and Marathon Oil in the Gulf of Mexico, 210 km southeast of New Orleans, United States. A compliant piled tower design, it is 609.9 metres (2,001 ft) high, and was arguably the tallest free-standing structure in the world, until surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in 2010, although this claim is disputed since only 75 metres of the platform are above water. The multi-deck topsides are 64 metres by 43 metres by 18.3 metres high and hold 21 well slots, and the entire structure weighs around 43,000 tons. Around 8,000 m3 (50,000 barrels) of oil and 2,000,000 m3 (70 million cubic feet) of natural gas are extracted daily by the platform. The jacket supports topsides weighing 7,500t.
The Perdido Platform in the Gulf of Mexico
Perdido is the world’s deepest spar, and the second-deepest oil and gas production hub after Shell’s Stones development. Moored in around 2,450 metres (8,000 feet) of water in the US Gulf of Mexico, Perdido started production in 2010, opening up a new frontier in deep-water oil and gas recovery.
The Berkut Platform in the Sea of Okhotsk on the Russian Pacific Coast
Russia’s Rosneft and America’s ExxonMobil have launched a unique drilling platform in the Okhotsk Sea in Russia’s Far East. The world’s most powerful rig can drill within the radius of at least 7 kilometers.
The drilling platform can withstand a 9 magnitude earthquake, waves of up to 18 meters and temperatures down to minus 44 degrees Celsius, Rosneft President Igor Sechin said. Berkut can also withstand floating ice up to two meters thick and has an autonomous power supply system. It has the largest superstructure on any rig. Weighing 200,000 tons it can drill a total of 45 wells.
The platform is located 25 km offshore in waters up 35 meters deep. The drilling will be performed by means of a marine rig, which allows all-year-round drilling of wells.
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10 май 2017
