Oil and Gas Platforms. Part-One.

Steel Islands to New types of Ships!

There is a massive change on the way in this area of sea work from the static rigs to a ship built like a catamaran to replace some of the test platforms! This is now one of the largest ships in the world and if proved to be a success we will see more of them built and put into service?

The rig or steel Island has been around for some time, these structures are in their own right floating vessels but they have to be towed from construction to the drill sites. There they are chained to the sea bottom, as in the Gulf of Mexico, North-Sea and the Persian Gulf!

These shallows are ideal for rigs and over the years many designs have come and gone with three to four legged ones being common, but their some with five legs. Four seems to be the best for stability, while these steel islands are more than just drilling platforms they are also accommodation blocks and are serviced by helicopters.

Over the years safety has been improved, after many serious fires in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. But the dangerous part of working on these today remains the journey to and from, with there being several fatalities because of bad weather, poor maintenance of machines?