7 Stunning Oil Platforms

An oil platform is a large structure used to house machinery & men who drill or produce oil & natural gas from the ocean bed. These platforms may be attached to the ocean floor that consists of an artificial island or may be floating, depending upon the circumstances.

Draugen Platform, Norway 

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Draugen is an oil field in the Norwegian Sea at a sea depth of 250 metres. The field has been developed with a concrete fixed facility and integrated topside. Stabilised oil is stored in tanks in the base of the facility. Two pipelines transport the oil from the facility to a floating loading buoy. 

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The Garn Vest and Rogn Sør deposits have been developed with a total of five subsea wells connected to the main facility at Draugen. The field has six subsea water injection wells.

Hibernia Platform, Canada

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Off the coast of Newfoundland, the Hibernia is the world's largest oil platform in terms of weight, at a total of 1.2 million tonnes. This consists of a 37,000 tonnes integrated topsides facility mounted on a 600,000 tonne gravity base structure along with 450,000 tonnes of solid ballast which was added to secure it in place.

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Inside the gravity base structure are storage tanks for 1.3 million bbl of crude oil. The shape of the base is intended to prevent damage by icebergs.

Troll A platform, Norway

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T.A has an overall height of 472 meters and weighs 656,000 tons. It has the distinction of being the tallest structure ever moved by mankind. The platform stands on the sea floor 303 meters below the surface of the sea. The walls of T. A's legs are over 1 meter thick. 

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The T. A platform is a huge platform for production of gas, it is the highest construction that has ever been moved to another position, and is among the largest and most complex engineering projects in history. Built by Norwegian Contractors for NorskeShell, the platform was a televised sensation when it was towed into the North Sea in 1996, where it is managed & run by StatoilHydro.

Monopod Platform, Alaska, USA

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Platform Monopod is one of ten platforms operated by Unocal in Cook Inlet and is one of three in the Trading Bay Field. It produces oil, natural gas and water. Produced water is shipped with oil via one 8" pipeline to Unocal's Trading Bay Production Facility, where water is separated on-shore.

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Natural gas is separated on-board. Most is utilized in the gas lift system, some is used for fuel and a small quantity is flared in conjunction with process control.

Baldpate Platform, USA

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Baldpate Platform is a 1901.9 feet tall (579.7 metres) offshore oil platform near the coast of Louisiana. Baldpate Platform was designed by Hudson Engineering (now J. Ray McDermott Engineering) in Houston, Texas, and installed by Hudson's parent company, J. Ray McDermott, through its Marine Division.

Petronius Platform, USA

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The Petronius Platform is a deepwater oil platform run by Chevron Corporation and Marathon Oil in the Gulf of Mexico, 210 km southeast of New Orleans. The multi topsides are 64 meters by 43 meters by 18.3 meters high and hold 21 well, and the entire structure weighs around 43,000 tons. 

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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.

Tiffany Platform, United Kingdom

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 Tiffany Platform Hook Up circa 1992/93   photo source

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