However, in deeper water (more than 1,500 metres (4,900 ft)), the semisubmersibles or drillships are maintained at the required drilling location using dynamic positioning. In shallower waters, the mobile units are anchored to the seabed. These are capable of operating in water depths up to 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). These include bottom-founded drilling rigs ( jackup barges and swamp barges), combined drilling and production facilities, either bottom-founded or floating platforms, and deepwater mobile offshore drilling units (MODU), including semi-submersibles and drillships. There are many different types of facilities from which offshore drilling operations take place.

Controversies include the ongoing US offshore drilling debate. Offshore drilling presents environmental challenges, both from the produced hydrocarbons and the materials used during the drilling operation. These sub-sea facilities may include of one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or float. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas.

Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform bridge linked to the production platform. Refurbishment Station for Drilling Rigs – Corpus Christi BayĪn oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed.

Beyond the horizon 2017 belize