An oil platform is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform linked by bridge to the production platform. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or float. In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. These sub-sea facilities may include one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells.
Transocean Ltd. is an American drilling company. It is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based on revenue and is based in Vernier, Switzerland. The company has offices in 20 countries, including Canada, the United States, Norway, United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
A drillship is a merchant vessel designed for use in exploratory offshore drilling of new oil and gas wells or for scientific drilling purposes. In recent years the vessels have been used in deepwater and ultra-deepwater applications, equipped with the latest and most advanced dynamic positioning systems.
Valaris Limited is an offshore drilling contractor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and incorporated in Bermuda. It is the largest offshore drilling and well drilling company in the world, and owns 52 rigs, including 36 offshore jackup rigs, 11 drillships, and 5 semi-submersible platform drilling rigs.
Seadrill is an offshore drilling contractor providing worldwide offshore drilling services to the oil and gas industry. Its primary business is the ownership and operation of drillships, semi-submersible rigs, and jack-up rigs for operations in shallow to ultra-deep water in both benign and harsh environments. It provides a contract-based service and primarily serves the oil super-majors, integrated oil and gas, state-owned national oil, and independent oil and gas companies.
Eastern Drilling was an offshore drilling contractor headquartered in Grimstad, Norway. In May 2007, Seadrill acquired the company.
Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the term is used to describe drilling activities on the continental shelf, though the term can also be applied to drilling in lakes, inshore waters and inland seas.
QatarEnergy, formerly Qatar Petroleum (QP), is a state owned petroleum company of Qatar. The company operates all oil and gas activities in Qatar, including exploration, production, refining, transport, and storage. The President & CEO is Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs. The company's operations are directly linked with state planning agencies, regulatory authorities, and policy making bodies. Together, revenues from oil and natural gas amount to 60% of the country's GDP. As of 2018 it was the third largest oil company in the world by oil and gas reserves. In 2022, the company had total revenues of US$52bn, a net income of US42.4bn, and total assets of US$162bn. In 2021, QatarEnergy was the fifth largest gas company in the world.
Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean and operated by BP. On 20 April 2010, while drilling at the Macondo Prospect, a blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed 11 crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 40 miles (64 km) away. The fire was inextinguishable and, two days later, on 22 April, the Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the seabed and turning into the largest marine oil spill in history.
A jackup rig or a self-elevating unit is a type of mobile platform that consists of a buoyant hull fitted with a number of movable legs, capable of raising its hull over the surface of the sea. The buoyant hull enables transportation of the unit and all attached machinery to a desired location. Once on location the hull is raised to the required elevation above the sea surface supported by the sea bed. The legs of such units may be designed to penetrate the sea bed, may be fitted with enlarged sections or footings, or may be attached to a bottom mat. Generally jackup rigs are not self-propelled and rely on tugs or heavy lift ships for transportation.
Saipem S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oilfield services company and one of the largest in the world. Until 2016 it was a subsidiary of Italian oil and gas supermajor Eni, which retains approximately 30% of Saipem's shares.
Yme is an oil field in the Egersund basin area in the central part of the North Sea. It is located 160 kilometres (99 mi) northeast of the Ekofisk oil field. The water depth is 93 metres (305 ft). The field was discovered in 1987 and was developed by Statoil with production from 1996 to 2001. In 2001 low oil prices led to the abandonment of the field. After the production license was relinquished by Statoil, a new license group led by Talisman Energy was formed to redevelop the field. In 2007 Talisman was granted permission to redevelop the field. The redevelopment was unsuccessful and the newly installed Yme MOPU STOR was abandoned and decommissioned without having entered production. A new attempt called the Yme New Development was launched by the new operator Repsol, which involved reusing the subsea installations already in place. The Yme field began producing again in 2021, marking the first time that a previously abandoned Norwegian oil field has been restarted.
The Al Shaheen Oil Field is a production oil and gas field off the north east coast of Qatar in the Persian Gulf, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Doha. The oil field lies above the North Gas Field, one of the largest gas fields in the world. The field has been operated by Maersk Oil Qatar AS of Denmark until July 2017 under a production sharing agreement with QatarEnergy, on behalf of the state of Qatar. As of June 2016, QatarEnergy and the French major TotalEnergies established a new company known as North Oil Company. The new company is 70% owned by QatarEnergy and 30% by TotalEnergies. North Oil Company took over field operations on 14 July 2017.
Deepwater drilling, or deep well drilling, is the process of creating holes in the Earth's crust using a drilling rig for oil extraction under the deep sea. There are approximately 3400 deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico with depths greater than 150 meters.
Lamprell plc, based in the United Arab Emirates, specialises in construction and fabrication, servicing both the Renewables and Oil & Gas industries. It builds wind turbine foundations as well as shallow-water drilling jackup rigs, liftboats and land rigs, and it also carries out rig refurbishment. In 2021 the company added a Digital business unit servicing not only the renewables and oil & gas sectors but other related industries. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The Kaskida Oil Field is an offshore oil field located in the Keathley Canyon block 292 of the United States sector of the Gulf of Mexico, 250 miles (400 km) south-west of New Orleans, Louisiana. The field is operated by BP, and owned by BP (100%).
GSP Orizont is a semi-submersible, jackup independent leg cantilever drilling rig operated by GSP Drilling, a Grup Servicii Petroliere subsidiary, and currently contracted by Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company for drilling in the Iranian section of the Persian Gulf. The drilling unit is registered in Malta.
GSP Prometeu is a jackup independent leg cantilever drilling rig operated by GSP Drilling, a Grup Servicii Petroliere subsidiary, and currently contracted by Melrose Resources for drilling in the Bulgarian section of the Black Sea. The drilling unit is registered in Malta.
Mr. Louie is a former self-elevating drilling barge converted into an oil platform. It was the first self-elevating drilling barge classed by the American Bureau of Shipping. As an oil platform, it operates at the Saltpond Oil Field, offshore Ghana.
Maersk Convincer is a jackup rig built in Singapore. It was originally named PetroJack III. It was acquired and owned by Danish Maersk Drilling for operations in Southeast Asia. In 2022, Maersk Drilling sold the jackup rig to ADES.
US$ 542.5 million (2014)
