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 bridge linked 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.
A semi-submersible platform is a specialised marine vessel used in offshore roles including as offshore drilling rigs, safety vessels, oil production platforms, and heavy lift cranes. They have good ship stability and seakeeping, better than drillships.
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.
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.
Weatherford International plc, an American–Irish public limited company, together with its subsidiaries, is a multinational oilfield service company and one of the largest companies in the world in oil services. Weatherford is a company providing equipment and services used in the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells. Many of the company's businesses, including those of predecessor companies, have been operating for more than 50 years.
GlobalSantaFe Corporation was an offshore drilling contractor headquartered in Houston, Texas. It owned 59 marine drilling rigs. In November 2007, the company was acquired by Transocean.
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.
Noble Corporation plc is an offshore drilling contractor organized in London, England. Its affiliate, Noble Corporation, is organized in the Cayman Islands. It is the corporate successor of Noble Drilling Corporation.
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.
Atwood Oceanics, Inc. was an offshore drilling contractor headquartered in Houston, Texas. In October 2017, the company was acquired by Ensco plc.
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange. A core component of Big Oil, Shell is the second largest investor-owned oil and gas company in the world by revenue, and among the world's largest companies out of any industry. Measured by both its own emissions, and the emissions of all the fossil fuels it sells, Shell was the ninth-largest corporate producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the period 1988–2015.
Pride International, Inc. was an offshore oil drilling company headquartered in Houston, Texas. As of February 2011, it operated 26 drilling rigs. In May 2011, it was acquired by Ensco.
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.
Steven Lamprell is the president, the largest shareholder and founder of Lamprell Plc., a company specializing in the construction and maintenance of Oil and Gasrig.
Cameron International Corporation (formerly Cooper Cameron Corporation (CCC) and Cooper Oil Tool, Cameron Iron Works) though now operating under Schlumberger, is a global provider of pressure control, production, processing, and flow control systems as well as project management and aftermarket services for the oil and gas and process industries. Cameron was acquired by Schlumberger (SLB) in 2016, and now operates as 'Cameron, an SLB Company.' At the start of the SLB acquisition in 2015, Cameron employed approximately 23,000 people and delivered $9.8 billion in revenue.
LeTourneau Technologies, Inc. was an American manufacturer of heavy construction equipment founded by R. G. LeTourneau. In 2011, the company was acquired by Joy Global.
Gulf Drilling International Limited (GDI) is a Qatari Shareholding Company based in West Bay, Doha.
US$1.602 billion (2022)
