Oil and Gas

1. Troll A Platform:

The Troll A platform is a condeep offshore natural gas platform in the Troll gas field off the west coast of Norway. It is the tallest and heaviest structure that has ever been moved to another position, relative to the surface of the Earth, and is among the largest and most complex engineering projects in history. The platform was a televised sensation when it was towed into the North Sea in 1996, where it is now operated by Statoil. The Troll A platform has an overall height of 472 metres (1,549 ft), weighs 683,600 tons (1.2 million tons with ballast) and has the distinction of being the tallest and heaviest structure ever moved by mankind. More details

2. Perdido Oil Platform:

Perdido is the deepest floating oil platform in the world at a water depth of about 2450 meters (8000 feet) operated by the Shell Oil Company in the Gulf of Mexico. The Perdido is located in the Perdido fold belt which is a rich discovery of crude oil and natural gas that lies in water that is nearly 8000 feet deep. The platform's peak production will be 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. At 267 meters, the Perdido is nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower. The spar and the topsides of the Perdido were constructed separately and then assembled in its final position in the Gulf of Mexico. More details

3. Offshore Oil Drilling History:

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 which 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. Offshore drilling presents environmental challenges, both from the produced hydrocarbons and the materials used during the drilling operation. Controversies include the ongoing U.S. offshore drilling debate. More details

4. Oil History:

The first successful oil well in North America was established in Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada in 1858. The field is still in production although quantities are low. The history of the petroleum industry in the United States goes back to the early 19th century, although the indigenous peoples, like many ancient societies, have used petroleum seeps since prehistoric times; where found, these seeps signaled the growth of the industry from the earliest discoveries to the more recent. Petroleum became a major industry following the oil discovery at Oil Creek Pennsylvania in 1859. More details

5. Snow White Gas Refinery:

Snøhvit (Snow White) is the name of a natural gas field in the Norwegian Sea, situated 140 kilometres (87 mi) northwest of Hammerfest, Norway. The northern part of the Norwegian Sea is often described as the Barents Sea by offshore petroleum companies. Snøhvit is also the name of a development of Snøhvit and the two neighbouring natural gas fields Albatross and Askeladden. Estimated recoverable reserves are 193 billion cubic metres of natural gas, 113 million barrels (18.0×106 m3) of condensate (light oil), and 5.1 million tonnes of natural gas liquids (NGL). The fields were discovered in 1984. The development plan was presented by Statoil in 2001. More details

6. Trans-Alaska Pipeline System:

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) includes the trans-Alaska crude-oil pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one of the world's largest pipeline systems. It is commonly called the Alaska pipeline, trans-Alaska pipeline, or Alyeska pipeline, (or the pipeline as referred to in Alaska), but those terms technically apply only to the 800 miles (1,287 km) of the pipeline with the diameter of 48 inches (122 cm) that conveys oil from Prudhoe Bay, to Valdez, Alaska. The crude oil pipeline is privately owned by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. More details

7. Oil Tankers:

Oil tankers are ships designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries. For example, moving crude oil from oil wells in Nigeria to the refineries on the coast of the United States. Product tankers, generally much smaller, are designed to move refined products from refineries to points near consuming markets. For example, moving gasoline from refineries in Europe to consumer markets in Nigeria and other West African nations. More details

8. The End of Oil:

Oil faces three major dilemmas. Most importantly, all fossil fuels are by their very nature limited in supply; as far as oil is concerned, the resulting dilemma is best known as the question of peak oil. Further, much of the oil consumed by affluent countries such as the United States is extracted in countries that are rather unstable politically, such as some of the members of the OPEC. The oil trade is therefore prone to become intertwined with international relations, although the nature of this interplay is highly controversial, with some citing oil as a reason for conflicts such as the Iraq War and others denying such claims. More details

9. Eirik Raude Oil Rig:

Deepwater oil operations are pushing technological creativity to the limits. The Eirik Raude drilling rig demonstrates the industry's ability to adapt to the planet's most rigorous conditions. The world rig market can offer a large and diverse range of units, but relatively few of these are able not only to operate in deep water but also to tackle cold, stormy weather conditions. So a group of Norwegian investors decided to construct the sensational new Eirik Raude rig, which has been specially designed to work in ultradeep water down to 3,000 meters. More details

10. Prirazlomnoye Oil Platform:

Prirazlomnoye field is an Arctic offshore oilfield located in the Pechora Sea, south of Novaya Zemlya, Russia, the first commercial offshore oil development in the Russian Arctic sector. The field development is based on the single stationary Prirazlomnaya platform, which is the first Arctic-class ice-resistant oil platform in the world. Commercial drilling was planned to begin in early 2012, however it was delayed at least until the Spring of 2013 due to protester's "safety concerns". Safety concerns have been raised about Prirazlomnoye platform, citing use of decommissioned equipment (the 1984 TLP upper section of the rig), however Gazprom’s oil spill response plan for Prirazlomnaya was renewed in 2014. More details

11. Hibernia Oil Platform:

Hibernia is an oil field in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 315 kilometres (196 mi) east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, in 80 m of water. The production platform Hibernia is the world's largest oil platform (by weight) and consists of a 37,000 t (41,000 short tons) integrated topsides facility mounted on a 600,000 t (660,000 short tons) gravity base structure. The platform was towed to its final site, and 450,000 t (500,000 short tons) of solid ballast were added to secure it in place. Inside the gravity base structure are storage tanks for 1.3 million barrels (210,000 m3) of crude oil. More details

12. Pioneer Floating Oil Rig:

The BW Pioneer FPSO (a Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading vessel platform) is the first FPSO to produce oil and gas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and it is capable of processing 80,000 barrels of oil and 500,000 cubic meters of gas per day and of storing 500,000 barrels of oil. The vessel is fitted with a detachable mooring system that allows it to sail to sheltered areas during hurricanes and storms, providing security to both the crew and to the environment as well as preserving equipment. A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. More details

13. Brent Bravo Platform:

The Brent field is an oil and gas field located in the East Shetland Basin of the North Sea, 186 kilometres (116 mi) north-east of Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland, at the water depth of 140 metres (460 ft). The field operated by Shell UK Limited was once one of the most productive parts of the UK's offshore assets but has reached the stage where production is no longer economically viable. Decommissioning of the Brent field is ongoing and will be completed in the early 2020s. Production started-up on 11 November 1976, and on 13 December 1976 the first tanker was loaded. The Brent field oil is extracted by four platforms in an irregular SSW-NNE line. More details

14. Petronas Floating LNG Facility:

Floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) refers to water-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations employing technologies designed to enable the development of offshore natural gas resources. Floating above an offshore natural gas field, the FLNG facility produces, liquefies, stores and transfers LNG (and potentially LPG and condensate) at sea before carriers ship it directly to markets. The world's first completed FLNG production facility is the PFLNG Satu located in Kanowit gas field off the shore of Sarawak in Malaysia. Petronas Floating LNG FacilityPetronas is the owner of the platform and first cargo was loaded onto the 150,200-cbm Seri Camellia LNG carrier on 03 April 2017. More details

15. Oil Refinery:

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is transformed and refined into more useful products such as petroleum naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, jet fuel and fuel oils. Petrochemicals feed stock like ethylene and propylene can also be produced directly by cracking crude oil without the need of using refined products of crude oil such as naphtha. Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units, such as distillation columns. More details

16. Prelude FLNG:

Prelude FLNG is the world's largest floating liquefied natural gas platform as well as the largest offshore facility ever constructed. The Prelude was built by the Technip / Samsung Consortium (TSC) in South Korea for a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell, KOGAS, and Inpex. It is 488 metres (1,601 ft) long, 74 metres (243 ft) wide, and made with more than 260,000 tonnes of steel. The vessel will displace around 660,000 tonnes when fully loaded, more than five times the displacement of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. The main double-hulled structure was built by the Technip Samsung Consortium in the Samsung Heavy Industries Geoje shipyard in South Korea. More details

17. Natural Gas:

Natural gas (fossil gas) is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, but commonly including varying amounts of other higher alkanes, and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, or helium. It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years. The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the gas. Natural gas is a non-renewable hydrocarbon used as a source of energy for heating, cooking, and electricity generation. More details

18. Oil Sands Mine:

Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or more technically bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, soaked with a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as bitumen. Natural bitumen deposits are reported in many countries, but in particular are found in extremely large quantities in Canada. Other large reserves are located in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Venezuela. The estimated worldwide deposits of oil are more than 2 trillion barrels; the estimates include deposits that have not been discovered. More details

19. Langeled pipeline:

The Langeled pipeline is an underwater pipeline transporting Norwegian natural gas to the United Kingdom. Before the completion of the Nord Stream pipeline, it was the longest subsea pipeline in the world. The project was launched under the original name Britpipe. In October 2003, Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and Statoil signed agreements to supply natural gas through the Britpipe. The pipeline's construction began in 2004. The largest part of the pipeline was installed by Acergy Piper, a pipe-laying ship of Acergy. Other pipe-laying ships, which were used, are Solitaire of Allseas, and Saipem 7000 of Saipem. The pipeline was opened in two stages. More details

20. How Offshore Oil Platform Works:

An oil platform, offshore platform, or offshore drilling rig is a large structure with facilities for well drilling to explore, extract, store, and process petroleum and natural gas that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also contain facilities to accommodate their workforce. 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. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. More details