Through the s, rig activity focused evenly on the two commodities. Then in , there was a shift: gas wells began to make up the bulk of drilling activity. Through the early s, rig activity increased year over year, but gas wells—which are shallower and can be drilled faster—far outstripped the increase in oil wells.
The drilling industry reacted to this demand by expanding the fleet. In , the rig fleet grew faster than it ever it had before: 49 rigs were added. Most of these new rigs were the smaller ones best suited for gas drilling.
Then in , natural gas was on the market in abundance, and the stock market price of natural gas started to fall. Investors pulled back on gas drilling. In , industry was back to an even split between gas wells and oil wells. And then the turn-around happened: oil drilling overtook gas drilling in western Canada. There also is increased interest in accessing these formations at an angle: rig crews drill a well bore that curves toward a drilling target. Drilling rig contractors have been adding equipment in Unlike 's fleet expansion, these rigs will be the larger, heavier rigs, primed for oil drilling.
Home Resources Drilling Rigs Most of theses mega-builds draw oil from the depths, the only purpose as yet discovered that's lucrative enough to pay for their out-sized cost and complicated engineering. One more thing they have in common is that they all can wow with impressive size. We look at seven of the most intense and impressive offshore structures across the globe. While the Berkut oil platform toils in near anonymity in Russia's Far East, it does so with a heft unlike any other rig.
At , tons, the Bekut holds the record for the biggest in the world, above water. It can work under its own power down to minus degrees Fahrenheit , withstand chunks of floating ice up to six feet thick and shake off waves up to 60 feet high.
While Berkut may prove the heftiest above the water, Stones, opened in September and operated by Shell, goes the deepest of any offshore structure, reaching a staggering 9, feet underwater. Located in the Gulf of Mexico, the Stones above-water structure—significantly more boat-like than your average oil rig—was built in Singapore before making the cross-ocean trip to its current location. There, it ties to two wells, with plans to expand to six over time. Stones uses a flexible "steel lazy wave riser" to carry oil and gas to the top, with the bend in the piping absorbing the motion of the structure.
With a floating production system, the wellhead is actually attached to the seafloor once the drilling is completed, rather than being attached up to the platform. The extracted petroleum is transported via risers from this wellhead to the production facilities on the semisubmersible platform. These production systems can operate in water depths of up to 6, feet meters. A Tension Leg Platform TLP consists of a floating structure held in place by vertical, tensioned tendons connected to the sea floor by pile-secured templates.
Tensioned tendons provide for the use of a TLP in a broad water depth range with limited vertical motion. The larger TLPs have been successfully deployed in water depths approaching 4, feet meters. A Subsea System SS is located on the sea floor, as opposed to at the surface. The well is drilled by a moveable rig, and instead of building a production platform for that well, the extracted natural gas and oil are transported by riser or even undersea pipeline to a nearby production platform.
This allows one strategically-placed production platform to service many wells over a reasonably large area.
Subsea systems are typically in use at depths of 7, feet meters or more, and do not have the ability to drill, only to extract and transport. A Spar Platform SP is the largest offshore platforms in use.
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