Offshore Drilling
March 12th, 2009 | by myarticlenetwork |Offshore drilling is important because there is a lot of oil and natural gas under the shallow waters near the shore. It most often refers to oil drilling in oceans near the coast. But there is also such drilling in lakes and seas.
The first offshore drilling took place in Baku in the late 1800’s. Russia had sold the oil rights to earn income from their territory. Drilling here accounted for half the world’s oil by 1900. After the communist revolution in Russia and WW1, turmoil in the area interfered with further oil extraction.
In the present day there is offshore drilling in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, off Brazil’s coasts, in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, near Nigeria and Angola, and in South East Asia. There have been new fields found off coasts on both sides of the US.
The US Congress banned offshore drilling off the US coasts in the early 1980’s. Now those bans may soon be lifted. The US government doesn’t have athority outside of US territory. Foreign powers have begun looking at these coastal areas for oil. One of these is Venezuela with China’s help.
There are some issues involved with offshore drilling. One is keeping the rigs above the water. They often stand on huge legs. They must remain mobile which makes it harder. Other types of rigs are designed to float over the drill area. They are cheaper and more dangerous. Danger comes from their constant movement with the currents.
A second issue for offshore drilling is the pressure on the fluid column. Also the sand has to be moved from the area. Often sand and oil are pumped to shore where the sand is removed.
Don’t ignore the human element in offshore drilling. Large numbers of people spend a lot of time on the platform. Rigs are a little bit like small cities. Most people stay on the rig for two weeks at a time. A premium must be paid to workers to entice them to maintain that schedule.
Offshore drilling is here to stay. It will increase as more oil is needed power the world.
http://drillingnow.com/
Tags: offshore drilling, offshore drilling companies, offshore oil drilling