Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
.
A compliant piled tower design, it is 640 metres (2,100 ft) high to the tip of flare boom from the mudline (sea floor) and was arguably the tallest free-standing structure in the world, until surpassed by the
Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa (; ar, برج خليفة, , Khalifa Tower), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is known for being the world’s tallest building. With a total height ...
in 2010. This claim is disputed since only 75 metres of the platform are above water and it's unknown if the structure could have supported itself if built on land as it is partially supported by buoyancy. The multi-deck topsides are 64 metres by 43 metres by 18.3 metres high and hold 21 well slots. The compliant tower weighs around 43,000 tons with the topside weighing in at an additional 7,500 tons Around 9,600 m3 (60,000 barrels) of
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...
and 3,000,000 m3 (100 million cubic feet) of
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon ...
are extracted daily by the platform.
The platform is situated to exploit the Petronius field, discovered in 1995 in Viosca Knoll (block VK 786) and named after
Petronius
Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter" seabed
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'.
The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...
is 535 m (1,754 ft) below the platform. The compliant tower design is more flexible than conventional land structures to cope better with sea forces. It can deflect (sway) in excess of 2% of height. Most buildings are kept to within 0.5% of height in order to have occupants not feel uneasy during periods of movement.
Construction began in 1997 by
J Ray McDermott
McDermott International, Ltd is a global provider of engineering and construction solutions to the energy industry. Operating in over 54 countries, McDermott has more than 40,000 employees, as well as a diversified fleet of specialty marine co ...
with the seabed mooring system. The contract for the platform was budgeted at $200 million with total costs of around $500 million. The 4000-tonne North Module was installed in November 1998, but the attempt to install the slightly lighter South Module in December of that year ended with the unit on the seabed. A replacement module was built and installed by Saipem 7000 in May 2000.
See also
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List of tallest freestanding steel structures
This is a list of tallest freestanding steel structures in the world past and present. To be a freestanding steel structure it must not be supported by guy wires, the list therefore does not include guyed masts and the main vertical and lateral st ...
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List of tallest oil platforms
This is a list of the tallest oil platforms over in height. The current highest oil platform is the Petronius platform operated by Chevron Corporation and Marathon Oil in the Gulf of Mexico, 210 km southeast of New Orleans, United States.
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