Petronius is a deepwater compliant tower

oil platform An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

built from 1997 to 2000 and operated by

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, 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 ...

, 210 km southeast of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. 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 unsaturated ...

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 carbo ...

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 A mooring is any permanent structure to which a vessel may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the ship on the water. An ''an ...

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 The ''Saipem 7000'' is the world's third largest semi-submersible crane vessel, after the and the . It is owned by the oil and gas industry contractor Saipem S.p.A. Construction The vessel was designed by Gusto Engineering during 1984. The ve ...

in May 2000.

References

External links

Texaco press release
May 4, 2000) *Petronius o
SkyscraperPage.com
* Link broken. {{coord, 29, 06, 30, N, 87, 56, 30, W, display=title Energy infrastructure completed in 2000 Oil platforms off the United States Petroleum industry in the Gulf of Mexico Energy infrastructure in Louisiana Marathon Oil 2000 establishments in Louisiana

See also

References

External links