Part I: Types of Offshore Platforms

Hola dudes, feelin' good? Yeah, buckle up ladies cause today I will babbling about types of offshore platforms available in the upstream sector. Ahh before that, should I become a lecturer? First of all, I would like to differentiate between oil rigs and platforms as this will help for a better understanding.

Oil rig is a mobile offshore unit that floats and may placed for temporary works or jobs. It can be categorised as MODU (Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit) or MOPU (Mobile Offshore Production Unit). MODU is basically used for drilling works before the production and processing parts comes in. It can be known as semisubmersible drilling rig, barge rig, drillship etc. For MOPU, it serves on the marginal field, which is not economically viable to put an offshore platforms. Hence, these rigs practically contracted on leasing basis.

MOPU - SBM

Semisubmersible Drilling Rig - Transocean's Nautilus

As for offshore platforms, it can be easily differentiate into two types, fixed and floats. Offshore platforms can be described as a oil/gas producing structures, made of steels or concrete which basically designed for ± 30 years life. It also can be either manned or unmanned (satellite) platform. For basic understanding, one must know the platforms are divided into two structural parts, topsides and substructures.

Topside is the top part off the platforms while substructure is the part below the topside. Huh? Pictures should be better.

Topside on the barge

Topsides may consist of riser platform, living quarters, production separators, acid gas removal, gas dehydration and export/metering. The design is depending on field development concepts, the reservoir charecteristics and bla bla bla. Next time I will explain in-depth about this, later right ladies?

Four legged Jacket (Substructure)

For the substructures, there are jackets and hulls/pontoon which are made of steels or concrete. The most popular substructure were jackets because it is widely being used in Malaysian waters with depth range 50-70 metres. Jacket can be distinguished physically whether it is a tripod, four-legged, six-legged or eight-legged, depending on the size and capasity of the topside.

Ladies, i'm feelin' a bit tired right now and I totally need a rest. I will continue on the Part II after this. Hmm, this is just an introduction. Tough isn't posting a blog? Maybe I should do oral posting...Later birds...zzZZZZZ