Advanced offshore oil platforms
Four innovative offshore platforms that are designed to withstand 100-foot waves in waters 600-feet deep are described. These platforms are: (1) Stratfjord B Concrete Gravity-Base Platform; (2) Magnus Steel-Template-Jacket Platform; (3) Hutton Tension-Leg Platform; and (4) Block 280 Guyed Tower. The Statfjord B platform, designed in Norway, rests on four massive concrete columns with storage tanks at the base. It depends solely on its own mass for stability. The Magnus platform, designed by the British, is the heaviest offshore platform yet fabricated, weighing 41,000 tons. Two of the platform's four legs will incorporate flotation chambers so that the structure can be floated to its site in the North Sea. The Hutton structure, also designed in England, will consist of a buoyant hull tethered to the sea floor by slender steel tubes at its four corners. The first platform of its type, the Hutton structure is also destined for the North Sea. The US designed Block 280 guyed tower is designed for service in the Gulf of Mexico in water 1000 feet deep. It will be pinned to the sea floor by a spokelike array of 20 steel cables, each one more than 3000 feet long. The tower and its guys will weigh 43,000 tons, slightly more than the Magnus steel-template jacket and more than four time as much as the Eiffel Tower. At a cost of approximately $2.6 billion, the Magnus is the most expensive offshore platform to date. The Statfjord B was put into production in 1982. The Magnus is scheduled for oil production in 1983. The Hutton and the Block 280 will both be producing in 1984. (JMT)
- OSTI ID:
- 5423926
- Journal Information:
- Sci. Am.; (United States), Vol. 246:4
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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