''Atlantis'' PQ is a
BP and
BHP
BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria.
As of 2024, BHP was the worldâ ...
joint venture
semi-submersible
Semi-submersible may refer to a self-propelled vessel, such as:
*Heavy-lift ship, which partially submerge to allow their cargo (another ship) to float into place for transport
*Narco-submarine, some of which remained partially on the surface
*S ...
oil platform
An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms w ...
on permanent location over the
Green Canyon Atlantis Oil Field in deepwater
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...
, south of
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
. The "PQ" identifies the platform as being a
production facility with
crew quarters.
The vessel's hull was designed by
GVA and built by
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
Hanwha Ocean Co., Ltd. (), formerly known as Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME; ), is one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea, along with Hyundai and Samsung.
History
On 21 February 2011, the A. P. Moller-Maersk ...
(DSME) in
Okpo,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
. Its topsides modules were built in
Morgan City, Louisiana
Morgan City is a small city in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, United States, located in the Acadiana region. The population was 11,472 at the 2020 census. Known for being "right in the middle of everywhere", Morgan City is located southeast of ...
with hull integration in
Ingleside, Texas.
[ ]
Operating in depths of more than , ''Atlantis'' was the deepest moored semi-submersible platform in the world when it was installed.
Food & Water Watch lawsuit
As a result of the 2010 explosion of the semi-submersible ''
Deepwater Horizon
''Deepwater Horizon'' was an ultra-deepwater, Dynamic positioning, dynamically positioned, Semi-submersible platform, semi-submersible offshore drilling Oil platform, rig owned by Transocean and operated by the BP company. On 20 April 2010, ...
'' drilling rig and the
subsequent oil spill, informants within BP came forward with allegations that safety practices at ''Atlantis'' PQ were flawed. Specifically, allegations have been laid against the plans and specs used in its construction, maintenance, and operation. Kenneth Abbott, a former BP contractor, reported that up to 89 percent of the engineering plans used to build and operate the installations were never authenticated by even BP engineers for safety and stability, and that over 95 percent of the plans for the underwater welds were never verified.
Food & Water Watch
Food & Water Watch is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization group with an office also in Los Angeles, California, which focuses on corporate and government accountability relating to food, water, and corporate overreach. Resulting ...
, a US-based consumer interest group, filed a complaint with the US
district court
District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy.
These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...
requesting an injunction to stop production on ''Atlantis'' PQ until these matters have been investigated.
In August 2014, the case against BP Atlantis was dismissed by a U.S. circuit court. U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes stated "BP never misrepresented -- much less knowingly distorted what it was doing,", finding that the case was ultimately about "paperwork wrinkles" instead of engineering shortcuts, adding
bbott and the environmentalists"have not blown a whistle," he said. "They have blown their own horn."
See also
*
Offshore oil and gas in the US Gulf of Mexico
Offshore oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico is a major source of oil and natural gas in the United States. The western and central Gulf of Mexico, which includes offshore Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, is one of the major petroleum-pr ...
*
Oil fields operated by BP
This is a list of oil and gas fields operated by BP.
United Kingdom
All fields in British territory are operated as part of the BP's North Sea Strategic Performance Unit from their office in Dyce, Aberdeen. This includes some fields not stri ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
BP ''Atlantis'' PQ diagram and imagesat
FMC Technologies
FMC Technologies, Inc. was a North American company that produced equipment for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons. FMC Technologies was incorporated in 2000 when FMC Corporation divested its machinery businesses. It exists today as ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atlantis Pq
2007 ships
Ships of BP Shipping
BP buildings and structures
Semi-submersibles
Ships built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering
Oil platforms off the United States