Bullwinkle was a tall, pile-supported fixed steel oil platform in the

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 ...

. Installed in 1988, the total weight of the platform was 77,000 tons, of which the steel jacket comprises 49,375 tones. At the time of its construction it was the third tallest freestanding structure ever builtshorter than only the

CN Tower The CN Tower (french: Tour CN) is a concrete communications and observation tower in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railwa ...

and the

Ostankino Tower Ostankino Tower (russian: links=no, Останкинская телебашня, Ostankinskaya telebashnya) is a television and radio tower in Moscow, Russia, owned by the Moscow branch of unitary enterprise Russian TV and Radio Broadcasting Ne ...

and the tallest in the United States, being taller than the pinnacle of the

Sears Tower The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108- story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) ...

. Of the total height, are below the

waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that ind ...

. It was located in

Green Canyon Block 65 Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combina ...

, approximately southwest of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Fieldwood Energy LLC. The total field development construction cost was according to some sources. The jacket, i.e. the mainly submerged part of the platform, was built by

Gulf Marine Fabricators A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodies ...

in 1985–1988 at the North Yard location in

Ingleside, Texas Ingleside is a city in Nueces and San Patricio Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. Its population was 9,519 at the 2020 census. Ingleside was the home to Naval Station Ingleside. On August 24, 2005, the BRAC Committee voted to close the base. ...

, at the intersection of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel and the Intracoastal Waterway in

Port Aransas Port Aransas ( ) is a city in Nueces County, Texas, United States. This city is 180 miles southeast of San Antonio. The population was 2,904 at the 2020 census. Port Aransas is the only established town on Mustang Island. It is located north of ...

, east of Corpus Christi. The platform was shipped using a barge and installed by

Heerema Marine Contractors Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) is a contractor headquartered in the Netherlands most notable for operation of three of the largest crane vessels in the offshore industry. History Heerema Marine Contractors was formed in 1948 by Pieter Schelte ...

. The jacket which is some 1,400 feet tall is the second tallest object to ever be moved to another position, relative to the surface of the Earth after the

Troll A platform The Troll A platform is a Condeep gravity-based structure offshore natural gas platform in the Troll gas field off the west coast of Norway. Built from reinforced concrete, , it was the tallest structure that has ever been moved to another posi ...

. The Bullwinkle platform was the third tallest freestanding structure built in water after the

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
Baldpate Compliant Towers, but it was the tallest of these that could be built on land as is without any modifications. In 2010,

Superior Energy Services Superior Energy Services, Inc. is a C-corporation that operates as a holding company for a portfolio of oilfield rentals and well services brands. The Company restructured in 2021 and is no longer listed on an exchange. Its majority beneficial ow ...

took ownership of the platform and planned to decommission it at the end of its economic life.

External links

Info on offshore-technology.com

Towing Largest Oil Rig in History
installation and construction video *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullwinkle (Oil Platform) Energy infrastructure completed in 1988 Oil platforms off the United States Petroleum industry in the Gulf of Mexico Energy infrastructure in Louisiana 1988 establishments in Louisiana

See also

External links

References