Petronius is a deepwater

compliant tower A compliant tower (CT) is a fixed rig structure normally used for the offshore production of oil or gas. The rig consists of narrow, flexible (''compliant'') towers and a piled foundation supporting a conventional deck for drilling and producti ...

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 ...

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 la ...

in the

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 ...

, 210 km (130.5 mi) southeast 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 ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 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 (known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration) is a megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, or just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding the antenna, but inc ...

in 2010. This claim is disputed since only 75 metres (246 ft) of the platform are above water and it is unknown if the structure could support itself on land, as it is partially supported by buoyancy. The multi-deck topsides are 64 metres (210 ft) by 43 metres (141 ft) by 18.3 metres (60 ft) 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) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

and 3,000,000 m³ (100 million cubic feet) of

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

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"
Britannica.com. (; ; ; s ...

, the Roman writer. The

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

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 with the seabed

mooring A mooring is any permanent structure to which a seaborne vessel (such as a boat, ship, or amphibious aircraft) may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to ...

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

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