Aren’t there some spine specialists on here?

I love Garfield!

 

You do realise he's not real?

 

Don’t ruin it!

He is real. I know it.

 

Simple George...I like it.

 

I prefer

 

That’s pretty inspirational, man. Good on you.

 

That’s fucked up.

 

I was thinking more like...

 

Dude, that ain't Spain.

 

A city belonging to Spain. I didn't know there was a oil field there.

 

There’s not. It’s a parking lot. When a rig/ship doesn’t have a contract (called “Stacked”), you can take it there and park it.

There is no actual drilling going on. It’s where rigs/ships that are “Stacked” will go to park until they go operational again.

There are different stages.

“Hot Stacked” means you have most of your crew, and there is no equipment preservation tactics used. That’s when there is just a short period (say 1-3 months) before you will work again.

“Warm Stacked” (which is what we are) means some preservation has taken place, and you are down to the bare minimum of crew allowed by Maritime Law (typically 22 people on a vessel this size). Equipment is operated periodically to keep it working and ready.

“Cold Stacked” means it is parked indefinitely, everything is turn off, and there is nobody onboard. It’s a dead ship.

 

How many drillships are there now? The Google shows 3 but who knows how old that image is.

 

Well he has two copies of the sequel too, so I don't think that helps swing the pendulum in his favor..

 

Oh no, that’s not accurate at all.

I’d say more like 10-15.

Plus about 3-4 Cruise ships.

 

The rigs, they are towed out and set up for a specific job and then sent in and docked when not on a gig? They are reusable (for lack of a better term)? I thought a drilling at sea was for years/ decades and they almost built a rig for a job.

Okay, empty tankers are docked at various places around the world, makes sense. What about full or tankers with full or partial loads? I remember the Venezuelan ships with full loads of their dirt oil just cruising around in circles when no one would buy it/ embargoed.

With the seawater around the ship worth more then the oil in the ship, has drilling been cut back?

 

Modern rigs don’t get towed, they are self-propelled. They have 8 bigass thruster on them.

Those thrusters also keep the rig on location when drilling via DP (Dynamically Positioned). They utilize a satellite signal and even in 10,000’ of water, the thrusters can maintain the rigs position over the wellhead with a few feet...regardless of sea conditions.

And they can also spin (change heading), while actively drilling (attached to the sea floor via the Riser and BOPs. Is the sun getting in your eyes or wind bothering you? Call the bridge and they can spin the ship around without pausing drilling operations.

“We” call all of them “Rigs”, but many of them are actually ships (called Drillships). They look (and are initially built) just like a bigass cruise ship, then a Drilling package is added.

Rigs only go to a Stacking location (parking lot) when they won’t be working for a while. If there is just a few weeks gap between Operations, they will just stay on or near location. It’s only when there is no Contract, and there likely won’t be one for months that Rigs will go Stacked.

Yea, they are “reusable”. There are still rigs working that were built in the 80’s. With a cost of around $1 billion to build one, they need to get good life out of it.

Yes, with the price of oil low due to less consumption (Covid), the drilling has slowed down. That’s why those rigs are Stacked. No work.

 

Sorry couldn't help myself

 

F@ck, did not they had giant outboard motors on them. and did not know that they weren't "attached" to the seafloor but considering at the depths they drill, that makes perfect sense.

With that talk about those giant oil fields off the coast of Brazil (with Venezuela claiming they own it since they claim they own everything but that's for another conversation) what will they do to try and get it? Drill ships, new giant platforms, 15 Brazilians in a row boat with an ice fishing auger and a bucket?

Interesting shit.

 

Shit. Thats bad. All big drillships or are there semis and jackups in the mix?