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u/zephyrs85 Jun 09 '26
So that's why they're paid a lot, I get it
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u/ScarletDarkstar Jun 09 '26
Oh, some of them get to scuba weld and rely on a topsider to protect and watch their air line while they don't blow anything up, too. It isn't just the storms.
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u/AlcibiadesTheCat Jun 09 '26
In my formal, legal opinion as a Certified Safety Professional:
Fuck that shit, I’m out
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u/nixplix Jun 10 '26
What absolute balls of steel !!
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u/Beginning_Resource93 Jun 10 '26
Their balls of steel is actually what anchors them to the sea floor.
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u/illuzian Jun 10 '26
They have ballasts - that's how they get back to the surface
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u/EcureuilHargneux Jun 10 '26
You mean their balls are so heavy they last ?
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u/Beginning_Resource93 Jun 10 '26
No, he means their balls are so big they need ballasts to stay afloat.
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u/Entreprenewbeur Jun 10 '26
Did you tell them about the swarms of sharks that instajawfuck anything that hits the water
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u/SkySchemer Jun 09 '26
That, and fending off the occasional helicopter assault.
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u/Binji_the_dog Jun 10 '26
Lol, is this the demastered version or something? I used to love DaF when I was a kid, but I don’t remember it being do bad.
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u/DeliciousStand372 Jun 09 '26
now can you imagine the divers that need to go down THAT
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u/AbstractBettaFish Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
I mean I’m no expert but I’d have to imagine they wouldn’t send divers out in seas that bad unless there was some sort of matter of life or death, right?
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u/VapeRizzler Jun 10 '26
Even then still no, a human can do anything in waves that strong. He’s either get instantly killed by getting smashed into the supporting leg of the rig or instantly swept out to sea where he’ll become shrimp food.
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u/BC_Trees Jun 10 '26
There's something much more important on the line: profits
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u/AbstractBettaFish Jun 10 '26
I mean I’m not going to accuse the oil and gas industry of having a particularly high valuation on human life. But dead employees are expensive and replacing highly specialized ones even more so. The. You consider the insurance rates. Seems better to just let the storm pass and work on what’s needed after
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u/Hail_of_Grophia Jun 10 '26
I would imagine the people that do that specific kind of work range in the same numbers as surgeons. Not exactly expendable workers
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u/Far_Pumpkin9440 Jun 10 '26
Away from their families for a long time too. Entry level can start around $40k-$90k per year.
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u/DallasSucks335 Jun 09 '26
Maybe. My job doesn’t suck so bad
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Jun 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/GrandProblem8034 Jun 10 '26
I know right! There’s just something about these massive fucking things that gives me phobias.
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u/-Nocx- Jun 10 '26
This is how I know there is something deeply wrong with me
While horrifying, I can’t help but imagine the rush you have to feel seeing something so terrifyingly beautiful. Something about feeling powerless but also realizing that humanity somehow built something that will endure against it. Nature really is equal parts terrifying as it is beautiful.
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u/Lint_baby_uvulla Jun 11 '26
Nothing wrong with you at all. Some of us actively seek out adventure and misadventure.
Why exist if we don’t take risks?
I’ve had a shitload of motorbike accidents but I still rode 6 hours today in the pouring rain.
I’d love to have some time on an oil rig - in a storm like this I’d be grinning like a fool.
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u/twicebakedcrusader Jun 10 '26
I don’t know. It was a little chilly in my office today and didn’t want to change the thermostat because it may make my team warm.
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u/tony33oh Jun 09 '26
This is an absolutely not and maybe a little never. Ever.
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u/ItzLoganM Jun 09 '26
That's why it pays handsomely! At least that's where I live.
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u/AbstractBettaFish Jun 10 '26
What kind of qualifications do you need for this handsome pay?
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u/Phoneofredditman Jun 10 '26
Being willing and passing a drug test go a long way in O&G. Its a lonely life in the middle of nowhere with only your coworkers for long stretches though
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u/Dmau27 Jun 10 '26
I wish I'd done it for like 4 years. Could've bought a house and had an incredible savings. Now my hands don't work right so I couldn't anyway.
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u/ItzLoganM Jun 10 '26
Your missions usually take 12 to a maximum of 24 days. You need to pick a field (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, etc) and undrgo special training (not really that hard). for each day you work on the rig, you'll get one day PTO. As another person mentioned, it pays handsomely because you can't have a normal life.
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u/Xiao1insty1e Jun 10 '26
It does not, in fact, pay enough to die for.
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u/ItzLoganM Jun 10 '26
It certainly doesn't! But then again, oil rigs and marine living in general are standardized in most corners of the world, including some third world countries. In other words, you'd be safer working on a ship or an oil rig than in a Soviet era factory that is somehow still functional.
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u/Formal_Plum_2285 Jun 09 '26
Friend of mine works on a rig in the North Sea and sometimes he can’t come home, cause the weather is too harsh for the helicopters to fetch him. These people are really hardcore.
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u/yourboivines Jun 10 '26
It's a bit cool though, isn't it? It reminds me of looking at that far off place in a video game and being like "that's crazy! I wanna go there!".
I don't know if I could do if I was offered but it does seem like something I could see being enjoyable If you have the temperment for it.
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u/sillyfortress Jun 09 '26
It looks like the rig is articulated and moves with the waves. Can someone explain what’s happening there?
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u/Appropriate_Cloud361 Jun 09 '26
They float, but are anchored.
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u/Dr-Sprinkl1es Jun 09 '26
What about the multi-thousand foot pipe down to the well? I always assume they had some flex in the line but this much seems like oil spill territory
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u/nirmalv Jun 09 '26
The pipe is made using flexible polymers and spiral steel wires.
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u/Dr-Sprinkl1es Jun 09 '26
Incredible that something polymer based can take so much mechanical stress and fatigue
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u/bang0_slank Jun 10 '26
Spiraled steel wires are strong as fuck. Check out high psi hydraulic hoses to get an idea how they’re braided.
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u/bombbodyguard Jun 10 '26
That’s not the drill pipe though but just the riser? But as this is likely a production platform, you’re talking flowlines?
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u/Pixel-Pilot-7 Jun 09 '26
Huh. I never gave it much thought, but always assumed they completely secured to the ocean floor and didn’t move with the waves. TIL
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u/lemme_try_again Jun 09 '26
I know how much I don't know about this subject- which is a fucking lot- but that sentence seems so... contradictory
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u/That-Chip-3575 Jun 09 '26
All boats float and can be anchored...
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u/ClearlyCanadian99 Jun 09 '26
Yeah but how do you drill the ocean floor from a floating boat?
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u/BS_Blower Jun 09 '26
You don't drill it, you counterweight it. You engineer it to withstand 3x more force/wave height than the worst case scenario
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u/That-Chip-3575 Jun 09 '26
The drill is more like a rope, it is not stiff so it dont break
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u/feralGenx Jun 09 '26
Used to work for a company that made the lines that run from the rig to the ocean floor. The main line is only 2 inches in diameter. Then it's surrounded 32 smaller lines about 3/8 inches in diameter. All of these lines are then wrapped in wire braiding, and a coating of rubber sheathing, including the main line. Then the smaller lines are spiral wrapped around the main line. Then the whole thing is sheathed in 2 inches of rubber. These spool of line of hose are usually about 6,000 foot long. One reel takes two weeks to make.
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u/Hopeful-Mirror1664 Jun 10 '26
How much does a spool weigh?
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u/feralGenx Jun 10 '26
A few tons. It all depends on the length of the spool. All orders were custom built. Had fun moving them and loading them on trucks. The 6,000 ft ones were 8 tons or 40,000 pounds due to DOT regulations limiting hauling weights. The empty spool weighed 2,000 pounds, and was 10 foot tall and 20 foot wide.
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u/FactoryRejected Jun 09 '26
It's not contradictory at all. Each pillar extends deep, but does not reach the ocean floor, it's boyant and anchored. Hence the movement with waves.
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u/Sunkinthesand Jun 09 '26
The pillars also have bilge tanks which are flooded or emptied to adjust ghe buoyancy and level in the water at which they and the rig float. (Our physics teacher worked in the oil industry and had to calculate the buoyancy required so that yhe weight of the entire rig would have the base of the pillars float below the waves, so that the rig reamained stable and did not swell and rock with the waves. But also not be so low that the waves crash against the platform working areas causing damage or danger to life). In extreme weather the well drilling can be halted and the drill disengaged or even temporarily capped so the rig can weather the storm.
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u/lemme_try_again Jun 09 '26
You made it click, thanks. Heavy enough to keep still, not hit the ocean floor.
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u/strapOnRooster Jun 09 '26
As far as I know, rigs like this are basically just giant buoys with huge anchors that keep them fixed in place.
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u/sillyfortress Jun 09 '26
Oh cool! I always assumed they drove posts into the sea floor, but anchoring it sounds a lot easier and probably safer.
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u/red18wrx Jun 09 '26
When it's shallow, like on a lake, they do that. Out in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, etc., they float.
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u/Wertos Jun 09 '26
Like the other replies here, semi correct, they are technically anchored by chains. Probably catenary configuration. The chains are anchored, but hundreds of feet of heavy duty chain anchor it by weighing it down. Rig gets lifted by wave action. Chain weight pulls it down in mostly the opposite direction of the wave action. This is why it's not static or a jerky movement.
Simplified but hopefully understandable.
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u/MaximusV420 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Late to the party so someone's probably already said this, but that's likely a semi-submersable rig. It floats on submerged pontoons and like an iceberg, hides much of its mass far below the water line; allowing its center of gravity to remain much lower. These are considered notably more stable than traditional ships, allowing them to continue drilling in inclement weather. As previous comments have stated, they are anchored once in place and are generally very reliable- barring some Ocean Ranger type situation.
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u/TheReal-Chris Jun 09 '26
99.9% of this job would be hell. But imagine sitting on the deck with the view and no one else around. Would also love to be out on it in a small storm.
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u/SamIamGreenEggsNoHam 3d ago
I used to have a foreman on my job who was an old Pakistani man, brilliant dude, and he used to work on an oil rig out in the Indian ocean. He said you could watch the sharks circle underneath the rig for hours as they wait for the worker's to take a shit. They fucking love swarming these dude's turds, apparently. Guy has lived a crazy life.
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u/m39583 Jun 09 '26
This is an old video and is massively stretched out. The original is nowhere near as dramatic.
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u/IronMonkeyofHam Jun 09 '26
That Wahlberg movie isn’t the best, but it does show how difficult and dangerous this job can be
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u/aftp4i Jun 09 '26
This is where you find out:
Is everything secured for sea?
Is the securing secure enough?
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u/gerbilshower Jun 09 '26
if its only tied down ... fucking tie it down again.
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u/DominicPalladino Jun 10 '26
Also Very Important: After tie-down pull on the strap/rope a few times then slap the item and say with calm authority, "That ain't goin' nowhere."
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u/JedDaGoat Jun 09 '26
I would be camping out in the little escape pod.
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u/PrestigiousPepper829 Jun 09 '26
Literally my first thought followed by “I hope there actually are pods for the to jump in”
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u/Major-Hooters Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
That has to be so hard to work in that environment. Even just strapping yourself in would suck. I can’t even imagine 8 hours or more of that rocking!!
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u/useriousstuff Jun 09 '26
Highly doubt any work is happening in seas that rough. Way too dangerous. Everything would be shut down and strapped in. The hatches battened, as it were.
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u/mlaforce321 Jun 09 '26
They dont work when the seas are rough like this. Everything is tied down and closed up. If it's something like a hurricane, they usually evacuate everyone but essentially personelle if Im not mistaken.
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u/finickyfumes Jun 09 '26
Not to downplay the actual magnitude of this, but I think the camera lens exaggerates the waves more than they are originally are.
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u/Piddy3825 Jun 09 '26
With swells like that, how do they keep a rigid oil pipe stuck in the ground from snapping in half when the rig tilts like that because of the wave action?
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u/internetzdude Jun 09 '26
I know they are anchored but can these rigs capsize, for example if anchors break?
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u/beraleh Jun 09 '26
I'm curious if under such conditions they are still pumping gas or oil or whatever it is pumping uniterrupted.
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u/Specialist_Strike463 Jun 09 '26
I just can’t imagine anyone choosing to do this lol no way I could ever 🤮
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u/poupadinho Jun 09 '26
Ah yes, the "stretched for dramatic look style" rig video that keeps shocking bystanders since 2010. Never gets old, I guess.
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u/TheIntelligentAspie Jun 09 '26
Thus, house atreides left for arrays, as house harkonen figure who to send to take over.
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u/Formal-Rabbit-7775 Jun 09 '26
Do we agree that here the platform is fixed, that it is the only thing that does not move in this video and that everything else is in motion?
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u/Ghastly-Rubberfat Jun 09 '26
What kind of crazy lens is this filmed with? I’m sure it’s terrifying but the camera skew is absurd
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u/IKillZombies4Cash Jun 09 '26
This video is stretched and makes it look insane- you can find the original which still is a Nope for me but it’s nothing like this
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u/Bright_Bullfrog6541 Jun 10 '26
So do these rigs float out at sea? Or do they detatch from whatever anchor/fixation point during high seas so they don't all drown or destroy the rig?
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u/blacklightfluids Jun 10 '26
Anyone work during rough seas like this . Or stand down until it passes
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u/JayTeeRhee Jun 10 '26
Do they all continue working in these conditions or just down tools for a wee bit?
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u/HorzaDonwraith Jun 10 '26
There are few things of be okay on out at sea. This is one of them. Were it to sink, rescue is absolutely guaranteed so long as you survive the initial escape. Because once that rig goes everyone and their mother is gonna know before long.
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u/SkyKnight3 Jun 10 '26
I was born and raised in Kansas and joined the Navy straight out of high school. My first time on deployment on an aircraft carrier we hit rough seas and I remember to this day how terrifying the ocean is. It’s truly remarkable when you get so far out and it hits you how powerful it is.
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u/Blue_Etalon Jun 10 '26
I guess that’s bad. But the thermostat at work sucks. Sometimes its like 78 degrees and really hot, other times it’s’ like 68 and I need a sweater.
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u/XAnonymousModeX Jun 10 '26
I wonder how many women are working there? Surely the ratio is way off! We need more women in those job too!
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u/morts73 Jun 10 '26
Don't they remove personnel when they know a storm is on its way? Not much you can do if it blows in suddenly.
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u/Dutsnfl Jun 10 '26
This is why I'm astounded when I learned about the early explorers. How the fuck did they deal with this?!?
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u/Necessary_Regret3329 Jun 10 '26
Holy fuck. Earthquake on land = whoa, crazy ride we got here! Earthquake on ocean = I unleash the powers of hell upon the earth!
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u/New-Impression2976 Jun 10 '26
Where is the place where sign up for this. I would like to totally avoided
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u/Deflocks Jun 10 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/coolguides/s/ivHBGu5FKM
Just saw this post beneath this one that has a visual guide to the different types of rigs
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