Construction of an Oil Drilling Platform (10 pics)

Get a job in the petroleum industry, kids.

The title should be "Construction of an oil pollution platform". Save our planet.

And the sea shall reclaim her dead.

We're reaching a global peak oil. It's time to think about other energy sources. Kinda sad that oil is mainly used for cars, planes and heating, while we can find source material (like alkenes and so on) for medication and the useful plastic in it.

Thats awesome!

We are past peak oil which is why even the Saudies are building platforms in the sea which cost 100X more to build. We think we can sustain unlimited growth with limited resources.

DOC......So true.

There is still a lot of oil out there guys, you are just blinded by dumbness.... Supply and demand.... if they make you think we are running out of oil they can jack up the prices... I remember just a few months ago paying $4.50 a gallon costs me over $80 to tank the car and I remember growing up when tanking up I would put $20 on it and get change.... same thing with diamonds ,gold etc...... there is TONS of this stuff... but they regulate the releasal of it to ensure the price stays up....

As far as pollution... we are not killing the earth... we are killing ourselves... some tend to forget during the time of the Dinosaur THERE WERE NO POLAR ICE CAPS none zip zelch... the earth will survive SOOOOO VROOM VROOM GO BIG ENGINE GO

tree hugger jacking up oil PRICES!

Big mega-buck business.

seems easy enough. maybe I'll build my own.

TiklingMonkey

Yes, there is a lot of oil in the ground, but we can bring up only about 40% which means that a great amount of oil will stay out of reach. Of course the prices rise because new oil fields need to be found which costs a lot of money and the newly discovered ones will be quite small, because the biggest ones are already found. I think that oil companies try to keep prices low so more people still buy oil.

Okay, the planet doesn't care about us. It is made of mainly metals and oxygen, so it doesn't have to worry about global warming. But the life forms inhabiting the planet are the ones who are suffering. Nature can get along with changes like climate changes but it needs more time to balance out differences, but we are short-lived and always in a hurry. In a period of decades we brought up a substance that was created in some millions of years from dead organisms.

You said it right: we are killing ourselves. It's your decision whether this bothers you or not. Nobody can force you to have a certain world view. But I myself, although I do not always see the good in human beings, want us to live and I want the plants and animals and all species that aren't even discovered yet to live because in their own way they are something special. Maybe I'm a dreamer to think we can avoid our doom, but I would hate to see how my home has transformed into a post-apocalyptic scenery.

Naphia -

Oil prices are low? If you bothered to do your research, petroleum geologists, including my brother-in-law, believe there is more than 1000 years of oil to be refined once extracted from the earth. The Oil Sands project in the Canadian Territories are estimated to be at least 1.5 to twice of all oil reserves in Saudi Arabia. Oil reserves in the domestic US market haven't been released for consumption in any appreciative quantity to protect domestic reserves. There is +100 years in raw crude in storage that isn't being released to protect oil companies and refiners.

It's only refining that limits oil production for consumption, just like how distilling takes 1000 tons of raw grain to turn it into 5000 litres of alcohol.

The only question is - How much is the average person's salary today willing to pay? $5.00/gallon is today's pricing. The oil-based, motor-driven car was ony invented 100 years ago. By limiting green technologies, which oil companies do, by buying up patents... Oil 100 years from now may cost $100/gallon, perhaps even more. Your parents bought a home in 1950 for $20,000. It can sell for $500,000 or more today. $100,000 in your mutual funds retirement plan, plus your pension, 20 years ago was supposed to fund your retirement (without touching the principle) wasn't it?

Just like a worthless diamond, with some poilshing is valued at $10,000... Because a diamond lasts forever? Time is the polish oil companies have the luxury of by limiting new technology, which translates into future money.

Stay in school.

Jimmy Johnson

Thanks for the info, but the thing I was trying to point out is more the problematic of what is done with the oil (global warming, pollution of oceans through small particles of plastic and the whole story) than the prices. Maybe we can fix it with the money from the oil, but maybe some damage can't be undone. The ecological problems were the topic I was trying to talk about. I am sorry for my English. Maybe you noticed that I'm not native speaker so I may have problems to express myself. I admit that I'm not an economy professor. I was thinking more of the question: "We can buy oil and burn it in our cars, but only because we can, is this what we should do?" We're not irresponsible. My post was more about my thoughts of our responsibility than about how to make profit from oil. I'm sorry if I did anything wrong or didn't come to my point. And arguing over the internet isn't so good because you seem to be talking at cross purposes.

Just for the record: I AM at school and stay there for some more years until university and ecological problems through pollution are quite often discussed in our lessons. And I'm glad they teach us this.

That's why I said you should stay in school...

Once you get out into the real world after a few years.. You'll appreciate how your idyllic, and rather generalized point of view will have the benefit of experience... Something your future (post grade school) tenured professors teaching 25 year old information won't have.

You can thank me later.