How Deep Are Oil Rigs?

If you put Mt. Everest into the water upside down, there would still be over a mile before you got to the bottom. It’s roughly the average cruising altitude of a 737 airplane!

But if that's true… then how do we build oil rigs in it? How deep are they?Turns out, INSANELY DEEP. Let me show you.

Hopefully, we’re moving toward a world that uses less and less oil. But our ability to build mind-blowing technology is also what helps us make that transition - with offshore wind farms and massive solar installations and better batteries and much more. People can build astonishing things.

This short is part of Huge If True, our optimistic show about science and tech. We just made a longer episode all about mapping our oceans! Subscribe to support us and to see more.

#shorts #tech #stem #ocean #deepocean #deepsea #animation #science

[NickyThanksYou]

I retired last year from being a deepwater drilling rig Subsea engineer. I can honestly tell you that, unless you have been on a modern drilling rig, you have no idea how incredibly impressive the engineering is.

[alecduvenage]

I work in oil and gas and we build and install oil rigs...it really is a feat of engineering to see how it's done!

[perigeedynamics]

"We couldn't build the pyramids today"😂

[captccklap]

"Why would you ever build a contraption to go that deep?!"

Mr. Crabs: _Money._

[ben_walker]

Fun fact, due to ocean currents, the cables can be tethered to the ocean floor more than a kilometre away horizontally from where the oil rig actually is

[TheSCP_Foundation]

False. First, they created and placed the oil rigs, and then they filled the ocean up.

[InfoPool]

It's always a pleasure seeing your video: the excited voice, the wowing smile, and the information is worth spending a minute... after every minute!! 😊

[seedspittinspacecowboy]

I recommended checking out underwater welding after this short. Those workers are incredible.

[josephflanagan]

Nuclear fusion reactors we always seem to forget about those

[marusero]

Its crazy how we come up with brilliant inovative ideas when loads of money is involved

[wednesday]

Like a dog who suddenly knows how to move furniture across the kitchen in order to climb up onto the counter to eat the chicken, humans suddenly get super smart when there's oil to be found.

[DanielIKing]

Pushing oil drilling into increasingly deep water takes impressive technology, and gets us situations like the Deepwater Horizon disaster. We gotta wean ourselves off the oil.

[sakaraist]

On the topic of oil rigs. I maintain that everyone should watch Deepwater Horizon. It really puts into perspective how insanely complicated they are..

[All_About_English]

I worked on a drilling unit (MODU) next to Perdido over a decade ago. It blew my mind how deep the water was. What's even more amazing is how deep they drill after going that deep!

[BOT_CORP]

“wE cOulDn’T bUiLd ThE pYrAmIdS”
Also us:

[John-cena]

Reducing oil use wouldn't come from alternative energy sources, or electric cars, but from decreasing production of most goods. You'd be shocked at how many things are made with oil, I'd recommend looking it up, and it'll help you understand just how tied with the economy oil is. If oil is cheap and plentiful, everything is.

[eliorbilow]

For the deep ones that don't have rigid structures, do they use flexible tubing to pump the oil? Like tubes made of rubber instead of steel? Please forgive me if this is a dumb question; I am not familiar with oil rigs.

[SurvivebritanicII]

“Mars has oil from reserves 896m below the surface”
The USA:

[Smachfest]

Many rigs are not even anchored to anything but use a combination of ultrasonic and GPS signals to control dynamic positioning. They maintain positioning over a point with <1mtr accuracy. And handle mostley all of the swell too.

[iamdotcomm]

it's actually even simpler than that, they just raided an ocean monument for sponges