Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix
McAfee Secure sites help keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams
Ransom Riggs
What Do You Do With An Old Oil Rig?
by Ransom Riggs - February 27, 2009 - 7:59 AM

Oil rigs are pretty utilitarian structures, but once they’ve pumped all the oil they’re going to pump, they become useless hunks of metal. If that seems more than a little wasteful to you — not to mention an eyesore, considering how many rigs are within sight of shore — you’re not alone. But not to worry: industrious Ecogeeks are coming up with all sorts of ways to repurpose old rigs.

Dive sites

oil_rig_grace.jpgIn this case, you don’t need to do anything; the underwater support structures of oil rigs become artificial reefs on their own. There’s one of these not far from my house in LA that’s popular with divers called Oil Platform Grace, which has been inactive for years (but still serves as a pumping station). It was actually the site of a pretty nasty oil spill in its early years, but now all 320 feet of its underwater supports are teeming with fascinating life.

Wind turbine platforms

Winds are high offshore, so it’s a great place to harvest wind energy. Only problem is, it’s much more difficult to build turbines in the water than on land … unless you happen to have a disused oil platform around! A company called SeaEnergy Renewables is planning on doing just this. Pretty cool, right?
seaenergy.jpg

Luxury offshore hotel

The winner of this year’s Radical Innovation in Hospitality award sees old oil rigs in a whole new way: as places to build luxury hotels. It would still have a wind turbine, but its function would be to power the hotel, which would include more than 300 luxury suites, a conference center, a rooftop infinity pool, a diving bell (of course), and a casino. (Hey, as long as we’re offshore … ) It may not be the most eco-friendly way of repurposing of an oil rig platform I’ve ever seen — just ferrying guests to and from the hotel alone would eat up more resources than the wind turbine would likely generate — but it’s certainly the most interesting.
oilrigresort.jpg
oilrigresort5.jpg

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Comments (12)

  1. Assuming you could solve the logistical problems of food and ammunition, an oil rig would be a relatively easily defended location to ride out a zombie apocalypse.

    posted by Craig on 2-27-2009 at 10:55 am

  2. Since they are so far offshore I think ammunition may not be as necessary than in a land locked zombie apocalypse shelter. Food would be an issue but sustainable gardening processes may prove useful.

    posted by Amy on 2-27-2009 at 11:03 am

  3. Yeah but — did you guys read ‘World War Z’? Zombies can walk across the bottom of the ocean. They’d just climb up the rig platform, and then you’d be trapped — and suddenly it would become just about the WORST place to be in a zombie apocalypse.

    Think, people.

    posted by Ransom Riggs on 2-27-2009 at 11:28 am

  4. One more: Disney’s Tree of Life was made from an old oil rig.

    posted by mike on 2-27-2009 at 11:34 am

  5. Now if we just put as much thought into green technologies as we have w/ zombies, we’d be energy independent.

    posted by Jonny on 2-27-2009 at 11:40 am

  6. I wrote a story in the early 90s that envisioned an oil rig as the setting of a futuristic prison. I was kinda pissed to see them use the idea in Face/Off a few years later.

    posted by Johnny Cat on 2-27-2009 at 11:58 am

  7. I think the Zombie Field Manual does detail that most Zombies cannot climb ladders. So if a simple obstacle was place on the ladder, the platform will remain zombie free.

    Of course there would still be the issues of zombies getting caught in fishing nets and lines, that is a different problem all together.

    posted by Carlos on 2-27-2009 at 12:48 pm

  8. Zombie apocalypse? Haven’t any of you guys ever played Fallout? It’s also a great place for the government to ride out a nuclear / mutant apocalypse.

    posted by Matt on 2-27-2009 at 12:52 pm

  9. Great post, ransom! Craig and Amy are clearly the type of people you see getting eaten in the background of a zombie movie. Use your damn heads!

    posted by BW on 2-27-2009 at 12:54 pm

  10. If you’ve got the cash, you could buy one and claim to be your own sovereign nation…

    http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

    Of course Sealand is an old fort… but you get the idea.

    posted by Jason! on 2-27-2009 at 4:11 pm

  11. Turn the oil rig into your own personal micronation ala Sealand?

    posted by joe on 2-28-2009 at 8:44 am

  12. Mike beat me to it (Disney World’s Tree of Life in the Animal Kingdom)!

    Love all the Zombie talk, though – my husband is all about preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

    posted by Dawn on 3-1-2009 at 5:07 pm

Comment

commenting policy