Science Of Oil Rigs: Surviving Gulf Storms

[Strelnikov_]

The Christian Science Monitor
July 26, 2005

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0726/p03s01-usgn.html

Just a day before hurricane Emily pounded into the Mexican coastline, BP's recovery team finished righting Thunder Horse, the world's newest and biggest oil and gas platform, located 150 miles southeast of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico.

It had partially collapsed during hurricane Dennis - just four months after US Interior Secretary Gale Norton declared in a dedication ceremony that it was an "anchor of energy stability," designed to "withstand the worst that winds and waves will throw against it."

The tipping of Thunder Horse, weighing more than 50,000 tons and capable of drilling in waters up to 6,000 feet deep, points up just how vulnerable the industry is to powerful storms - even with the most advanced technology.

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[gulfcoastliberal]

1. Gale Norton: Titanic is unsinkable

What a maroon. Nature always reigns supreme.