The Cost of Off-Shore Drilling

According to the Arizona Geological Survey a single oil drilling venture costs between $400,000 – $ 1,000,000. Each temporary hole that a company digs costs between $8,000 – $150,000 per day. Clearly, offshore drilling is an expensive venture. It’s also a tedious one that involves geologists and environmental specialists working together. Fortunately, many great advancements were made so that oil drilling isn’t as challenging today as it was in the past. There are lots of benefits to Offshore Oil Drilling.

Where Offshore Oil Drilling Occurs

Although many of us are familiar with oil beds located on land or in shallow bodies of water, you should know they’re also located deep beneath the ocean too. Reaching these sites is dangerous, but it’s also very rewarding. With this in mind, those who are drilling for oil must be both accurate and careful. Failure to act in this regard often leads to a deadly aftermath for the worker and the environment they’re working in. This is why so many rules and regulations exist. They’re established by the government.

What Are Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODU)

MODU uses sonic equipment for drilling oil. The equipment discovers areas where it thinks oil deposits exist. It then drills for the oil before other production oils go to work capturing the oil. When this happens miners set a permanent oil production arrangement in place instead of the MODU.

Types of Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODU)

 

  1. Submersible MODU is a barge that rests 30 — 35 feet above the ocean floor. From here it extends steel posts and drills for oil. This only works in still water.
  2. Jackup MODU sit on top of a floating barge. A ship then tows the barge towards the drilling site. Once it reaches the location, they place the jackup on top of the drilling site. From here it extends its legs out onto the ocean floor. A platform rises up and drilling occurs.
  3. Drillship MODU are ships with a drill on their top deck. These use propellers and anchors to drill down into the earth’s surface. They even work in deep water environments.
  4. Semisubmersible MODU float on the ocean’s surface. They have both a navigation and a propulsion system used for navigating drilling sites. This system is fully computerized so it’s completely dependent on technology.

Allowing a MODU to drill deep into the ocean’s floor in search of oil is both costly and risky. However, when miners discover a good oil deposit the rewards far outweigh the risks.