Offshore drilling

Offshore drilling explores for and extracts petroleum beneath the seabed using wells drilled from marine installations. It operates in environments where water depth, weather, and distance from shore shape engineering and logistics.

Drillship: A mobile vessel equipped to drill wells in deep water. Drillships use dynamic positioning to stay over a well without anchoring.
Jack-up rig: A mobile offshore platform whose legs rest on the seabed in relatively shallow water. Jack-up rigs provide a stable drilling base where water is not too deep.
Deepwater Horizon oil spill: The 2010 blowout and oil spill from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster exposed failures in well design, safety systems, and emergency response.
Onshore drilling: The drilling of wells for subsurface resources from land-based sites. It avoids marine installations but shares core well-construction techniques.
Semisubmersible platform: A floating offshore structure supported by submerged pontoons and columns. Its low water-plane area reduces wave-driven motion during drilling.
Fixed platform: An offshore structure permanently attached to the seabed, usually by steel or concrete supports. Fixed platforms host drilling and production facilities in shallower fields.
Macondo Prospect: A deepwater oil prospect in the Gulf of Mexico where the Deepwater Horizon well was drilled. Its failed well became the source of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Directional drilling: The controlled steering of a well along a planned path away from vertical. A single offshore installation can reach multiple reservoir targets through deviated wells.
Blowout preventer: A high-pressure valve assembly designed to seal, control, or shut in a well. It is the principal mechanical barrier against an uncontrolled well flow.
Floating production storage and offloading: A vessel that processes, stores, and transfers oil from offshore fields. An FPSO lets remote fields produce oil without a pipeline to shore.

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