welcome to airworthy tours your guide in the sky my name is captain phillip
and today i'm going to serve as your tour guide
and pilot as we take a tour of an offshore oil rig
in the gulf of mexico but before we get started
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so sit back relax and enjoy your tour
before we head out to the gulf a quick look at an oil refinery
louisiana's 17 oil refineries account for nearly one-fifth
of the nation's refining capacity and can process
3.3 million barrels of crude oil per day
overall 45 percent of total u.s petroleum refining capacity
is located along the gulf coast as well as 51 percent of total u.s natural gas
processing plant capacity
heading out to the gulf of mexico ahead is the posh xanadu accommodation vessel
and the bigfoot oil platform
offshore oil and gas in the gulf of mexico is a major source
of energy and petroleum production for the united states
oil production from the u.s federal waters in the gulf of mexico
reached an all-time annual high of 1.65 million barrels per day in 2017.
there are 175 offshore oil rigs in the gulf of mexico
making it the largest collection of oil rigs in the world
behind the north sea offshore oil rigs are commonly referred
to as floating cities since many different people live on them
at any given time
it's also fun to note that most of these oil rigs are taller than the world's
tallest skyscrapers and the oil rigs also have some really
good food too just don't drink the water the tallest oil offshore platform is the
petronius platform at 1998 feet and
if it were a building it would be the third tallest building
in the world
oil rays in the gulf directly employ somewhere between 10 000
to 12 000 workers the total number of directly and
indirectly supported jobs by the offshore industry is 62 000
which is 3.3 percent of the total employment in the state of louisiana
but you can and will find people from all over the world
however employment numbers do fluctuate with the price of oil
the offshore oil industry does have a history of controversy
and tragedy
on april 20th 2010 a blowout caused an explosion on the deepwater
horizon killing 11 crewmen and ignited a
fireball visible from 40 miles away the fire
cannot be contained and two days later the deep horizon sank
leaving the well gushing at the seabed the u.s government estimated a total
discharge of 4.9 million barrels of oil into the
gulf after several failed efforts to contain
the flow the well was declared and sealed on
september 19 2010.
in september of 2014 a u.s district court judge
ruled that british petroleum or bp for short
was responsible for the oil spill due to gross negligence and reckless conduct
in july of 2015 bp agreed to pay 18.7 billion dollars in fines
the largest corporate settlement in united states history
the deepwater horizon disaster is the largest marine oil spill
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tours right here thank you for flying with airworthy
tours and we look forward to seeing you on our next flight