An oil platform or oil rig is a large structure used to house workers and machinery needed to drill and/or produce oil and natural gas through wells in the ocean bed. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be attached to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or be floating. Generally, oil platforms are located on the continental shelf, though as technology improves, drilling and production in deeper waters becomes both feasible and profitable. A typical platform may have around thirty wellheads located on the platform and directional drilling allows reservoirs to be accessed at both different depths and at remote positions up to 5 miles (8 kilometres) from the platform. Many platforms also have remote wellheads attached by umbilical connections, these may be single wells or a manifold centre for multiple wells. Signal Oil and Gas

James Van Blaricum - Larger lake- and sea-based oil platforms and oil rigs are some of the largest moveable man-made structures in the world. There are several distinct types of platforms and rigs:

Fixed Platforms, built on concrete and/or steel legs anchored directly onto the seabed, supporting a deck with space for drilling rigs, production facilities and crew quarters. Such platforms are, by virtue of their immobility, designed for very long term use (for instance the Hibernia platform). Various types of structure are used, steel jacket, concrete caisson, floating steel and even floating concrete. Steel jackets are vertical sections made of tubular steel members, and are usually piled into the seabed. Concrete caisson structures, pioneered by the Condeep concept, often have in-built oil storage in tanks below the sea surface and these tanks were often used as a flotation capability, allowing them to be built close to shore (Norwegian fjords and Scottish firths are popular because they are sheltered and deep enough) and then floated to their final position where they are sunk to the seabed. Fixed platforms are economically feasible for installation in water depths up to about 1,700 feet (520 m). Signal Oil and Gas

Compliant Towers, consist of narrow, flexible towers and a piled foundation supporting a conventional deck for drilling and production operations. Compliant towers are designed to sustain significant lateral deflections and forces, and are typically used in water depths ranging from 1,500 and 3,000 feet (450 and 900 m). Signal Oil and Gas