Life On The World's BIGGEST Offshore Oil Rig Platform

the offshore oil drilling platform berkout located 15 miles from saheling island on the shelf in the sea of ahutsk is one of the largest in the world it's a huge six-story fully autonomous plant on giant reinforced concrete piles which not only drills new wells but also simultaneously extracts several thousand tons of oil from a huge depth every day it's a real monster with an incredibly complex anatomy when you approach the platform by air you realize that it really looks like a bird berkut means golden eagle but the rig looks more like a fat pigeon which sat down to rest on the surface of the sea of achotzk but no real birds are to be found here it's too far from the coast it takes 40 minutes by helicopter to reach the rig from the nearest town by sea eight hours ships typically deliver equipment and provisions to the platform and personnel for the next shift arrive by air when the fickle regional weather permits of course well what can i tell you about sekhalin the island sees nice weather well not often but here on the platform it's even more rare in this kind of fog for example a helicopter can't fly so sometimes the workers are forced to wait for the weather to change for days or even weeks after the end of their shifts berkut is built on a gravity-based structure that is unlike floating platforms it stands firmly on a reinforced concrete foundation which is fixed to the seabed the base alone weighs 160 000 tons it was made in russia not far from vladivostok and towed to this place over 1 200 miles away essentially it resembles an inverted stool once the hollow lower part of the base was flooded with water in the platform sat on the seabed all that remained was to carefully place the upper part of the platform with all the equipment in the living area on the legs sticking out above the surface of the water by the way note that on the middle section of the legs of this giant stool there is a ring of concrete of a slightly different color this is the so-called ice protection belt the designers calculated that this section of the supports is approximately where the six feet of ice on the surface of the sea would hit that's why the concrete there is of the highest quality it's incredibly durable previously on other similar platforms such belts were made of steel but it turned out that the ice often tore the metal sheets from the supports during strong winds or storms such an incident cannot happen here under any circumstances the platform is located directly on a tectonic section and therefore it was designed to withstand even the most intense earthquakes that's thanks to sliding bearings like this one here in essence they work like our knee joints below are ball joints on top well let's call it a patella in the event of an earthquake the entire upper part of the platform slides along these supports thereby dampening vibrations they say they can withstand up to a magnitude 9 quake but heaven forbid that ever gets checked the upper part of the platform was made in south korea it took several years to build a six-story high-tech fully autonomous oil refining complex [Music] [Music] at the very end the structure was crowned with a huge oil derrick like a christmas tree topper by the way that was made in russia in kaliningrad it was delivered to south korea by sea then it was carefully installed on the top of the platform with the help of the world's only marine crane with a lifting capacity of 7 000 tons which had to be rented specifically for the operation [Music] again in order to compensate for vibrations during earthquakes all the pipes and oil wells that go from the upper part of the platform to the lower one have joints here which are covered with black reinforced rubber cuffs these couplings allow the pipelines to shift at the connection points relative to their axis and thus provides a guarantee that they won't burst if something happens however this is just one of the many ways to protect equipment from unforeseen incidents the oil platform like a huge factory doesn't stop working for even one second it functions day and night because it would take several dozen hours just to start it up again but you can stop it in an instant with this emergency shutdown button i was told to not even breathe on it later i wouldn't be able to say it was an accident that pause would cost the companies several million dollars when this button is pressed all the machines stop all the oil wells are killed the generators turn off the circulation of gas and oil stops in general the platform completely freezes and goes into damage control mode this protocol by the way is the same for all offshore production platforms and it was written based on accidents that happened in the past [Music] [Music] [Music] right now there are 237 people on the bittercook platform in general this figure fluctuates all the time specialists come and go but there is an iron-clad rule there cannot be more than 240 people that's because that's the maximum number of places in the lifeboats there are four of them and it works out to be 60 people per boat they're a little larger than an ordinary minibus which means the passengers are packed in here well literally like sardines but during an actual emergency as they say there is no room for complaints surviving is what counts their hoots lifeboats have never been used and the same goes for the emergency shutdown button in the central control room it's never been pressed all the main parameters of the station's operation are constantly flowing into this room from the dozens of graphs and jumping columns on these monitors the operator draws a conclusion about the condition of the station just like a doctor draws a conclusion about the condition of a patient's health by looking at his cardiogram by the way since the staff working on the platform is an international one all announcements are made in english only when the operator understands that a native russian speaker is answering him can he switch to his native language the diesel engines need checking if the central control room is the brain of the platform its heart is of course the drilling site it's located at the very top on the sixth story of the platform its lofty position in the structure comes despite the fact that the drill pipes in the drill itself so to speak drifters call it the bit goes over a mile under the platform and accordingly deep into the seabed [Music] in general offshore drilling is one of the most difficult processes on earth honestly only space flights are more difficult here on an area of several square feet you might say that you can find all of humankind's achievements in engineering and if we simplify everything as much as possible we can say that everything is controlled by this one joystick it has only four options higher lower faster and slower everything is ingeniously simple well this i repeat is if we simplify everything as much as possible but if we go into a little more detail the joystick controls the manipulator which in turn pulls out or puts the drilling tool and pipes into the well they are more or less looking for oil by touch the arkotun dagi reservoir on which the berkut platform is located is one of the richest in the far east nevertheless it doesn't represent one huge oil bubble it's a multitude of large and small cavities filled with hydrocarbons dozens of wells diverge from the platform in different directions underground sometimes going three or even four miles to one side wells like the mouth of a mosquito foot by foot look for oil filled cavities so that they can then begin to suck it out from them and bring it to the surface it turns out that under birrakut there's a whole cluster of wells and every few months another one is added to the list [Music] anyone who has tried to drill into a concrete wall at home knows that it's best to use drills with serious tips with special add-ons well here it's about the same the drill itself is made of high strength steel and the cutting elements are made of artificial diamonds this is almost like a piece of jewelry although it looks pretty brutal and in case you were wondering it costs more than a diamond ring even though these rocks don't sparkle this is how more and more sections of long pipe are screwed on top of the chisel which rotates the steel worm at high speeds the whole construction bites deeper into the rock going further and further until the drillers find and form a well the position of the tool is monitored every second by the drilling four man from this room it's called the doghouse by those who work there its walls are made of armored heat resistant glass and are reinforced with a steel grill on top oil or gas can escape from the well under enormous pressure and these protective layers can save the lives of those who are inside however this is already a last line of defense one level below the drilling site there is a unit that will not in principle allow any such incidents to occur generally speaking there aren't any unimportant machines on the rig but this one is really one of the most important it's called the preventer two knives are installed inside and in the event of an accident they simply cut off the well along with the pipe made by the way of high strength steel and thereby plug the emergency well it's never been used throughout berkut's operation and hopefully it won't have to be but it's ready to be employed 24 hours a day the preventer is only installed on a well that is currently being developed that is where the drill is still looking for cavities of oil under the seabed and the wells that have already been drilled and handed over to operators are considered to be calm and more or less safe the fact is the pressure in them is already understood the density and composition of the hydrocarbons is known and they usually don't present any surprises after all that is established barrel after barrel can be pumped out of here [Music] this room can be seen as the narrow bottleneck of the berkut oil platform if you like through which all the oil produced here runs each of these thick columns is a well that goes deep under the seabed for up to a few miles then they all converge into one large pipe and through it the oil is sent off to the mainland but before that here at the sampling stands a little bit of oil is taken from each well here it is the black gold of arco tundagi it's more brown really sort of reminds you of hot cocoa or something the black rubber skirts you see here on the pipes are again the same cuffs that are designed to dampen vibrations in case of possible earthquakes and compensate for any deformation in total the platform is designed to accommodate 45 wells to date about half that number have been drilled there is one unique well in berkut which even differs in color all the others are labeled in yellow but this one is orange it's designated dd1 and its peculiarity is that there's no oil inside moreover the liquid in here doesn't go up at all but on the contrary is pumped down from here this is filled with drilling waste dirty industrial water in short everything that cannot be dumped into the sea is pumped down this well into a cavity from which oil was pumped out of earlier it's their rather original way of sweeping dirt under the rug i suppose [Music] this method of disposal by the way is considered to be perfectly environmentally friendly in general they carefully make sure that no oil products get into the sea judging by the giant colony of crabs which has chosen the hangout on the platform supports and by the fact that sea lions regularly swim on by they appear to be successful in that but back to the spoils the safety and operation of the wells through which the oil enters the platform is ensured by equalizing the pressure inflicted on it the thing is the pressure on the surface is normal atmospheric but underground inside the oil cavities it's enormous because miles of earth and water rest on it pressing on the pocket from above with their weight and so to keep the oil from gushing from the well in the giant fountain you just need to apply from the surface the exact same amount of pressure that's felt inside the cavity that is equalize it special compressors and hydraulic valves are responsible for this and this is where the hydraulic valves of the walls are controlled on the outside it looks like nothing special just a bunch of valves come with me i'll show you what's inside wow do you still think that your bathroom layout at home is a complex one [Music] speaking of bathrooms and fresh water in general it's made right here on the platform water from the sea is desalinated using this machine it looks pretty intricate but in fact it's just a reverse osmosis filter the kind that many of us have under our kitchen sinks at home salt water from the sea of achotzk is pushed under pressure through a membrane that has many holes in it but the openings are so small that only water molecules can pass through them salt and other impurities are caught on the membrane all that's left to do is to change the filters on time and to be mindful of water consumption of course [Music] what is most striking on birkut is not the abundance of various machines but how compactly they are all packed in there [Music] the platform only seems huge for a day then you come to understand that it's incredibly cramped because here on an area of just one and a half soccer fields they managed to fit a drilling complex production complex a full-fledged oil refinery residential blocks a helipad its own power plant and even a small in-house chemical production facility this place is called the chemical injection area it sounds threatening but it's actually quite simple experienced homeowners know that you need to periodically add a special powder to your washing machine so that deposits don't build up in there wells are about the same chemicals must be added to them which prevent corrosion from occurring prevents paraffin from sticking to the pipe walls and so on and so forth in general everything is almost like in that old ad remember may the platform serve for a long time all units are configured to work independently the need for human intervention has been purposely minimized in fact people here apart from carrying out the hard physical labor on the drilling rig mainly fulfill a control function this of course creates a deceptive impression that the platform runs all by itself the only place you're likely to find a crowd on berkut would be in the holiest of holy areas of the structure the dining room [Music] jokes aside the dining room is one of the most important places on the platform it works around the clock and here you can not only eat but also come at any time for example for a cup of coffee and it also performs one other very important function it is the main gathering place in the event of any abnormal emergency well and as for the food itself everything is simple and straightforward [Music] mom we've got for example meatballs pasta mashed potatoes sure the sea of the huts famous for its seafood delicacies is only about 100 feet below us right now but there is no crab no scallops no sea urchins nothing like that on the menu everything is filling and safe [Music] at the same time though it's all very tasty and incredibly high in calories the portion sizes are huge during the six days that we stayed on the platform i personally gained six pounds here in principle they approach any production on a grand scale be it oil production or cooking dinner and all these processes require a huge amount of energy i'm not talking about the dining room anymore of course can you imagine how many kilowatts of energy it takes to crank four miles of steel pipe underground that has to follow a complex trajectory and twist around like a garden hose the platform consumes a huge amount of electricity where to get it all from for that berkut has its own on-site power plant it consists of four powerful turbines they run on gas which is produced here it's very convenient you don't have to worry at all about fuel consumption here each turbine has a power capacity of 15 megawatts they generate the amount of electricity that would be needed to power half a city like uzness zahalinsk at the same time the entire energy facility is again managed by only one person an arrangement almost impossible to imagine on the mainland but here it's simply the way things work and although the work at gurukul is incredibly difficult this is the very case when there are literally no irreplaceable people here no matter what important position you hold at the end of your watch a helicopter will arrive and bring someone who will replace you again only when the capricious sahidin weather permits it there's almost no wind blowing here now but sometimes it gusts so hard that this net has to be kept on the helipad it's called an anti-slip net and it's necessary to keep multi-ton helicopters from simply being blown off of here into the ocean so despite the fact that people here live well as in that very song near where the sun rises the place is actually quite far from being a romantic one however many of those who work on berkut disagree with me it is incredibly difficult dangerous and critical work but at the same time incredibly interesting work and even our film crew who due to bad weather got stuck on the better platform for almost a week instead of the three days we planned on was reluctant to fly away and who knows perhaps we'll come back the life cycle of this monster is calculated to go until twenty fifty [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music]

Channel: Science

Views: 579,995

Keywords: the biggest offshore oil rig platform, oil rig, oil, offshore, Berkut, Sea of ​​Okhotsk, rig, platform, oil platform, oil production, oil price, oil prices, gas, gasoline, energy industry, how oil drilling works, jack up rig, offshore rigs, energy, offshore platforms, drilling rigs, oil and gas, drilling, oil rig storm, science documentary, engineering documentary, the largest oil rig in the world, offshore oil, offshore rig, life on oil rig, drilling platform, offshore platform

Id: P-OkruGPco4

Length: 23min 20sec (1400 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022