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Reclaiming Oil Rigs As Oceanic Eco-Resorts

Posted by timothy on from the they're-prettier-than-they-look dept.

Mike writes "Here's an innovative reuse for those old abandoned oil rigs littering the ocean — convert them into eco resorts. Morris Architects' Oil Rig Platform Resort and Spa makes use of one of 4,000 oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico and transforms it into a beacon of sustainability, re-imagining an iconic source of dirty energy as an eco-haven that generates all of its power from renewable sources."

20 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Or a private micro-nation strong hold! by mc1138 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why settle for something weak like a resort when you could have your own micro nation. If it worked for these guys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand why not you or I?!

    --
    The musings of just another geek and his junk.
    1. Re:Or a private micro-nation strong hold! by von_rick · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think it was The Pirate Bay that wanted to buy this nation to save their asses from legal hassles they might've faced in other countries. There was some glitch in that deal and it didn't go through as they expected. Or maybe it was some other bittorrent listing site.

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      Face your daemons!

    2. Re:Or a private micro-nation strong hold! by oodaloop · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, TPB wanted to buy it, but Sealand was asking for a fortune. The glitch, aside from it being way too much money, is that you can't sell a nation. Besides, no one has recognized Sealand as a nation. A passport from them, which you can buy, wouldn't be worth the paper on which it was printed.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    3. Re:Or a private micro-nation strong hold! by oodaloop · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The UK never bothered to deal with Sealand; it apparently didn't warrant the attention, bad publicity from a raid gone bad, or the time and money necessary to do anything about it. Harboring a wmd on a small rig just 6 miles off the shore of a major power like UK is just asking for trouble. The Royal Marines could take that thing over without even getting out of breath. It's essentially too small and too close to be defendable. As a former US Marine and senior intelligence analyst, that's my opinion anyway. YMMV.

      If you just wanted to say you're the Supreme Dictator for Life of a small island nation, then go for it. But it's kind of pointless to make and sell passports that no one else recognizes. Pretty useless, really.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    4. Re:Or a private micro-nation strong hold! by hardburn · · Score: 3, Informative

      Taking the assumption that Sealand is a legitimate nation (for the sake of argument), I'm afraid you can no longer replicate that success on with an oil rig. The first problem is that nations have extended their territories into international waters a lot farther since Sealand was founded. If Sealand hadn't already been claimed, it would be in England's territory today.

      Secondly, a 1982 international law forbids artifical structures from being made into countries:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_Sealand#Territorial_limits
      According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, there is no transitional law and no possibility to consent to the existence of a construction which was previously approved or built by a neighbouring state. This means that artificial islands may no longer be constructed and then claimed as sovereign states, or as state territories, for the purposes of extension of an exclusive economic zone or of territorial waters.

      Note that this means that Sealand's claim must be legitimate prior to 1982 in order to be grandfathered in.

      --
      Not a typewriter
    5. Re:Or a private micro-nation strong hold! by meringuoid · · Score: 3, Informative
      Did anyone do anything about it though? If not, you could at least get away with semi-independant nation status, where you were independant unless you provoked a nearby real nation to do something.

      Sealand has never quite provoked Britain badly enough to be invaded. The military cost of annexing Sealand would be trivial; the problem would be the legal situation. It could be argued that Britain has implicitly recognised Sealand in the past; for a start, there was a court decision in 1968 that Sealand was outside British jurisdiction, which was cited ten years later by the British government as a reason to do nothing about a German being held prisoner in Sealand after a failed coup d'etat.

      It would take months to sort out, and be the most spectacular media circus in the meantime. Awfully embarrassing. And then there's the PR end of things. You'd need sound propaganda to paint the Sealanders as, oh, a bunch of crazed armed thugs on an old sea fort with a habit of taking pot shots at passing ships - otherwise you'd look the most awful bully, sending the SBS or someone to take over the smallest country in the world.

      If shooting at the Royal Navy didn't do it, I doubt running a pirate BitTorrent tracker service out of Sealand would be sufficient provocation for a British invasion to go ahead. After all, the place was founded by a pirate radio operator in the first place, it would only be in keeping with proud Sealand tradition. I suspect British policy is simply to quietly ignore the entire thing and wait for Prince Roy to die, or at least grow old enough to want to live somewhere slightly more comfortable - and then demolish the place once it's abandoned.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  2. Re:Aren't oceanic oil rigs already eco-resorts... by Greg_D · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's common knowledge to anyone who pays attention that the only reason east and west coasters are so against oil drilling in their backyards is because they don't want it to affect beachfront property values. Oil rigs are largely a huge boon to the local fish populations, because they are essentially giant man-made reefs.

    Abandoned oil rigs need to remain abandoned, at least during hurricane season. Last thing emergency officials need are a bunch of earth-firsters not following protocol and being stranded in the middle of a storm. It makes a lot more sense to topple the rigs.

  3. Don't forget the guns! by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They'll probably need to employ a pretty good sized security force if they want to ward off pirates--and yes, I'm being serious.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    1. Re:Don't forget the guns! by ArcadeX · · Score: 5, Informative

      I work for the maritime administration in the gulf, pirate aren't really a concern here. Too busy of a shipping lane, with too many patrols from the coast gaurd and navy. Most of these would be just outside US internation waters, pirates would have to be based inside the US to hit them in short range craft more commonly used.

      --
      An I.T. motto in the hands of an idiot is a dangerous thing...
    2. Re:Don't forget the guns! by meringuoid · · Score: 3, Informative
      Most of these would be just outside US internation waters, pirates would have to be based inside the US to hit them in short range craft more commonly used.

      The Somali pirates have been getting bolder lately. Nowadays they set out in large ships with long range, and deploy short-range fast craft from that mothership to launch the actual attack. The Sirius Star was halfway to Madagascar when it was taken.

      Still, the reason pirates flourish in Somalia is that it is an anarchy close to a major shipping route. Although there are plenty of nations in the region with weak governments, I don't think there's any outright anarchic state in the Caribbean that might form a pirate haven. And, as you say, it would be a bold pirate who operated in the back yard of the US Navy. The Gulf of Aden isn't any great power's particular patch, and hasn't been since the fall of the Empire; the same cannot be said for the Caribbean. So far the Somali pirates haven't upset any major power badly enough for a serious effort to be made to eradicate them; even so, it's clear that the Indians in particular are near the limit of their patience, and many other nations have been sending warships to the region.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  4. Re:Super rich rejoice! by Hijacked+Public · · Score: 2, Informative

    Luckily, although you wouldn't know it from the submission and have to pay close attention to the article to figure it out, no one is actually doing any of this.

    It is just a set of drawings entered into a design competition.

    --
    "Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
  5. Yes, but... by CaptainPatent · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can the resorts withstand category 5 hurricane force winds? Seems to me that with only 1 helipad you may have a huge and dangerous bottleneck to evacuating quickly.

    --
    Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
    1. Re:Yes, but... by damn_registrars · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Seems to me that with only 1 helipad you may have a huge and dangerous bottleneck to evacuating quickly.

      Now I am not exactly an expert on oil rigs, but it seems to me that this rig is on the ocean. And generally oceans are full of water. I'm pretty sure we figured out a way to move people over water a while ago without using helicopters.

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      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  6. Lists of Rigs by Archon-X · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As an avid 'urban explorer' - an oil rig has long since been a hot target.
    Are there maintained lists of abandoned rigs?

    Anyone in the know?

    1. Re:Lists of Rigs by i.r.id10t · · Score: 2, Informative

      Check fishing web sites and/or charts with "good fishing areas" marked, also maybe check with dive shops. While you may be able to be in a boat next to the rig legally, you may be trespassing if you get up on the rig structure itself.

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      Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
  7. Do what they do with boats. by EkriirkE · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Clean and sink 'em.

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    from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
  8. Eco-resort?!? by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...an eco-haven that generates all of its power from renewable sources. What about all the fuel used for helicoptering in all the visitors and supplies? Are they planning on running the helicopter off of bio-diesel? Sure, they could use a sailboat to ferry people in and out... but I personally would rather just stay on the sailboat instead of a rusty old oil platform! I'm sorry, but when someone says "eco-vacation", a metal cage in the middle of the ocean is not the first destination that springs to mind. What's the scuba-diving like around an oil platform? This might make a good place to get scuba certified, just on the basis that there is absolutely nothing else to do there.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    1. Re:Eco-resort?!? by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sorry, no. Getting Scuba certified at an oil platform isn't going to happen, because (unless I'm mistaken), these are generally located in fairly deep water. Scuba diving beginners get started at the beach, and later use boats to go out a bit, to where it's perhaps 40-50 feet deep. Most generally don't go deeper than 100-150 feet. If you go any deeper than 100 feet, you're probably getting into technical diving, which is where you start messing around with other mixes of gases, and the risk is higher, and of course the water's a lot colder too.

      Additionally, there's the problem of what do you plan to look at while you're down there? If you want to look at pretty fish and coral and stuff like that, you're best off going no deeper than 40 feet, and sticking to beaches, because that's where all the interesting wildlife is. Like life on the surface, most life underwater relies on sunlight, so it's all close to the surface. Of course, there's plenty of life much deeper too, but 1) there's a lot less density of it than, say, a coral reef, and 2) it's generally not as pretty or colorful. It's also so cold down there that if you're diving in a wetsuit, you can't stay down there that long to look at stuff. Now, if you're diving for wrecks, that's a little different, and these can be much deeper. But deep diving requires a lot of skill and experience. And wrecks aren't likely to be located conveniently right next to an oil rig.

      So if you ask me, this oil platform idea is utter idiocy. As you said, there's absolutely nothing to do out there. You're a lot better off just getting on a cruise ship, from where you can see the open ocean for a few days before your next port-of-call where you can get off and go scuba diving on a nice beach with a beautiful coral reef just offshore.

      As for helicopters, large helicopters run on jet fuel (Jet A), which is basically kerosene, not diesel. They also cost $600/hour to fly, at the minimum. It might be possible to make an aircraft turbine engine that runs on diesel (and by extension, biodiesel), since they already have very large turbines that run on diesel, but I seriously don't see any aircraft engine companies going to the effort of engineering a biodiesel turbine for this tiny market. No airport in America has diesel on hand for refueling anyway; they typically have 100LL avgas, for piston engines, and Jet A for turbine engines, and that's about it. So your point about the helicopters is a very good one: these stupid oil platforms will not be "eco-havens" as long as they rely on expensive jet-fuel-guzzling helicopters to fly visitors and supplies in, and that really is the only convenient way to get stuff and people to and from these locations.

  9. Re:Aren't oceanic oil rigs already eco-resorts... by CannonballHead · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sounds to me like it "created jobs" and thus "stimulated the economy" though... ;) :)

  10. Re:Aren't oceanic oil rigs already eco-resorts... by R2.0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Abandoned oil rigs need to remain abandoned, at least during hurricane season. Last thing emergency officials need are a bunch of earth-firsters not following protocol and being stranded in the middle of a storm. It makes a lot more sense to topple the rigs.

    Q. What do call a bunch of eco-tourists lost at sea when an abandoned oil rig collapses?

    A. A good start

    --
    "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson