Where oil rigs go to die (2017) | Hacker News Reader

Where oil rigs go to die (2017)

theguardian.com

61 pointsGeekette16 comments

There are some good articles on Sylvia Tervoort, the Smit salvage master in charge of getting the oil platform re-floated and off the rocks. [1] She's been salvage master on about 36 big jobs. There are only a few companies in the world that take on such jobs, and since Titan and Mammoet dropped out of the business, Smit is the leader. They're noted for working safely and carefully, being extremely expensive, and getting the job done without making things worse.

[1] https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/blogs/beneath-the-surface...

There was a really interesting article on HN a few months ago [1] about the biggest ship recycling yards and their environmental impact.

Anyone have any idea why these oil rigs are taken to different places to be scrapped? I would have assumed that Chittagong, Alang, Gadani, etc. would take care of the rigs too.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34905496

>Anyone have any idea why these oil rigs are taken to different places to be scrapped?

Optics. It's not a good look to have [insert oil / drilling rig company name here]'s rig being disassembled in places with no environmental or HSE controls.

As opposed to [insert oil company name here]'s tanker? Ok, they are sold to shell companies and renamed before their last voyage, but I guess with a little effort everyone can find the original owner...

Because Chittagong has no facilities for breaking oil rigs. When they break ships, they run them at full speed toward the shore to beach them. Can't do that with a rig.

You haven't not seen the bottom part of a rig then. In Alang, on high tide, the rigs are beached as close to the shoreline as possible. Please don't provide misinformation with assumptions.

Can you run a rig full speed onto a beach, like they do with the ships?

Turkey can take only a certain tonnage of vessels, anything which is above 10,000 LDT (Weight of ship in tonnes) is sent to the Sub-Continent. As ships grew bigger, ship recycling shifted from EU to Asia due to labor costs, ship size and environmental factors.

> It was night, stormy, and the oil rig...

I see they went to some length to avoid writing "It was a dark and stormy night"...

> Malta og spiker next.” Loosely translated, he meant: “Malta next, then a furnace – somewhere.”

This should be something like "Malta, to become nails, next".

spiker = nails

But what it's becoming isn't the point, the point of the loose translation is that the location of the furnace melting it down to become nails isn't specified in the original statement. The rest of the article implies it most likely went to Malta for resale and then somewhere else to become nails.

https://archive.is/noOSx

I usually upvote these links, but for The Guardian this shouldn't be needed - they show you a banner "encouraging" you to support them, but that's not an actual paywall, you can still read the article.

Some impressive photos in that story.

The shot with the graveyard in the foreground is fantastic.

One of the best photos I have seen in quite a while, for sure!

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