When you think about remote technology, you don’t commonly think about the oil and gas platform. The oil and gas platform, commonly referred to as an offshore platform; is a large structure that is utilized for exploration, extraction, storage, and processing. Oil and gas platforms are found in many ocean waters; thus, have made a major impact in remote technology.
In 2016, the United States legitimized a five-year leasing plan which would allow oil and gas vendors to drill in its federal waters; allowing undiscovered, recoverable oil and gas resources to be recovered. Leasing sales would occur twice a year, per region. In 2017, the U.S. President, amended the five-year leasing plan to include federal waters in the Arctic and Atlantic regions; expanding the reach of the remote oil and gas platform.
Some of the most spectacular oil and gas platforms are found in the Gulf of Mexico region. For example, the USRA, a $1.45 billion oil-and-gas platform, lived 65 miles offshore; its total height from the seabed to its top was 4,285 feet. The Magnolia, reaching 4,698 feet, was considered the world’s deepest platform. In March 2018, Big Foot was introduced, replacing the Magnolia’s magnitude by 5,180 feet.
The expansion of offshore oil drilling by the federal government has created quite a stir among conservationists. For example, California recently passed Senate Bill 834 and Assembly Bill 1775 which prohibits the California State Lands Commission from approving any new leases, or any lease renewals, extensions or modifications of any lease in state waters that would result in an increase of oil or natsral gas production from federal waters. The amended pre-existing law had authorized the commission to let leases for the extraction of oil and gas from coastal tidelands or submerged lands in state waters and beds of navigable rivers and lakes within the state in accordance with specified provisions of law. New York state also proposed similar protections with Assembly Bill 9819 and Senate Bill 8017.
However, oil spills are an unavoidable part of offshore drilling. Each year, about 880,000 gallons of oil are sent to the ocean from North American offshore oil drilling platforms. Natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina also have caused destruction; which, in 2005, destroyed over 100 platforms and caused the release of 8 million gallons of oil into the ocean waters.
“In 2009, nearly a quarter, 23.6 percent of total U.S. employment in the oil and gas industry existed in Harris County, Texas;” states Bureau of Labor Statics. Therefore, the removal of the remote oil and gas platform in technology will be a hard battle for conservationists.
