Are all offshore rigs unique?

[oldcobrapilot]

I so have to do this! What a rush this must be.

 

[Wally]

I only flew to'em, so my knowledge of rigs is limited. That's a "jack-up", three leg. The solid part in the bottom third of the frame is the hull. Once it's towed to the site, it's jacked up the vertical truss-legs, and the drill table(?) and tower on the right is slid out over the well. The pad's over the quarters, etc.

That rig looks pretty typical, there are differences obvious even to a pilot, from one to another, and especially between the different manufacturors.

The "rush" part gets old, and it becomes a technical issue, each time. My biggest worry was the cranes...

[Gomer Pylot]

That's a drilling rig. It's different from a production platform, which stays in one place. Mobile rigs only drill wells, then move to another site, repeat, ad infinitum. Try rigzone.com for lots of photos of drilling rigs. There are various pics of production platforms all over the internet.