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Concept
Deepwater Horizon
Summary
Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Transocean and operated by BP. On 20 April 2010, while drilling at the Macondo Prospect, a blowout caused an explosion on the rig that killed 11 crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from away. The fire was inextinguishable and, two days later, on 22 April, the Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the seabed and causing the largest marine oil spill in history.
Built in 2001 in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the rig was commissioned by R&B Falcon (a later asset of Transocean), registered in Majuro, and leased to BP from 2001 until September 2013. In September 2009, the rig drilled the deepest oil well in history at a vertical depth of and measured depth of in the Tiber Oil Field at Keathley Canyon block 102, approximately southeast of Houston, in of water.
Deepwater Horizon was a fifth-generation, RBS-8D design (i.e. model type), deepwater, dynamically positioned, column-stabilized, semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, designed to drill subsea wells for oil exploration and production using an , blowout preventer, and a outside diameter marine riser.
Deepwater Horizon was the second semi-submersible rig constructed of a class of two, although Deepwater Nautilus, its predecessor, is not dynamically positioned. The rig was and capable of operating in waters up to deep, to a maximum drill depth of . In 2010 it was one of approximately 200 deepwater offshore rigs capable of drilling in waters deeper than . Its American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) class notations were "A1, Column Stabilized Drilling Unit, AMS, ACCU, DPS-3".
In 2002, the rig was upgraded with "e-drill", a drill monitoring system whereby technical personnel based in Houston, Texas, received real-time drilling data from the rig and transmitted maintenance and troubleshooting information.
Advanced systems played a key role in the rig's operation, from pressure and drill monitoring technology, to automated shutoff systems and modelling systems for cementing.
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