Hurricane survival stats for oil platforms

Syndicate replies to “Hurricane survival stats for oil platforms” topic Mon, 09/15/2008 - 23:53 — vincecate

There are about 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf, including 717 with full-time staff aboard.
Ike destroyed 10 platforms (early estimate)
Katrina destroyed 44 platforms
Rita destroyed 64.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/14/ike-destroys-number-gulf...

‹ Is this a joke? A big "duh" ›

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Wed, 09/17/2008 - 05:41 — Jeff Chan

Don't be where hurricanes are

Lesson: don't be where hurricanes are.  :)

Still that's a pretty good survival rate of about 98 to 99 percent.  Ike was large but diffuse.  I think it was a category 3.  Oil platforms have much engineering behind them and a long history of operation at sea, i.e., lots of experience and expense to try to make them survive.

How many of the oil platforms with full time staff evacuated the people during those hurricanes?  I believe there were many evacuations.

Wed, 09/17/2008 - 09:30 — Eelco

Not sure how well these

Not sure how well these results carry over. Oil rigs have to remain stationary: a seastead can go with the flow/waves. That makes it a very different situation.

But yeah, not being in a hurricane zone would probably be a good start.

Wed, 09/17/2008 - 12:07 — vincecate

Oil platform designed lifetime

They design these oil platforms to last some number of years. From that article we don't know where in that design life the ones that failed were. It is possible that only platforms older than their designed lifetime failed (best case). In any case, I would expect the older ones were failing with higher probability.

But yes, staying out of the way of hurricanes is probably worth some effort. I like migrating around the North Atlantic.

http://wiki.seasteading.org/index.php/User:Vincecate/Migration

Sat, 09/20/2008 - 09:16 — Jeff Chan

Doesn't the Pacific have

Doesn't the Pacific generally have calmer seas than the Atlantic?

Tue, 10/07/2008 - 00:20 — Adam Selene

No-Hurricane Zone

There is a faily large no-hurricane-zone in the Caribbean. Hurricanes are given spin by the Coriolis force (spin of the Earth). Coriolis is zero at the equator, and isn't significant enough until about 5 degrees of latitude. Pretty much all hurricanes form at 5-20 degrees of latitude, and then because of their spin, water currents, and wind patterns, curve North & West.

Low latitude caribbean coasts (e.g. Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela) and waters are immune from hurricanes.

A short hop from Panama City/Colon would be a great location. Panama and Costa Rica both have faily easy residency and strict territorial taxation (ergo tax free except for consumption taxes, unless you earn a salary working there or run a retail business there); makes for good residence base even if you spend most the time on the Seastead(s).

 

Don't know much about weather in the Mediterranean but I presume that's another good place.