Editing Oil platform (section)

==Drawbacks==
{{For|fuller discussion|United States offshore drilling debate}}

===Risks===
[[File:Edda 2-7C and rescue boats after capsizing of ALK NOMF-02734-1-012.jpg|thumb|The great distance from land can make rescue operations more difficult as in the capsizing of the [[Alexander L. Kielland (platform)|Alexander L. Kielland]] platform which claimed the lives of 123 people.]]
[[File:United States Navy SEALs train on a California oil platform 437.jpg|thumb|[[United States Navy SEALs]] train on a California oil platform.]]
The nature of their operation—extraction of volatile substances sometimes under extreme pressure in a hostile environment—means risk; accidents and tragedies occur regularly. The U.S. [[Minerals Management Service]] reported 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries, and 858 fires and explosions on offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico from 2001 to 2010.<ref>{{cite news | title = Potential for big spill after oil rig sinks | date = 2010-04-22 | url = https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna36683314 | work = NBC News | access-date = 2010-06-04 | archive-date = 2015-07-21 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150721180038/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/36683314/ | url-status = live }}</ref> On July 6, 1988, 167 people died when [[Occidental Petroleum]]'s [[Piper Alpha]] offshore production platform, on the Piper field in the UK sector of the [[North Sea]], exploded after a gas leak. The resulting investigation conducted by Lord Cullen and publicized in the first [[Cullen Report]] was highly critical of a number of areas, including, but not limited to, management within the company, the design of the structure, and the Permit to Work System. The report was commissioned in 1988, and was delivered in November 1990.<ref>http://www.oilandgas.org.uk/issues/piperalpha/v0000864.cfm{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The accident greatly accelerated the practice of providing living accommodations on separate platforms, away from those used for extraction.

The offshore can be in itself a hazardous environment. In March 1980, the '[[flotel]]' (floating hotel) platform ''[[Alexander L. Kielland (platform)|Alexander L. Kielland]]'' capsized in a storm in the [[North Sea]] with the loss of 123 lives.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/27/newsid_2531000/2531091.stm | title=North Sea platform collapses | work=BBC News | access-date=2008-06-19 | date=1980-03-27 | archive-date=2008-04-08 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408093037/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/27/newsid_2531000/2531091.stm | url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2001, ''[[Petrobras 36]]'' in [[Brazil]] exploded and sank five days later, killing 11 people.

Given the number of grievances and conspiracy theories that involve the oil business, and the importance of gas/oil platforms to the economy, platforms in the United States are believed to be potential terrorist targets.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jenkins |first1=Brian Michael |title=Potential Threats To Offshore Platforms |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA216866.pdf |publisher=The RAND Corporation}}</ref> Agencies and military units responsible for maritime counter-terrorism in the US ([[United States Coast Guard|Coast Guard]], [[Navy SEALs]], [[United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance|Marine Recon]]) often train for platform raids.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Feloni |first1=Richard |title=Gen. Stanley McChrystal explains what most people get wrong about Navy SEALs |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/stanley-mcchrystal-on-misconception-of-navy-seals-2015-8 |publisher=Business Insider}}</ref>

On April 21, 2010, the ''[[Deepwater Horizon]]'' platform, 52 [[nautical mile|miles]] off-shore of [[Venice, Louisiana]], (property of [[Transocean]] and leased to [[BP]]) [[Deepwater Horizon oil spill|exploded]], killing 11 people, and sank two days later. The resulting undersea gusher, conservatively estimated to exceed {{convert|20|e6USgal|m3}} as of early June 2010, became the worst oil spill in US history, eclipsing the [[Exxon Valdez oil spill]].

===Ecological effects===
[[File:Gulf Coast Platforms.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|right|[[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|NOAA]] map of the 3,858 oil and gas platforms extant in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006.]]
In British waters, the cost of removing all platform rig structures entirely was estimated in 2013 at £30&nbsp;billion.<ref>http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/decommissioning-in-the-north-sea {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020145352/http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/decommissioning-in-the-north-sea |date=2014-10-20 }}.</ref>

Aquatic organisms invariably attach themselves to the undersea portions of oil platforms, turning them into artificial reefs. In the Gulf of Mexico and offshore California, the waters around oil platforms are popular destinations for sports and commercial fishermen, because of the greater numbers of fish near the platforms. The [[United States]] and [[Brunei]] have active [[Rigs-to-Reefs]] programs, in which former oil platforms are left in the sea, either in place or towed to new locations, as permanent artificial reefs. In the US [[Gulf of Mexico]], as of September 2012, 420 former oil platforms, about 10 percent of decommissioned platforms, have been converted to permanent reefs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat_conservation/documents/pdfs/efh/gulf_decommissioning_and_rigs_to_reefs_faqs_final.pdf|via=sero.nmfs.noaa.gov|title=Decommissioning and Rigs-to-Reefs in the Gulf of Mexico: FAQs |url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109224846/http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat_conservation/documents/pdfs/efh/gulf_decommissioning_and_rigs_to_reefs_faqs_final.pdf |archive-date=2013-11-09}}</ref>

On the US Pacific coast, [[marine biologist]] Milton Love has proposed that oil platforms off California be retained as [[artificial reef]]s, instead of being dismantled (at great cost), because he has found them to be havens for many of the species of fish which are otherwise declining in the region, in the course of 11 years of research.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Urbina|first=Ian|date=15 August 2015|title=Vacation in Rome? Or on That Oil Rig?|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/sunday-review/vacation-in-rome-or-on-that-oil-rig.html|access-date=|archive-date=5 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205020749/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/sunday-review/vacation-in-rome-or-on-that-oil-rig.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |vauthors=Page M, Dugan J, Love M, Lenihan H |title=Ecological Performance and Trophic Links: Comparisons Among Platforms And Natural Reefs For Selected Fish And Their Prey |url=http://www.coastalresearchcenter.ucsb.edu/cmi/ecoperformance.html |publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara |access-date=2008-06-27 |archive-date=2008-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509163446/http://www.coastalresearchcenter.ucsb.edu/cmi/ecoperformance.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Love is funded mainly by government agencies, but also in small part by the [[California Artificial Reef Enhancement Program]]. [[Professional diving#Scientific diving|Divers]] have been used to assess the [[fish]] populations surrounding the platforms.<ref>{{cite book |vauthors=Cox SA, Beaver CR, Dokken QR, Rooker JR |chapter=Diver-based under water survey techniques used to assess fish populations and fouling community development on offshore oil and gas platform structures |veditors=Lang MA, Baldwin CC |title=The Diving for Science, "Methods and Techniques of Underwater Research" |series=Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences 16th Annual Scientific Diving Symposium, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC |publisher=American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) |year=1996 |chapter-url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4689 |access-date=2008-06-27 |via=Rubicon Foundation |archive-date=2009-08-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822015936/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4689 |url-status=live }} {{cite web|url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/4689/AAUS_1996_14.pdf?sequence=1|title=Full text|access-date=2019-09-09|archive-date=2016-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819164101/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/4689/AAUS_1996_14.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=usurped}}</ref>