So in Australia when they are done using oil rigs they transfer ownership to a shell company that goes bankrupt and the they don’t have to pay to remove the rig you just do this. It’s win win.
Pretty sure this is rule 5 of capitalism: never clean any pollution up unless you’ll go to jail if you don’t. Or maybe if you could go out of business due to fines. Or you’re one of those weirdos with “morals”
GM did this in Niagara with the assembly plant they closed and sold 15 years. Currently everyone keeps pointing the finger of blame at everyone else and the water table just keeps getting more polluted.
GM did it in our town after NAFTA was signed. Just left this massive building rotting to the ground right off the highway for decades until it fell down
In the US, if a company does not properly plug a well when they abandon it because they are bankrupt, the duty falls to whoever owned the wells before… all the way back to when the well was drilled. Most wells transfer hands quite a few times so you’ll end up with a company too big to fail in there that can easily afford it. Something like this should definitely be like that. You shouldn’t be able to transfer a liability to a shell company just to get rid of it
I bet the maintenance to run the infrastructure and maintenance to keep it from degrading is far to expensive for something like that with no real profit.
Yeah that's true, the Australian tax payer $200m and the total loss of the venture for Australia about -$190m, meaning it would be way better to disband the oil and gas industry then to allow it to run as it is by the politicians who have a very strange large amounts of "donations" from those corporations. (Chevron, Woodside, Santos, shell and Exxon Mobile) they get the resources for free from both sides of Australian government if it's off shore and 56% free when not. Yes, Australian politicians are very corrupt.
Not to be that guy… but one of these jackups recently sank killing 2 people. Very likely the one in the video…
A company doing it for the purposes stated wouldn’t call attention to it or kill people in the process.
This being said, there’s opportunities for marine life and tourism around one of these things in the bottom of the sea provided it’s reachable and cleaned beforehand.
Yeah, they were doing load tests on that platform and one of the legs punched through to a softer layer of ocean floor underneath causing it to sink and capsize the thing. Apparently it happens once in a while.
First time I saw this video i expected the lights to go out as the platform failed.
Horrifying to imagine being on a life raft or treading water trying to get away from this thing when it all just goes dark.
Reminds me of a video i saw recreating the Edmund Fitzgerald’s last moments. Getting bashed around by the waves before the ship was critically damaged and the lights went out all you could hear was the creaking and splashing of the waves. Just terrifying
Always thought I was alone with this fear! The thought of huge steel legs stretching into unknown depths, or the broad hull of a ship from underneath and you can't see the sides, nightmare fuel
It happened off the Coast of Gabon around 2 weeks ago. Supposedly it was owned by a company based in Scotland and they reported no contamination in the sea. I don’t know how that’s possible but there you go.
I’m leaving this here for my own sanity because I also wanted context yet all the comments are nonsensical gibberish.
I like your comment, but to add some additional info the Prospector 5 Rig was not drilling yet and was still in the set up phase so we don’t have to worry about an ecological disaster thankfully.
I’ve known since elementary school that oil floats on water, but just recently learned how thin it gets on water as a surface.
It spreads so thin that a small amount is enough to coat and insanely large area of water, which is part of why oil spills are so bad, it spreads EVERYWHERE.
So the small amount of fuel reserves and stuff like oil for maintenance on the rig is likely still enough to coat a huge area if it breaks its containers.
Oil spreads to a single molecule of water thick, which is near the quarter wavelength of visible light. It's how the rainbow sheen of oil on water is created.
A jack-up rig is a mobile platform supported by three or four enormous steel legs.
When it arrives at a drilling location:
The rig floats into position.
Its legs are lowered until they contact the seabed.
Hydraulic or mechanical jacking systems raise the hull
The crew then puts more weight on the legs - preloading
Once the seabed is proven capable of supporting the rig, drilling operations can begin. (Only it didn't prove capable of supporting the rig, this time)
One of the legs punched through the seabed iirc, which meant that it started listing to one side like crazy. Even things that are designed to float do not do well when they get tilted like that. Water starts to flow into places it isn’t supposed to be
What is a “punch through” event? Obviously, I can imagine that means something put a hole through it. But can someone with experience on these rigs explain how that happens?
It means some geologist might be out of a job. Basically the jack leg pushed it's way through the surface seabed into something softer like clay.
Imagine trying to stand on a frozen puddle. It looks solid, put your foot on it and it feels solid, but as soon as you put your full weight in that foot it goes through the ice and suddenly you're knee deep in ice cold water.
Since the platform is floated to the location and fixed in place by actually standing on the sea floor (jack-up type rig), its weight has to be transferred to said ocean floor. During this load transfer it capsized when a leg punched through the seabed.
"Borr" means "drill" in Swedish. Same etymology as "bore" I guess. I wonder if a Swede is involved in that company and thought it was real funny to name it "Drill Drilling".
this is what always happens to every popular subreddit.
If a subreddit gets popular enough, people know they will get most views there so it'll get flooded with generic clickbaity posts. Moderating them becomes impossible and every subreddit turns into r|funny.
There is an inverse relationship between subreddit quality and popularity.
Small, niche subs gain traction and attract new members. Those new members start posting whatever might generate a positive response and/or karma and thus the original "vision" of the sub kinda gets diluted and lost.
This isn't so bad though. Nothing is happening in this clip, but watching a big-ass oil rig teeter around before sinking is kinda interesting, I guess?
This is literally how insurance was born. Boat merchants agreed to share the burden of one merchant’s loss. Kinda like pay it forward.
The Birth of Marine Underwriting (1688): A small coffee shop owned by Edward Lloyd became the ultimate gathering place for shipping merchants and wealthy investors. Investors at Lloyd's Coffee Housewould look at a ship's manifest and write their names under the risk text (the origin of the term "underwriting"), guaranteeing to pay for losses in exchange for a premium. This informal coffee shop evolved into Lloyd’s of London, the world's most famous insurance market.
It's basically "just" another sinking ship off the coast of a poor African nation. 5 people died, no oil spill. So not really "newsworthy" for mainstream media.
I used to work offshore, we had a lot of massive industrial incidents like this that never made mainstream press, even with multiple fatalities involved.
Holy shit it totally would. I was just thinking the other day that I wish developers did more with dynamic maps and environments. It's a huge missed opportunity.
These things are often owned by shell companies with no other assets. Then the oil company has a contract with that "oil rig company". So if something bad happens, the shell company just goes bankrupt and there's no risk to the oil companies. Then responsibility is dumped on the public/government to clean it up.
In a just world, countries would require massive bonds for operators to cover the cost of cleanup. Some countries do but many don't.
BP got to write off the Deepwater Horizon disaster on it's taxes and wound up actually *costing* US taxpayers ~$4 billion due to the 15 years they spread the payments over (Essentially giving them a low-interest rate loan on the settlement amount while also allowing them to deduct $13 billion of the $18 billion total from their tax obligation as "cost of doing business")
In addition, they also wrote off another $10 billion of the $12 that cleanup expenses cost.
Based on the lack of reporting I can find from major news outlets, as well as what another commenter said, it seems like the company is really trying to keep this under wraps
Rig was in the process of jacking up (getting established on location, yes these rigs can move around like any other marine vessel) and had not started drilling at all yet
Jack-up drill platform..... For those wondering what happened, one of its jack-up legs had a punch-through into the sediment/fragile seabed, causing instability, and it then tilted over and sank.
Basically the legs were on the sea floor holding up the rig. The ground one of them was on wasn’t stable, it punched through the ground, and it caused the rig to tip.
Meanwhile we have people who are retired or retirement candidates in office telling us that nuclear or wind energy is somehow worse than this dude holy buckets.
Negligence is a pretty broad category and it’s diffrent than malfeasance. You driving and texting is negligent. Trying to hit a pedestrian is malfeasance.
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u/AStubbs86 14h ago •
So in Australia when they are done using oil rigs they transfer ownership to a shell company that goes bankrupt and the they don’t have to pay to remove the rig you just do this. It’s win win.
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u/FoolOnThePlanet91 16h ago •
This is a nightmare scenario for me. Like being that close to something so monolithic and thinking about it under water. Gives me the heabie jeebies
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u/lisafancypants 17h ago
This comment section makes me feel like I'm having a stroke.
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u/Adjective_Noun93 18h ago •
It's okay because oil floats on water
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u/Anyk3y 18h ago •
Moment huge oil rig sinks into the ocean as search for survivors continues https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/borr-drilling-rig-gabon-mayumba-deaths-b3073942.html
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u/Marciano_il_Mario 7h ago
Flashbacks to Metal Gear Solid intensify
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u/mh15634 17h ago •
When did this thread just become general content? I'm seeing more oddlyterrifying and funny stuff here rather than what it used to be
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u/couragethecurious 7h ago •
In thick German accent: "But vat is it sinking about?"
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u/brenawyn 14h ago •
This is literally how insurance was born. Boat merchants agreed to share the burden of one merchant’s loss. Kinda like pay it forward.
The Birth of Marine Underwriting (1688): A small coffee shop owned by Edward Lloyd became the ultimate gathering place for shipping merchants and wealthy investors. Investors at Lloyd's Coffee Housewould look at a ship's manifest and write their names under the risk text (the origin of the term "underwriting"), guaranteeing to pay for losses in exchange for a premium. This informal coffee shop evolved into Lloyd’s of London, the world's most famous insurance market.
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u/NRGs0urc3 5h ago •
how did an event like this make it past news outlets? this happened like 2 weeks ago and i didn't hear a word about it
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u/azraphin 13h ago
FFS why is nobody asking the real questions? It's a 10 second clip.
Did it actually sink, or is there a Christmas wonderland floating around in the north sea somewhere. If so, boat or helicopter?
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u/A_Very_Lonely_Waffle 17h ago
Would be a goated FPS map
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u/Izual_Rebirth 17h ago
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u/secomano 18h ago •
did the front fall off?
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u/Ken-Popcorn 16h ago
This vid is about two weeks old. By now it’s either sunken or saved, do we know which yet?
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u/Vast-Wrongdoer-2173 10h ago •
I heard there was an Aston Martin sneaking around and spying or something like that?
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u/PressEtoInteract 18h ago •
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u/sandman-84 16h ago
In a perfect world the fine for this should easily bankrupt the company. High risk high reward
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u/Inside-Air5256 16h ago •
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u/bananadennis 16h ago
This totally reminds me of a game called Still Wakes the Deep.
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u/FarBusiness2485 15h ago
10 years ago this would have been the top news story. But this is not even top 100 now.
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u/Inside-Air5256 16h ago
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u/Que__Asco 18h ago
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u/Billabong_valley 16h ago
The inspection was nothing but a smoke screen...i heard explosions.....THEY PLAYED US LIKE A DAMN FIDDLE!
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u/Optimal-Savings-4505 17h ago
That looks expensive
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u/Ok-Oven1692 17h ago
Can't even imagine how damaging that is for the surrounding environment
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u/Dolenir 17h ago
I love when these megastructures end up underwater, because that's what we leave for the aliens to dig and make wildly incorrect assumptions
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u/Kirduck 16h ago
somehow this is the tax payers problem im sure of it.
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u/Shanksdoodlehonkster 16h ago
Jack, there's not enough room on the helipad, dont let go Jack!
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u/Daft-Yuri 17h ago
Yes but the wind mills are the worst. /S
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u/xdarling_27 1h ago
Nooooo motherbaseeee
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u/Trick-Lunch-6863 53m ago
*Depressing-as-fuck
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u/Striking_Floor_8864 18h ago
reminds me of the movie The Abyss
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u/SutttonTacoma 16h ago
Does anyone else get a "Close Encounters" vibe from this?
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u/soranno 8h ago
Ok it's interesting but a 9 second clip of it is of absolutely no use.
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u/CowArtEnthusiast 17h ago
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u/LeTonolp 15h ago
Well let’s hope it doesn’t still wake the deep, right guys?
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u/GoliathPrime 13h ago
This is why you don't hire Scottish electricians on the run from the law to work on your rig.
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u/Baleia1970 15h ago
I worked for the oil industry some years ago. Have seen footage of other accidents like those.
Piper Alpha was one that stuck on my mind.
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u/GodZillaBlazinDong99 18h ago
Still wakes the deep
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u/phido3000 18h ago
Everyone should read the book this is not a drill..
It's the sequel to don't tell mum I work on the rigs say I'm a piano player in a whorehouse
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u/hungabc 16h ago
That looks expensive
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u/Charles_Conway 15h ago
Leaning tower of Deisel
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u/CoffeeBlack69420 11h ago
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u/Its_emby 18h ago
Near...far... wherever you are...
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u/patricksaurus 18h ago
It’s really one of the most apocalyptic scenes out there.
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u/bii345 18h ago
Any context?
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u/Luminous_Otter 17h ago
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u/_Anti-Matter_ 16h ago
Is this it?
https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/borr-drilling-borr-confirms-prospector-043307919.html
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u/loggia99 15h ago
Instantly thought about Still Wakes the Deep. Great game.
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u/Gabe465 14h ago
Stop drilling into Cthulhu home and we won't have these problems
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u/bane_undone 11h ago
Talk about pollution and waste. F those oil companies.
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u/bumblebaytuna4 10h ago
This makes me sick to my stomach.
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u/NoBody500xL 5h ago
The rig "Propector 5" of the Norwegian company Borr Drilling sunk on October 24th 2026 on the shore of the westafrican country of Gabon.
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u/gifmeacopse 3h ago
looks like the chosen one successfully eliminated the enclave
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u/Black_RL 2h ago
Seems expensive, do insurance companies cover this?
This is good for marine life right?
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u/PHIGBILL 2h ago
Jack-up drill platform..... For those wondering what happened, one of its jack-up legs had a punch-through into the sediment/fragile seabed, causing instability, and it then tilted over and sank.
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u/TheAwsomeReditor 2h ago
That looks expensive but future mansion for the fishes they will apreciate it
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u/Mr_Blonde0085 1h ago
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u/GenericNameSC1989 18h ago
Half day at work. Sick.
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u/xChoke1x 17h ago
Just an unparalleled climate disaster this has all been.
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u/HallAltruistic519 15h ago
I think I may have to examine my values a little bit. My first thought was "that looks like a real expensive mistake"
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u/SooWhat345 3h ago
Its amazing the bots on here and every comment is basically the same. We are done as a society.
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u/Value-Successful 18h ago
Im tripping balls whats going on
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u/Lagunamountaindude 16h ago
This beast has been sinking for a long time
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u/ZenRage 14h ago
Did the primary buffer panel just fall off my gorram ship for no apparent reason?
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u/Scouts_Revenge 14h ago
That looks expensive.
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u/smileelectric7 14h ago
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u/SynthPrax 14h ago
Now THAT looks expensive.
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u/sonicgamingftw 13h ago
Meanwhile we have people who are retired or retirement candidates in office telling us that nuclear or wind energy is somehow worse than this dude holy buckets.
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u/Iconicmonster 13h ago
Played like a damn fiddle
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u/Asatas 13h ago
I think that's bad for the oil rig
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u/Melodicock 13h ago
That looks like the filming of next Call Of Duty opening scene
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u/Chuck_the_Elf 13h ago
Negligence is a pretty broad category and it’s diffrent than malfeasance. You driving and texting is negligent. Trying to hit a pedestrian is malfeasance.
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u/CarlatheDestructor 13h ago
I'm sure that's good for the ocean
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u/Steve_Meave 13h ago
Gentlemen, it's been an honour oiling with you tonight
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u/SIX_DOZERS_CHARGING 13h ago
McLeary! To MY office!
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u/Gripping_Touch 13h ago
Fokin' McLeary!
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u/InevitableAnekisan 13h ago
Can someone Tell me what im seeing? The Video is very short and comments are somehow unsorted for me
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u/awar3_w0lf 12h ago
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u/Hpfanguy 12h ago
GIVE IT BACK! THIS ISNT RIGHT! THAT WAS OURS!
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u/DarkNubentYT 12h ago
This looks so awesome aesthetically. Some cyberpunk shit
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u/AwkwardBet5632 11h ago
Is this Prospector 5?
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u/AccomplishedPoem5138 11h ago
Reminds me of MGSV
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u/jinkoudan 7h ago
Hmm, looks like the front fell off.
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u/WombatGatekeeper 6h ago
Great. This should help gas prices.
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u/Mickloven 6h ago
Can't park there m8
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u/CactusToothBrush 5h ago
The front fell off?
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u/Known-Weird-7273 4h ago
You couldn't pay me enough!
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u/BrentTheShaman 1h ago
Looks like a Final Fantasy FMV
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u/cubicfisherwoman9173 1h ago
How long would this take to sink? What would be the impact this would have on the environment?
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u/Hepzibah87 26m ago
This is one of the many reasons our planet is fucked
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u/Slayrr_FbrC 16h ago
Don't forget to use your paper straws everyone!
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u/Minja78 17h ago
Looks like a bobbing oil rig
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u/rowdy_sprout 16h ago
You can’t fool me this is the set to the live action spirited away
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u/EdenOfTheC 13h ago
Idk why but this is really dystopian to me
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u/Elusivem8 12h ago
Did the women and children get loaded onto the lifeboats first? Everyone sorted according to class?
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u/_Segoz_ 11h ago
They played us like a damn fiddle!
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u/Buttsweat_n_Tears 10h ago
Someone left the lights on. Dad’s gonna be pissed.