I decided to have a longer stay near the ocean, so arrived at Galveston Island, Texas in the evening, planning to stay two nights.  I walked down by the ocean in the evening and it was beautiful, just the sound of the ocean as I watched the sun set.

In the morning I set out to visit the Ocean Star Offshore Oil Rig, a retired jack up rig that’s been turned into a museum.  On the way there I drove past the Galveston Pleasure Pier, closed now during the day, but looking like a great place to spend the evening.

The Ocean Star is located in the Galveston Channel, between the island and the mainland, and reached over a footbridge.

I was tempted to skip the standard interpretive movie at the start of the tour, but am so glad that I didn’t, because I really learned so much that I didn’t know about the oil drilling industry.  I’d like to tell you some of it here, but didn’t take notes, so have forgotten a lot of the facts and figures.  I’d love to see the film again though to try to absorb more.

The rig and museum are in three levels.  The first level includes the pipe deck outside and the third level includes the drilling platform outside.  Here’s a virtual tour of the pipe deck: http://www.oceanstaroec.com/360%20Tour/L1D.swf.  By going to the main site you can access other virtual tours of the rest of the rig under the Museum drop down menu.

In the museum I learned about the different types of equipment used, like these drill bits.

It was also interesting to find out what the well itself looks like, with a screened pipe surrounded by packed material and a perforated outer casing.

I knew that oil rigs were big, but I actually had no idea how big!  They of course vary in size, and smaller ones are used for test drilling, but some of the established wells are some of the largest man made structures on Earth!

They had many models there that helped to explain the process of exploration, testing, development, and production, but I found this to be one of the most explanatory about what a mature well looks like.  You can see the extensive layout of distribution pipelines under water, from multiple drilled wells.  The oil is pumped up to a filling ship, where transport ships fill their tanks for transportation to mainland processing centers.  Other ships bring supplies, and support maintenance and repairs.  This is all a lot more complex than I realized.

The pipeline that connects the well to the pump ship or production facility is also more complex than I would have expected.  The upper pipeline transports the combined production from all the local wells, which can amount to several thousands of barrels per day in a multiple well cluster.  The lower pipeline contains test lines to monitor the product from individual wells, hydraulic lines to open and close individual wells, and electric wirelines to monitor well properties such as pressure, choke size, and oil-water ratio.  Data is monitored in the operator’s production facility.

There are quite a few types of wireline logging tools used at various points of the well’s construction to gather information to make decisions about drilling and production operations.

On the third floor of the museum there was a Hall of Fame, honoring the people who had made significant contributions to the oil production industry.  There was one women, all the rest were men.  I’m not really sure of the reason for that, but was kind of amazed to find it one of the least ‘diverse’ industries I’ve ever seen.

Of course, no museum of this type in Texas would be complete without some acknowledgement of the disaster of Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010.  Eleven people lost their lives when an explosion on the rig caused it to burst into flames.

This is an example of crew quarters on the rig.  There wasn’t a lot of room, but it seemed actually fairly comfortable.

Out on the pipe deck I was surrounded by the heavy equipment of drilling and production.

This subsea Christmas tree is part of the distribution network that would connect multiple wells and transport oil to the surface for transportation and production.

It was good to see that there was an escape pod on board in case something went horribly wrong.  This can carry 28 people, and is equipped with a two-way radio, safety gear, first aid supplies, water, and a cooling system that pumps seawater over the pod until the crew can be rescued.

The drilling platform, accessible from the third floor of the rig, is where the main action happens, supported by a very tall tower.

The drill head is in the center of the platform, and the drill pipe is extended by connecting new lengths of pipe with high torque power tongs.

Across the Channel, on Pelican Island, I could see other rigs, though whether they were usable or retired wasn’t clear.  Many of these appear to be jack-up rigs like the Ocean Star — the tall structures you see are the legs, which are jacked down to the sea floor until the entire rig is out of the water, usually at least 25 feet, to be above storm waves.

After a quick browse through the gift shop (they had a gold plated drilling rig model for $650 if anyone is in the market for one), I wandered around the historic district of Galveston for a while.  I found it really rather quaint and enjoyable, a port town that was on it’s way to gentrification, but still had a long way to go.  In a way it reminded me of Portland, Maine, a working port with upscale shops.

But I confess that I had a favorite… LaKing’s Confectionery, where I got the best home made candy fruit slices I’ve ever had.  Yeah, ok, and some maple walnut fudge too.  But only because I like to encourage local businesses… really.  It was a sweet way to end a relaxing morning in Galveston.