About NOIA

Today, offshore activities take place in waters of more than half the nations on earth. And no longer do primitive, shore-bound wooden wharves confine offshore operators. Instead, they drill wells from modern steel or concrete structures. These structures are, in many cases, movable. What is more, they can float while being moved, and often while drilling. Further, offshore rigs have drilled in waters over 7,500 feet (over 2,200 meters) deep and as far as 200 miles (over 300 kilometers) from shore.

Offshore work today involves a wide range of technologies. These technologies are similar in many cases to those used to find, produce and transport oil and gas on land. Offshore activities include, however, additional technologies that relate to a marine environment. Unlike oil operations on land, offshore operations involve meteorology, naval architecture, mooring and anchoring techniques and buoyancy, stability and trim.

Drilling and producing oil and gas wells are important phases of offshore operations, but the scope goes further. Offshore operations also include exploring -- looking for likely places where oil and gas may exist in the rock formations that lie beneath the surface of the oceans, seas, gulfs, and bays. In addition, offshore operations include transporting oil and gas -- moving them from their point of production offshore to refineries and plants on land. (Courtsey of The University of Texas at Austin, Petroleum Extension Service - http://www.utexas.edu/ce/petex/