construction

standing in the leg of a giant

by deputydog ⋅ 11 / 02 / 2008 ⋅ post a comment

these guys are standing in one of the gigantic legs belonging to the ‘tallest structure ever moved by humans over the surface of the earth’: the 1/2km tall ‘troll a’ offshore gas platform in the north sea, owned by shell oil. with a total weight of 1.2million tonnes, the structure was built using 245,000m3 of concrete and 100′000 tonnes of steel (apparently the equivalent of 15 eiffel towers), the walls of its legs measuring over a metre thick.

following construction, over a period of 7 days, ‘troll a’ was towed from rogaland in norway to the troll gas field in the north sea - a total of 174 nautical miles.

the picture below illustrates the massive scale of the platform…

all pictures from statoil.

info sources: 1, 2, 3

discussion

28 comments for “standing in the leg of a giant”

  1. I saw a documentary on how they moved that platform. Incredible.

    posted by Rob | 11th of February, 2008, 4:49 pm

  2. They weren’t standing in the legs when it was moving where they?!

    posted by TopSod | 12th of February, 2008, 2:13 am

  3. esto es realmente extraordinario , la mente humana crece y crece mas .

    posted by ricardo | 12th of February, 2008, 5:30 am

  4. Fantastic pictures, and very interesting article. How do you do it? These men earn alot of money for the job they do.
    Regards.

    posted by jsanderz | 12th of February, 2008, 1:05 pm

  5. That must have cost an enormous amount of energy to built. And that all for gas for our cars …

    posted by Mathias | 12th of February, 2008, 1:55 pm

  6. Crazy fact: Katie Melua has held a concert down in one of Troll’s legs. :)

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5396970.stm

    posted by Viggo | 12th of February, 2008, 4:08 pm

  7. wow! but why go through paris? paris isn’t even near the sea!

    posted by mikko | 12th of February, 2008, 4:32 pm

  8. Yeah, I saw the documentary about moving the damn thing using those tow ships. I remember them saying, at one point the sea floor was so near the floating construction, that if one of the ships went off-sync by some meters, the tower could bang on the ocean floor and that would have been a VERY costly experiment :)

    posted by Someone | 12th of February, 2008, 4:41 pm

  9. This construction is amazing.
    The sheer size is a good example of the human greed for much more than the earth can offer.

    posted by Nataly Short | 12th of February, 2008, 4:56 pm

  10. I believe there was a classical performance done in one of the legs not too long ago - thats probably more spectacular :)

    posted by Paul | 12th of February, 2008, 5:06 pm

  11. We can build that, but I can’t get a car with 100mpg…

    posted by mb | 12th of February, 2008, 6:09 pm

  12. It’s funny how people see something huge that was built by man like the eiffel tower and they say it is amazing, but if it built to recover gas or oil, it is bad and greedy. Troll was built to recover natural gas, which is by far more favorable than coal, wood or nuclear. We do have to heat our homes and businesses. If there is something wrong with this, then I suggest the naysayers turn off the gas tonight, stop driving your car, turn your electricity off and be a shining example to the rest of the world.

    posted by Bill | 12th of February, 2008, 10:20 pm

  13. From the commenters section of the page: “That must have cost an enormous amount of energy to built. And that all for gas for our cars …” … correct — with the global Peak Oil curve on the waning side and demand for petroleum increasing, oil reserves are becoming so scarce that engineers are forced to build such colossal structures just to dig and drill to the last remaining oil field remnants … and then people wonder why gas prices are going up …

    posted by AvangionQ | 13th of February, 2008, 12:36 am

  14. Wow, so the reason those tugboats all seem to be yanking the rig in different directions is to just keep the thing from dragging on the ocean floor? Dang… It’s hard to believe that’s even possible. Says something impressive about those tugboats, no?

    As for the structure and oil and greed and such, yes, we do need to heat our homes (and many of us HAVE to drive, whether we really like it or not), but I gotta agree mostly with “mb” that we can build this structure but not a production car that gets 100mpg. I think this structure, as impressive and fascinating as it is, IS a troubling indicator of the world’s “just keep digging!” (and drilling) mentality. The digging itself is causing problems, but no one suggests that an alternate path be taken, and more and more energy, effort (and money) keeps getting sunk into the digging. We’ll see what happens I guess. I don’t expect any miracles from Statoil.

    posted by Dave | 13th of February, 2008, 3:50 am

  15. Pity the comparison next to the Eiffel Tower wasn’t in the ocean.

    Huge Muncheous!

    posted by Pasty Muncher | 13th of February, 2008, 7:19 am

  16. I laugh when people say they want a 100 mpg car. If you want it so bad, go develop it or shut up. Knowing that only X amount of energy can be derived from a fuel means that you have to design around those parameters. Either contribute or go sit in the back of the bus.

    posted by protaganis | 14th of February, 2008, 10:09 am

  17. Anyone know what the documentary is called or where I could watch it? Looks incredible

    posted by nathan | 14th of February, 2008, 4:26 pm

  18. What beautiful gigantic structure it is.Looks awesome.I wonder how such thing is built in water.

    posted by Saim Baig | 20th of February, 2008, 7:54 am

  19. Protagonis said “I laugh when people say they want a 100 mpg car. If you want it so bad, go develop it or shut up. Knowing that only X amount of energy can be derived from a fuel means that you have to design around those parameters. Either contribute or go sit in the back of the bus.”

    Yes, only experts in any particular field have the “right” to consider and critique public policies, laws, and the priorities given to various advancements in given fields. Brilliant! And I presume you’ll be quiet about international relations and war unless you’ve got a degree in the former or participated at the highest levels in the latter?

    In any case, the technology for much higher MPG cars has been around for many years. Please see this for just one example:

    http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/351903_needle20.html

    posted by Dave | 21st of February, 2008, 3:16 am


post a comment




deputydog favourites