Thousands of Gulf Oil Platforms

Approximately 4,000 active oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico
HOW MANY inACTIVE ONES ARE STILL THERE??

I live on the Gulf of Mexico in Corpus Christi, TX, where we only see a few oil rigs out in the Gulf. It has taken this major BP oil spill and reading the book Bayou Farewell for me to realize the conglomeration maze of oil rigs, both in use and abandoned, in the Gulf of Mexico.

Here is a little bit I read in Bayou Farewell by Mike Tidwell:

"While Louisiana's coast continues to implode, creating the fastest-disappearing landmass on earth, the story of its demise remains stubbornly unknown to most Americans. Likewise, what's happening out here in the Gulf, just beyond that same shore, goes almost entirely unnoticed. Thousands of acres of new 'land' are being brought into existence here, literally built above the water, a mass of solid structures so huge that if they were stacked end to end they'd stretch from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia. Instead of saving one place, we're creating another, developing the largest artificial mass of offshore property ever conceived." (323)

Tidwell also describes how deepwater extraction of oil became possible about 15-20 years ago (I'm raising the number from his estimate due to the 2003 publication date of the book):

"Deepwater extraction like this wasn't even feasible until ten years ago, when an evolved version of a technique called 'dynamic positioning' came into cuse. Declassified by the U.S. and Soviet governments at the end of the Cold War, advanced dynamic positioning was developed to allow nuclear submarines to remain perfectly still while firing underwater. A sophisticated onboard computer interacts with several thrusters (high-speed propellers) spread evenly across the sub's outer shell to constantly assess and compensate for waves and underwater currents. This same technique now allows oil-drilling rigs, whose legs could never extend a mile to the ocean floor, to literally float in the Gulf of Mexico, hovering almost perfectly motionless and so not upsetting the vulnerable drill stem. In this way, dynamic positioning has allowed the offshore oil book to keep right on rolling, shattering the old barrier of deep water and opening up a whole new realm of the offshore galaxy. These rigs can even survive hurricanes thanks to special longline anchors that secure them to the Gulf floor." (324)

While Tidwell was on the deck of one of these massive oil platforms, he observed:

"And now, as I walk along the deck that night, surrounded by the freakish spread of brightly lit platforms stretching to every horizon, I can't help but wonder what will be the unintended consequences of such aggressive oil exploitation, of so many new platforms made possible by dynamic positioning and directional drilling, technologies now as important to modern, oil-thirsty Americas as levees once were to survivla of colonial Louisiana." (325)

Tidwell, Mike. Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast. NY: Vintage Books, 2003.