| I'm going to start this lecture by describing the structure of an off-shore oil rig. Well, to be accurate, we should call it an oil platform. If you look at the diagram, you can see the top part of the platform, floating on the surface of the water. The tall tower in the centre of the platform is called a derrick. That's D-E-R-R-I-C-K. The derrick is where the drilling machinery and lifting equipment is installed. OK? Now, if you look about half way down the diagram on the right you can see a helicopter. It's parked on the helicopter pad. Helicopters are used mostly to transport employees to and from the platform when they have free time. Now, if you look underneath that, at the very bottom of the platform you can see one of the four support towers. These support the rest of the platform. These metal structures are usually attached to the sea bed by long cables. Right, now the last part of the platform I'm going to describe is on the other side, just above the level of the water. It’s a crane, that‘s spelt C-R-A-N-E. Cranes are used everywhere in construction, but this one is specialist equipment for lifting heavy spare parts at sea. In fact, apart from the derrick you can see three cranes in the diagram. |
