This Gigantic Floating Oil Platform Is Steam Powered | Richard Hammond's Big

Richard Hammond visits one of the world's largest oil platforms in the world, the sixteen story high Appomattox, and takes a look at the brilliant engineering behind the floating mechanism and how it generates its own power through steam.
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[@mavoc3094]

They say it can't be flipped, but I also noticed that they didn't let Richard drive it either.

[@GreyStormPlays]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[@phillm156]

😂

[@djturner1992]

🤭🙊

[@mcshartypants]

Richard "Scandinavian Flick" Hammond

[@petert3355]

Come on..... All these guys have Uni degrees......They are not risk takers.

[@justrobi1904]

This chap is quite nice at presenting stuff. He would be really cool if he presented car related stuff too

[@johandewitt7927]

@Nishawn Birak sarcasm....

[@ApacheAttack-Helicopter]

@Nishawn Birak you know he isn't right?

[@coreywilliams1454]

@Nishawn Birak He's not on Top Gear though....

[@SuperHurtman]

@Nishawn Birak mohaha!

[@bobbib4627]

@Nishawn Birak No he's not 🙄

[@ZIgoTTo10000]

The platform is the size of a table, it's just that Hammond is just that small

[@guyincognito3530]

What about the project manager that Hammond was talking to?

[@JaapvandenBerg]

@@guyincognito3530 and thats a dutch person so he'll be about 8 feet

[@cnutsack]

@@JaapvandenBerg He's just a toddler.

[@koonlookka3812]

🙊🙊🙊🙊🧑‍🎓🧑‍🎓🧑‍🎓🇹🇭🇹🇭🇹🇭🙏🙏🌹🌹❤️❤️🎋🎋🎋💖💖🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍🙈🙈🙉

[@Epiclyspeaking]

It's called Richard Hammond's Big because anything looks big next to him

[@Big_daytona]

Congrats on being the 6,657,676th person to say that

[@achimarmbruster8806]

notGoldy 1403 thanks for counting mate

[@bobbyweirddick6556]

Or gigantic

[@maltainu3621]

Well it's not going to be called Richard hammond slightly larger than average is it?

[@NamesRGay]

Nice

[@thecrazytruckdude10]

I just love watching Hammond geek out over Engineering

[@Uncivildefiance]

in a sense almost everything is steam powered. Be it nuclear cores, coal, etc the heat is just used to boil water and drive a turbine. I think only solar panels, dams, and wind turbines aren't built around that.

[@quillmaurer6563]

There's also internal-combustion power generation, not super common but notable, as well as gas turbines. This case is actually a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) cogeneration system, I'd be interested in how much power comes from the gas turbines versus the steam heat recovery system - I'd make a wild guess that at least 2/3 is from the gas turbine directly.

[@iCore7Gaming]

There are RTGS also

[@Birdy890]

And yet Wind Turbines and Dams are still built around the principle of spinning a bit of copper. Pretty much 90% of electricity being generated today is based on this principle.

[@Slippy100]

@@quillmaurer6563 everyone forgets tidal energy however inefficient it may currently be

[@strangelee4400]

In another sense... everything is solar powered. Wind is generated by rising air heated by the sun. Plants use photosynthesis to store energy which after millions of years turns to oil, gas and coal. Everything can be traced back to the sun.

[@NoizyBoyUS]

This platform is taking the saying, "Getting high on your own supply" to a whole new meaning.

[@palmeristo]

This is far better than those top comments talking about hammonds height which is major yawn.

[@joshjlmgproductions3313]

"Richard Hammond's Big." No, no he isn't.

[@evandavis5223]

Pretty sure that was the whole idea behind the name.

[@AM-rt8ky]

@@evandavis5223 yep,and it worked. every top comment is talking about it and repeating the same joke.

[@YOUmommaHAX]

His bank account is though. He still wins.

[@Jasn00sh]

Vegetarian owning a burger shop hahaha

[@robramirez1045]

😂🤣😂🤣

[@obisvanainobis9950]

It took me a few seconds to get it

[@caphunterx2322]

as a dutchie im proud of our crazy dutch accent and that we have people designing those mega structures

[@petertreur6154]

I was searching for this comment 🙌

[@arthurtheking675]

Me 2

[@DouweSavenije]

Peter Treur m2 hahaha

[@KalinoursEU]

Oil : not a single word the Dutch : G E K O L O N I S E E R D

[@wesluka6546]

@poposmoko You mean Dutch engineers

[@G1NZOU]

You can see at 3:40 that the yellow crossbeams have a spiral around them, this prevents Kármán vortices from forming in high winds and causing heavy vibrations.

[@greasedumpster9781]

Neat

[@superdupermax]

pretty cool. usually see those on furnace stacks/flares.

[@gusstavv]

Saw that but had no idea why they had that shape and its purpose. Awesome, thanks!

[@jack66244]

similar idea as burj khalifa

[@letsgoraiding]

Hammond has talked about them on one of his engineering programmes before!

[@jsin22366322]

“It’s free power” ........it’s free real estate.......

[@DaveAuld]

18.75% royalty rate isn't exactly free....

[@Rainbow__cookie]

more like DIY power

[@the90scarguy16]

For those who dont know his name check his helmet

[@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM]

Ermm Nah mate. I'd rather just Google it :-P

[@jazmihamizan4987]

@@THE-BUNKEN-DRUM Me: Okay Google, "Who is Richard Hammond's name".

[@snafu_vfx]

I love Hammond’s little sticker name tag on the front of his helmet

[@kvvint7618]

Of course it's designed by a Dutch engineer. They know their stuff when it comes to the sea.

[@bartvanwijk6498]

also the company is dutch

[@Miguelproductions100]

NEDERLAND HOOLIGANS

[@rms3]

The platform was designed in Houston, TX mostly by Americans.

[@thimo476]

rms3 But dutch company

[@rms3]

@@thimo476 actually, Shell is an US subsidiary of Royal Dutch primarily staffed by Americans.

[@Xerxes02]

Is there a Krusty Burger on this platform?

[@bobbythomas6520]

Dude needs to finish the next episode of the grand tour

[@theoutsider934]

they finished filming a long time ago, they are waiting for the editors and amazon to finish.

[@ronanshearing589]

The whole episode is finished now, edited and all they are just waiting for Amazon to release it now

[@Kuingar]

I found out where all the rich people will be hiding in the event of a nuclear war

[@gusstavv]

No, it's for a zombie apocalypse

[@PistonAvatarGuy]

They have bunkers.

[@despairgaming6669]

If you read world war Z, the novel. You know it's not safe out there in the ocean.

[@doxielain2231]

@@despairgaming6669 It's a Fallout reference, people.

[@Murtagh653]

@@despairgaming6669 why not?

[@MartinAston00]

There’s probably about 90-100 different people that designed, engineered, and built it... yet dude says..” yeah, I built it” 🤨.... smh...

[@carlwheezerofsouls3273]

you know what "for the most part" means right?

[@MegaBoilermaker]

To be fair he did mean the generator package. I used to design platforms.

[@WyattUTFT]

Hopefully it's obsolete as soon as possible.

[@johny3470]

Just think about it, it's so fascinating that every single piece of technology on this platform was carefully designed by a person. Every single pump, dial, motor, computer.. imagine all the work it took to assemble all this and bring out to sea. The extremely careful planning and coordination involved in moving all the different bits and bobs. Really amazing what humans can accomplish.

[@willjepson7770]

on the shell youtube channel they said it took nearly a million man hours of design and assembly

[@Jin-Ro]

Not really a surprise, we never left the steam age. What do you think a Nuclear power plant is? It's a glorified steam engine.

[@suchbullsh1tbefore893]

Yeah agree with you

[@CarlosAM1]

So is a coal plant, gas, oil, some solar vertical farms, geothermal, etc

[@ndsav8903]

Last time I saw that many lights was when I built a house in minecraft to stop mobs from spawning 😂

[@marem3038]

4:06 looks beautiful,like a house decorated for Christmas.

[@dylanjohnstone5119]

christmas is nothing compared to the anniversary of the best comeback ever. 4-0. sorry mate.

[@marem3038]

@@dylanjohnstone5119 Congratulations and don't forget the 3:0 before that and also thank Jordi Alba and Rakitic for winning you the game.

[@marcot3013]

The Henry Goodrich took a 31.48m wave hit during a storm in the North Atlantic in 2018. It handled the wave like a champ.

[@catdaddy294]

It still blows my mind that those things float... That's insane

[@Bird_Dog00]

It's called a combined-cycle power plant. They are the most efficient thermal power plants around. Reaching thermal efficiency of up to 60%. Using gas from their own well in a gas turbine makes so much sense, one wonders why this isn't much more common.

[@Birdy890]

I'd be willing to bet it's down to large capital costs. I doubt very much that they're just plugging unrefined gasses into their turbines, which means they'd have to refine it on-site.

[@Bird_Dog00]

@BirdyLegs Yea, up-front cost is my guess as well. Sure, it costs some money up front, but not having to order thousands of cubic meters of diesel fuel out to sea must offset that quickly. See it happen where I work - allthough on a smaller scale: Those with the economics degree seem terribly afraid of investing money and are willing to accept unneccesary high operational costs just to keep that up-front price tag down.

[@Will_Russell]

Petroleum engineering student here, the main reason I know of that it isn’t common to use your own products for power is cost. It takes a lot of energy, and a lot of equipment to get raw hydrocarbons to the point that it can be burnt in a finely tuned engine. Not to mention that natural gas is extremely volatile/dangerous to store and is very difficult to store in large quantities, especially in an environment like an offshore rig. Also, while not super common for offshore rigs, the price of natural gas can get high enough that it is worth selling the natural gas from off shore rigs, so having it be required to power the rig isn’t ideal. That does not necessarily apply to this particular rig because it is an deep-water, mostly exploratory (as opposed to production) rig as I understand it.

[@freerider8737]

also alot easier to pass the idea with a low upfront cost. it just sounds better and cheaper. same idea as saying 9.99 instead of 10

[@seanriley1603]

Will Russell That’s not entirely accurate. I work on the turbine generators, turbine compressors and turbine water injection pumps on platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. It is very common to use natural gas to power the rig. It’s free energy. Having natural gas on a rig is just part of the job. Precautions are taken to prevent any spark, all the way down to intrinsically safe flashlights. Don’t worry. The smoking area is limited to a specific deck on the crew quarters. The deck for grilling the steaks is also safely away. I didn’t see a drilling rig on that platform so I’d say it’s a production platform just churning out millions of barrels of oil and million of cubic feet of gas.

[@caesar8337]

Looking at the oil platform and knowing that soon it will be irrelevant is strange.

[@NorHeadHunter]

Fertilizer, plastic and a billion other uses like pharmaceuticals means it won't be irrelevant, ever.

[@NightshiftCustom]

@@NorHeadHunter well what makes you think that the world won't run out of oil? in case you didn't know there's only 30- 40 years left tops

[@williambennett3]

I don't recall the amount of life this platform was designed for (maybe 40 years?), but most platforms aren't designed for life past a couple decades. I have friends who designed a lot of the control systems for this platform.

[@NorHeadHunter]

@@NightshiftCustom Peak oil is a myth, current proven reserves might run out in 30-40 years, but the thing is that we don't know how much oil is out there because the oil we currently know about has to run out before it becomes economically viable to look for more. Same with most minerals.

[@sjoerd-frisokornelius8223]

3:38 why isn't this symmetrical!!

[@junatah5903]

Yes I have OCD but not everything symmetrical. It's made to accommodate efficiency. No point having a 10 meter wide platform with nothing on it.

[@waffleburger8752]

Why _would_ it be symmetrical!?

[@jazmihamizan4987]

other than Juna's points, it might be weight distribution. Lets just believe the center of mass is symmetrical to us OCD dudes

[@peomoen8102]

theres a massive bridge if you look close enough. its covering part of the crossbeams

[@ttvgalactixxbl205]

every 5 yr old be like THEY STOLE THAT FROM FORTNITE

[@dbuzman]

So it's actually natural gas powered and they make steam with the waste heat from the natural gas turbines for some additional power.

[@bobbyweirddick6556]

And they tell us that we have limited oil when they build monsters like this.

[@captfox533]

thats how most of the global electricity is generated, by burning coal or oil and and with that heating steam. the only difference here is that they use a jet engine to heat the steam

[@framegrace1]

Yes, it's a dual system, very efficient, they extract the last drop of energy from that gas. (Also, that steam must be useful for a lot of other stuff there.)

[@simonescelsa]

It's a combined cycle gas generation plant. Nothing new on land, but it is the first time it is used on an offshore installation, as normally they have gas turbines only.

[@Kelvinpierre99]

That guy most likely dutch, by the way he speaks😂

[@XEinstein]

The name on his overal reads De Jong, so yes, Dutch

[@tz8785]

The platform is mainly owned by Shell.

[@Joh447]

>124,000 tonned *laughs in troll A*

[@lucianbalan1234]

why doesn't humanity use it's intelligent mind to create other healthy ways than being greedy and producing money in a selfish way??

[@craigcrawford6749]

It's powered by natural gas, that drives a jet engine, whose exhaust is captured to create some steam to do other things. Bs clickbait man!!!!

[@johnclement189]

Future category 6 hurricane : *hmm looks nice*

[@joew7983]

nice

[@alisahu5980]

Thanks Richard cargo ship visit oil platform worker a difficult jobs I am silut

[@Richard-rk1ru]

He was so surprised when he learned it's steam powered. He probably never heard about a nuclear power plant.

[@DylRicho]

He's doing that for the cameras to make the show more interesting. It would be very dull to watch if he just outright said he knew everything he was being told. He needs to connect with the audience.

[@Richard-rk1ru]

@@DylRicho Of course he's not acting surprised for the engineer that's telling him. I just wanted to point out that it's not that extraordinary

[@terrelmchenry9524]

A NUCLEAR POWER PRODUCTION PLATFORM WOULD NOT BE WORTH THE COST OF A CONVENTIONALLY POWERED PLATFORM.LONG TERM AUX POWER TO SHORE VIA PWR(DUEL FUEL/DUEL PURPOSE PLATFORM) WOULD BE IDEAL IN A SEA OF TRANQUILITY.ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY FOR IT,THEY WANT THEIR MONEY SIR.

[@johndododoe1411]

@@terrelmchenry9524 Stop shouting. And noone suggested running this on nuclear power. It's the (to the masses) surprising fact that big land based nuclear power plants are actually steam engines burning uranium instead of coal.

[@danielyeroshalmi7492]

did they build that on the ocean? or built it and dropped it in

[@williambennett3]

Built on land. Then they float it out to final location. It was dropped in water in Texas and final location is off southeast coast of Louisiana.

[@Gamen4Bros]

ofcourse they're dutch lol. lets goooo

[@nick4819]

I'm curious...how many light bulbs do they go through per day? I'm sure it's someones full time job to just change bulbs all day and night.

[@davewilliams6172]

@Whiteman I can do that....giz a job...

[@orkavogel5885]

HaHH that guy who tells about it in the bezinning is dutch i know bc (im dutch and his second name and by his english accent hahaha

[@NenadKralj]

3:43 I love Richard 😎vegetarian running a burger shop 😎

[@XEinstein]

This video seems poorly informed. Most offshore platforms are powered by the fuel they produce. So much so that in the North Sea governments started taxing the oil companies for the use of their own products. Then using the waste heat to produce steam and use that to either heat the process or run a steam turbine is also common practice.

[@winteronice]

Wrong, the steam is generated by an external heat source and therefor not powered but run or operated on stream. Misleading and not as green as you might think. Plus rather common.

[@MegaBoilermaker]

Most large diesel powered ships (for example) have waste heat recovery Boilers.

[@dirtydave1889]

I operated offshore platforms for 30 years...1980 to 2010...….don't miss it.

[@thuglife1792]

The sea looks flat 2 me were is the curve.finally some 1 has used an normal lens to film this not a fish eye lens to make it look round

[@swalther10]

To add to the “big” the Appomattox is floating in 7,000ft of water pulling from 15 well heads, it’s a monster and a go to for a lot of our offshore fishing

[@brixsteezy4486]

Did he say huracan season or huracane season?im kinda trippy bout that 0:50

[@_s_9920]

Hurricane in a Warwickshire county English accent.

[@jesselagendijk5896]

Hahahaha the sticker on Richard's helmet stating his name looks odd somehow, as if people wouldn't recognize him without it, or should i say people would just look over him without noticing...

[@quillmaurer6563]

They needed to have something identifying him at everyone else's eye level. Well maybe not actually, as if that were the case they'd need a flag on a post on top of his helmet to identify him.

[@marem3038]

I think it's a safety measure,like how soldiers put their blood group names on their helmets.

[@jamesmancine8350]

Thats an amazing structure and power generation setup, however how is 150 megawatts enough to power 100,000 homes? That's only 1,500 watts each and our fridge, deep freezer and air-conditioning consume more than 1,500 watts.

[@martinum4]

But they are only turned on in intervals, they are not running continously.

[@framegrace1]

Yeah, the usual conversion is around 5000 watts/home.

[@cleverpython1546]

“Oil platform is powered by oil it drills”

[@samegutten]

There is no drilling unit on that floating platform

[@johnroger9275]

@Sjors Kracht Production Platform = Facility that extracts, processes, and exports hydrocarbons (oil, gas, and water) from wells flowing into said facility. Drilling Rigs can be put on production platforms for reasons such as drilling a new well for the facility or working over an existing well. A production platform is the same thing as an "oil platform" and can also have a rig on it, however, this one does not. In short, Drilling Rigs drill into hydrocarbon reservoirs to install wells while Production Platforms extract those hydrocarbons from the reservoirs through the wells. Production Platforms DO NOT "resupply" oil rigs...boats do that. Also, it's powered by the NATURAL GAS it produces, not the oil it drills.

[@simonescelsa]

@@samegutten you drill the Wells with a drilling ship or drilling jack up vessel, then install the production platform to separate the oil from the gas and the production water and export the oil and the gas through pipelines

[@samegutten]

@@simonescelsa No kidding, ive worked on a drilling ship, semi submersible and now a Jack-up. as a drilling operator

[@845835]

That platform is beyond impressive.

[@gursewak3198]

I always thought they were attached to the ocean floor

[@MegaBoilermaker]

Some are, either by wire tethers in deep water or jack up legs in shallow water. This is a production platform not a Drilling Rig.

[@ronhebert3027]

@@MegaBoilermaker It's a tension leg platform which means it is anchored to the ocean floor. Every deep water platform I've been on a TLP, but a lot of them also drill. The big empty space in the center of the platform is where the drilling package used to be.

[@seanriley1603]

They also have cables that at each corner that are anchored to the ocean floor. They are constantly automatically paying out and taking in to adjust the position. The also adjust the buoyancy to keep just the right amount of tension on those tendons.

[@Coldbreezed]

It's a common misconception, however some shallow offshore rigs will be constructed from the base of the sea as well. Many rigs however are floating and anchored

[@kadafi4lyf]

I was about to Google how to build a jet engine but ok :(

[@RicardoSilva-tb8lw]

i bout to pull up with my zerg 22 deep 14 m2s 8 aks no cap skee skeeeeeeeeeeeee

[@HarrisonEast]

You could survive a zombie apocalypse on one of these things. Now THAT'S a show I'd watch... I might make it.

[@dustinmiller7278]

That oil Riggs nothing more than a giant industrial floating city

[@MegaBoilermaker]

Production Platform.

[@Therollingpanda]

Essentially a massive floating, oil mining, power station, nice

[@Demidar665]

2:02 that snail think around the round steel beam is that reinforcement from wave impacts ? i could only see it as being that

[@Liam40]

Believe it's to avoid vorticies forming during hurricane force winds. Helps interrupt and disrupt the wind, stopping it from vibrating and shaking.

[@oscarbishop8144]

So bad for the environment so much Co2

[@_s_9920]

Big Boss was onto something.

[@blackscoped]

hEy tHaTs fRoM FoRtNiTe

[@Wishmegoodluck]

this will not work at $10 a barrel

[@skips389]

I'm having flashbacks of Large Oil-Rig from Rust and always getting countered by someone with security cameras. If you play Rut you'll understand...

[@nprluis8223]

I always thought these were just built into the ground and wondered how they built so deep

[@simonescelsa]

It's a floating facility kept at a specific spot with subsea mooring lines. It is use for deep waters

[@emiliovernon2209]

Some of them are built into the ground! Only closer to the coast though. Everything deep water like this is floating

[@lordspork7524]

This things going to be burning money now

[@praneelsundar4472]

Whenever I see Richard Hammond in a thumbnail I just go for it.

[@terraincognitagaming]

Why is the quality 1080p but it looks like 480p

[@terraincognitagaming]

@Omer Ahmed Watch in fullscreen the bitrate is trash on the distant shots.

[@nickthebod757]

Who’s taking the scrap heli to large oil with me

[@HaHa-tb8bz]

Wow 😳 baby kingDom 🤩

[@jemoederrs]

jeej for Dutch enginering :)

[@FLAVOUROFJOY]

So you’re telling me the solution to free electricity is waves? How didn’t we think of that?

[@simonescelsa]

Where did you see a wave generator in the video? The combined cycle turbines use gas from the wells

[@FLAVOUROFJOY]

s yeah honestly I can’t even answer that. But I had a though while watching this which was, why don’t we use waves to spin turbines and generate electricity?

[@terrelmchenry9524]

THEY ARE DOING IT OFF OF PORTUGAL, OR WERE MANY YEARS AGO.

[@santannaguzmansr.1107]

Worked the oil fields in ND, WY & PA for 2 years. Would love to go offshore man.

[@Mike-jx2uj]

If each part is using the others byproduct to power itself, then how did the first part power itself

[@CativaBR]

Imma go with hand cranks.

[@zezizarjaars]

Remarkeble that it will all be gone in about 30 years.

[@Firelife3]

Oil will never run out...

[@davewilliams6172]

@@Firelife3 lol...oh you have a lot to learn!

[@wothyy2774]

Yo where are the henchman and do they amibot

[@jonathanatkin9161]

It is the rig of Fortnite

[@ferhanjemal1471]

like the name

[@DBcooper420]

Stop glorifying oil

[@princecuddle]

seeing how successful that oil rig is and knowing how much oil there really is under the sea floor there is no way that marvel will be one of a kind for long. I can guarantee that one is already planned with improvements on top of this current rig.

[@spiercephotography]

This is awesome. As a person totally fascinated by all things Industrial, I'd love to spend a week or so just running around and learning about everything that's going on. And, all things considered, it's green, too!

[@charliejeans2413]

So why can't we have aeroplane/ steam powered on the land ? Superheated Steam turbine is the ultimate power. Less moving parts. 500,000 miles trouble free watching in ships up to 1960 ?

[@pamanthanos9742]

how they casually chitchat in engine room with ear plugs?

[@BorelessAirsoft]

This is the real deal. All your feelings and political views don't matter here when its making millions or billions in profit. Money talks in the real world not words in cardboard signs demanding change for greener or cleaner ways of living. We need oil to move forward and thats the end of it.

[@sirewokthefirstidonthaveal2902]

richard traveled all the way to the us just to talk to a dutch guy

[@jerzyz3587]

Where is TnTina

[@jackgrove4621]

HAMMOOOOOOOOND

[@kekefan6984]

imagine looking at this thing and being from the early 1900s

[@richardzilz6852]

Holy macaroni just the changing of the light bulbs on that thing has got to be a 1 person full time job!

[@CraigLang]

How to mess up my beautifully, elegantly simple design,. Presented in Glasgow in 1988 at the Institution of engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. Takes oil companies decades to catch up,! I wonder why? Even then they catch up by stealing small companies designs. So, BEWaRE!

[@anthonyzastoupil1842]

It’s amazing that humanity has progressed far enough to build something like this

[@chrisk8208]

And yet not fare enough not to need it. :)

[@nachobroryan8824]

This just reminds me of Just Cause 2 and Just Cause 3.

[@fragen0159]

The rig in rl

[@DangLe-gj9bv]

When will someone start the chinook crates?

[@WBCY2024]

Gotta get in the mini get all the scientist and crate loot back home first.

[@Pinkielover]

Polluting the earth anyway they can

[@loganthesaint]

Always wanted a job on an offshore rig... and that rig is the dream now lol

[@japanesepm5393]

"Boss, Welcome to our new home. Our new Motherbase"

[@miranda9691]

I'm waiting to quiet to pop up at the video!

[@morpheus6394]

I wish I was an engineer instead of a lawyer

[@osmankalif3500]

Never too late fam