Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig

John was itching to go on a road trip.  For a variety of reasons we needed to visit my brother Jared in Texas, so a road trip  seemed possible.  This was not a one day trip, because it just takes one day to get out of Florida!  As we traveled north we saw quite a bit of the signs of spring, which has already started in Florida.  From the road we saw yards displaying many colorful azalea bushes, and in the forests an occasional blooming redbud or dogwood tree.

John and I have toured a variety of mines, caves, battleship and prison museums- to name a few.  However, I do not believe that we have been on an oil rig.  On one of our train trips across the country I met a gentleman who worked on an oil rig and the description of  of his life and work on the rig certainly caught my interest.  On the Ocean Star, which was decommissioned in 1984, we toured the drill and pipe decks, as well as the recreation, galley, and sleeping quarters. As battleships, the men living on the rigs are there for months at a time and all of the staff's needs have to be accommodated.

Pictured above is the Galveston Port, and off in the distance are oil rigs which are need of repair.  After being repaired they are then loaded by a hydraulic system on barges to be used again.  The Gulf of Mexico has a prolific petroleum system, according to the Ocean Star museum 100 billion barrels of gas and natural gas equivalents have been discovered on offshore and onshore portions of the Gulf ( this covers the United States Mexico and Cuba).  Apparently there are still 50 billion barrels still to be drilled.  Since 1918 over 56 wells have been drilled in the United States part of the Gulf.

Pictured above are the layers of bedrock which have to be drilled into for access to the oil.  Core samples are initially removed for analysis.

And in the picture above are the pipes reaching down to the oil, a drill bit can be seen at the end of one of the pipes.  There are a variety of drill bits which are used, depending on the type of rock is being crushed or scraped.  The bits are pictured below.  Once an oil well is completed and started up it may produce oil or gas for many years, flowing through pipes to a refinery. Or the product may go into a floating storage system.

 What I am relating to you here regarding oil production is just a little smattering compared to all the information on the subject provided by the Ocean Star Museum.  My brother Jared and I completed our tour of the museum long before John.  My brother and I were quite content wandering around the Port of Galveston and checking out the bird life.  Both brown and white pelicans could be seen resting or feeding in the water near the museum.