An Oil Rig off Cottesloe Beach?

Recently I was sent for a course in subsea technology at UWA and as part of our project, we were supposed to design a subsea production system for the abandoned Nexus oilfield off the coast of Rottnest Island.

In Western Australia, the environmentalist and the public has a very strong say in offshore drilling operations. While the public seems ignorant to the fact that all oil and gas comes from offshore, they insist on un-interruptable supply of oil and gas anyway.

So to satisfy the people and the government and all the grumpy people out there, my team opted for a subsea pipeline from the field to Freemantle and off to the Kwinana Refinary. Other teams in the project opted for the FPSO route, afraid of the public backlash and scrutiny if they brought in a pipeline to shore.

All these while we were told that the general public in Perth despises seeing an oil rig on the horizon because they don't want their view of the ocean spoilt but lo and behold, a rig's out there.

Their coming......  as whispered by Kevin Mullen.

P.S. Shaky video due to the strong winds trying to snatch my tiny Sony camera from my hands.

P.S. If you're still reading this, then check out the same picture of the rig, taken with a 400mm zoom lense, right from Cottesloe Beach.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=7141l13031l0l14797l13l11l0l0l0l0l1594l1594l8-1l1l0&q=cache:ahEyntEsY3MJ:http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?95188-Oil-Rig-Stena-Clyde+%22stena+clyde%22&ct=clnk

I really need a new camera!