Bullwinkle (oil platform)

Bullwinkle was a 1,736 feet (529 m)[1] tall, pile-supported fixed steel oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The total weight of the platform was 77,000 tons, of which the steel jacket comprises 49,375 tones.[2] At the time of its construction it was the third tallest freestanding structure ever built after the CN Tower and Ostankino Tower and tallest in the United States, 6 feet higher than the pinnacle of the Sears Tower. Of the total height, 1,352 feet (412 m) are below the waterline. It was located in Green Canyon Block 65, approximately 160 miles (260 km) southwest of New Orleans. Bullwinkle belongs to Fieldwood Energy LLC. The total field development construction cost was US$500,000,000 according to some sources.[3][4]

The jacket, i.e. the mainly submerged part of the platform, was built by Gulf Marine Fabricators in 1985–1988 at the North Yard location at the intersection of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel and the Intracoastal Waterway in Port Aransas, TX, east of Corpus Christi.[5] The platform was shipped using a barge and installed by Heerema Marine Contractors.[6] The jacket which is some 1,400 feet tall is the second tallest object to ever be moved to another position, relative to the surface of the Earth after the Troll A platform.

The Bullwinkle platform was the third tallest freestanding structure built in water after the Petronius and Baldpate Compliant Towers, but it was the tallest of these that could be built on land as is without any modifications.

See also
  • Info on offshore-technology.com
  • , installation and construction video
  • "Bullwinkle". SkyscraperPage.
  • Photograph of rig being towed to sea
  • Photograph of platform
  • 2010 Announcement to decommission and retire the platform

References
  1. http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=23521
  2. https://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/manatee/#:~:text=BULLWINKLE%20PLATFORM,-The%20Bullwinkle%20platform&text=Heerema%20Marine%20Contractors%20was%20selected,top%20of%20the%20flare%20boom
  3. Leffler; Pattrozi; Sterling. Deepwater. p. 24.
  4. "PAPHA Events 1989 Bullwinkle TV production of construction, placement and operation".
  5. https://www.fircroft.com/blogs/installing-the-bullwinkle-oil-platform-01401912432
  6. https://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/manatee/#:~:text=BULLWINKLE%20PLATFORM,-The%20Bullwinkle%20platform&text=Heerema%20Marine%20Contractors%20was%20selected,top%20of%20the%20flare%20boom.

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