For more than 100 years, people have endeavored to unlock hydrocarbon resources beneath the sea. In the earliest days, clever engineers used long piers jutting out into the ocean and lakes. Today, energy is harvested from coastal locations to hundreds of miles from shore in water depths up to 3,000 meters, using fixed and floating offshore platforms. The evolution of technology and innovation in the design of fixed and floating offshore platforms has been integral to the success of the offshore energy industry. This talk will focus on the history of offshore structures and an introduction to the wide range of structural types and the skills needed to design, build and install them. For further learning, the University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering Executive Learning program offers three short courses on offshore platform design, as well as a new Fundamentals of Offshore Engineering Professional Certificate. To learn more, see:
Fundamentals of Offshore Structures (FOS): https://executive.engr.utexas.edu/epd/fos.php
Design of Fixed Offshore Platforms (DFOP): https://executive.engr.utexas.edu/epd/fixed.php
Design of Floating Production Systems (DFPS): https://executive.engr.utexas.edu/epd/floating.php
Fundamentals of Offshore Engineering Professional Certificate Program: https://executive.engr.utexas.edu/epd/offshore_cert.php.