Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum
Encyclopedia
The Ocean Star Offshore Oil Rig & Museum, located in Galveston, Texas
, is a museum dedicated to the offshore
oil and gas industry. Located next to the Strand National Historic Landmark District
, the museum is housed on a retired jack-up rig
set up in the Galveston harbor.
, Texas by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
(Hull Number 6845) for the Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company (ODECO) fleet. She worked in the Gulf of Mexico
throughout the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast and drilled approximately 200 wells during her active life.
The museum, sponsored by the Offshore Energy Center (OEC), is a non-profit organization funded through private donations, admissions, and corporate donations. The OEC acquired the Ocean Star and spent 2 years converting her into the museum. The museum opened to the public on April 27, 1997.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, is a museum dedicated to the offshore
Offshore drilling
Offshore drilling refers to a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled through the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently produce hydrocarbons which lie in rock formations beneath the seabed...
oil and gas industry. Located next to the Strand National Historic Landmark District
Strand National Historic Landmark District
The Strand Historic District, also known as the Strand District, in downtown Galveston, Texas , is a National Historic Landmark District of mainly Victorian era buildings that now house restaurants, antique stores, and curio shops. The area is a major tourist attraction for the island city and also...
, the museum is housed on a retired jack-up rig
Jackup rig
A jack-up rig is a type of mobile platform that is able to stand still on the sea floor, resting on a number of supporting legs. The most popular designs use 3 independent legs, although some jackups have 4 legs or more...
set up in the Galveston harbor.
History
The Ocean Star was built in 1969 in BeaumontBeaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...
, Texas by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works in 1905...
(Hull Number 6845) for the Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company (ODECO) fleet. She worked in the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
throughout the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast and drilled approximately 200 wells during her active life.
The museum, sponsored by the Offshore Energy Center (OEC), is a non-profit organization funded through private donations, admissions, and corporate donations. The OEC acquired the Ocean Star and spent 2 years converting her into the museum. The museum opened to the public on April 27, 1997.
Exhibits
- The Hall of Fame, located within the museum, recognizes those persons and technologies that took the industry to sea, such as engineering giant Brown & Root founders George and Herman Brown; Ralph Thomas McDermott, who founded the offshore drilling and platform construction company J. Ray McDermottJ. Ray McDermottMcDermott International is an international engineering company specialized on marine solutions with operations in the Americas, Middle East, the Caspian Sea, and the Pacific Rim...
; rig designer and drilling contractor Alden J. "Doc" Laborde; former president George H. W. BushGeorge H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
; and oil company tycoon Dean McGee. - The Pipe Deck houses exhibits and equipment too large to be stored inside the museum, such as a blowout preventerBlowout preventerA blowout preventer is a large, specialized valve used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells. Blowout preventers were developed to cope with extreme erratic pressures and uncontrolled flow emanating from a well reservoir during drilling. Kicks can lead to a potentially catastrophic...
, drill pipeDrill pipeDrill pipe, is hollow, thick-walled, steel piping that is used on drilling rigs to facilitate the drilling of a wellbore and comes in a variety of sizes, strengths, and weights but are typically 30 to 33 feet in length...
, and a cementing unit. - The Drill Floor is directly underneath the derrickDerrickA derrick is a lifting device composed of one tower, or guyed mast such as a pole which is hinged freely at the bottom. It is controlled by lines powered by some means such as man-hauling or motors, so that the pole can move in all four directions. A line runs up it and over its top with a hook on...
and is where the work of drilling a hole is done.