Can't some of these oil rigs be reused as artificial islands?
Is the Seasteading institute looking into this already? They should be all over it.
If they get left without being dismantled for a while, they will get into a very dangerous state where they are about to fall apart and it is too dangerous to even approach them. Then dismantling them will be much more expensive.
Once the Well itself is plugged, what are the realistic consequences of just letting the things rust into oblivion?
> A secondhand vessel is currently worth about $190 per tonne to a shipbreaking yard in Turkey, a price established by the local market in reclaimed steel. Sail on to China and a different market, and the same metal is worth $210 per tonne. At breakers’ yards in Alang in India, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Gadani in Pakistan, they will pay around $280 per tonne. Meanwhile, at the EU-approved shipbreaking sites, which are bound to conform to continental waste laws, and where vessels are dismantled in closed-off quays or dry docks, rates are less competitive: European yards offer zero dollars per tonne, and, in fact, tend to ask a fee to take a shipowners’ junk.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/02/where-oil-r...
Another aspect I read on this topic and remember from the Brent Spar [1] case is that the cavities and tanks of these platforms are sometimes filled with unknown and/or highly toxic undefined stuff. Unless you 'clean' this up it might not be liveable.
Turns out that bacteria at the bottom of the ocean love the sludge that's so toxic on land.
So a big "yay" for PR and feelings over facts.
Also, assuming what you say is true, was this known at the time? Because that would seem to make a big difference -- opposing dumping "sludge that's so toxic on land" into an environment where you don't know the effects seems to be more than "PR and feelings", but rather caution and prudence.
"Writing in the journal Nature in June, Professor Euan Nisbet and Dr Mary Fowler of London University argued that the quantities of heavy metals in Brent Spar are minuscule compared with those found naturally in parts of our deep oceans. In so-called "black smokers", whole communities of highly specialised bacteria eke out their lives where the earth's crust vents huge amounts of superheated water and metals into the ocean depths. One estimate puts this discharge of metals worldwide at 700,000 to five million tonnes a year.
Dump the Brent Spar near such a vent, argues Professor Nisbet, and its impact could not even be measured. Its contents might even give the bacteria a free meal."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/to-dump-or-not-to-...
Also, the amount of oil was much less than Greenpeace had stated, estimated at somewhere around 100 tons, rather than 5500 tons. And oil is something that bacteria do eat.
All the articles I could find essentially state that Shell's plan was scientifically valid and posed less environmental risk than disposal on land, but didn't "feel" right.
Another more detailed look: http://negotiationlab.co.uk/user_uploads/KSG%20Brent%20Spar....
Check out the south Atlantic for a possible location, west of the Namibian coast. There are some shallow spots there like the Zubov Seamount, less than 50m deep and more than 200 miles from the coast.
Pretty much as I understand it, but I don't think they're under the illusion that they don't have to maintain some sort of relationship with land-based nations.
>What stops a navy coming and confiscating your equipment then?
Nothing? Some form of diplomacy?
>They stop drug smugglers and pirates in international waters all the time. And you'll be static!
They never stop them all. I don't think I will be static. I'll be on the beach.
Governments will tolerate seasteading if it's the functional equivalent of parking a big houseboat somewhere. They won't tolerate modern day Tortugas, though.
It's an example of Libertarian paradise syndrome; where you want all the comforts of modern civilization with none of the obligations.
The Libertarian version involves paying for a military, I think.
No I wasn't stereotyping Africa or ignorant of geography. Did you know there's a lot of piracy on the west coast as well?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_the_Gulf_of_Guinea
That's a bit further north than Namibia, but their officials in Namibia say themselves that they're concerned about it.
'Sea piracy is a concern to Namibia' http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=99745&page=archive-r...
That's an understatement: it's over 2000 nautical miles north.
> but their officials in Namibia say themselves that they're concerned about it.
The link you gave was a speech given by the president while commissioning a naval base. I wouldn't place import on his mentioning piracy while listing the functions of a navy in a generic speech: also of concern are "global peace and security" by your terms.
Or, it might turn out to be zero. The article left it unclear whether they (the owners of the platforms) are making or losing money by doing this.
But there are two other concerns that would have to be addressed: Plugging the oil well, and navigational hazards. Neither seems to me to be insurmountable. Plugging the hole and leaving the platform there is easier than plugging the hole and removing the platform. And the navigational hazard has been there for decades. Leaving it changes nothing; an existing risk merely continues.
-- [1] until we get self-assembling nanobots one day
I suspect that number is actually negative without the rig owner's input. Thus the bit about Shell "watching over" the process to make sure the breakers are dealing properly with chemicals and asbestos.
On of the reasons the US Navy has taken to sinking decommissioned warships is the various hazardous materials make the cost of breaking them up more than the value of the materials. Rigs can't be that different.
Getting stuck on one of these decrepit beasts in gnarly weather could be fun.
I figure those guys would have more fun on a sailboat surfing through waves.
Plus the mainland is always within reach and there are so many places to visit.
If you have a fleet of helicopters or suppliers.
The North Sea can be pretty rough, there are times when the mainland might as well be on the moon.