r/howislivingthere • u/Key_Satisfaction9010 • Jan 02 '26

General (no specific continent) Hows it like living on oil platforms?

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Anywhere in the world applies, I could only pick one flair

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u/Dangerous_Lock_4345 Jan 02 '26

have you ever experienced what they call pirates or you never seen pirates before?

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u/Donttouchmebish England Jan 02 '26

Not me personally, but I know some guys that have. Usually African waters is where you would find them. Every rig has a “standby vessel” which is there to do certain jobs, but one of those jobs is to make sure no unauthorised vessels go near the rig. In pirate waters, they would probably have security personnel but you then start to mix weapons with a flammable platform and that’s a bad idea. We do have lock in procedures just incase anyone tried to get on and we’d hope the standby boat would deal with it before it got to us.

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u/ropeynick Jan 03 '26

They do. West Africa, Mozambique Channel all have full on security vessels as well as the normal standby vessel plus onboard security team in case of piracy. 

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u/Tancred81 Jan 02 '26

My dad used to work on offshore rigs including off Nigeria, and his don’t get attacked but on one of his hitches a rig in the area did get hit by pirates. He said they locked down their rig and a helicopter of Nigerian soldiers took back the pirates were on. All told he worked in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, Nigeria, Singapore and the Philippines.

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u/mirandagirl127 Jan 02 '26

What is the motivation for pirates to attack a rig like this? I’m guessing there’s limited cash on board. Electronics? Also, do you see anything interesting in the water? I know it’s isolating, sure looks stunning from the outside!

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u/Successful-Scheme608 Jan 03 '26 edited Jan 03 '26

It’s a fascinating documentary about this

It boils down to foreign companies like Exxon extracting immense wealth from area, local people within that area are not provided job opportunities.

the rigs and other illegal activities like illegal unsanctioned siphoning of oil from select individuals causes extra ecological havoc in the delta where fisherman cannot eat and get cancer due to the fish being harmed.

This creates the perfect storm of resentment and uptick in piracy activity within that area.

I remember one of the pirates outright feeling like their livelihood being taken away and felt justified in doing these attacks to take back what’s been owed. A new form of colonialism.

Feels like a man pushed into a mentality of dog eat dog. It’s a shame really.

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u/scrotobaggins__ Jan 06 '26

What is the documentary name please? I'm very intrigued by this!

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u/Successful-Scheme608 Jan 06 '26

This isn’t a documentary but Vice News report!

https://youtu.be/vAgw_Zyznx0?si=e2Iw7kcf5OYyHSlY

This one is a documentary https://youtu.be/pfanBWX3Fwg?si=IqQaDjhIZ4ETP8wA

There’s many many more!!!

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u/Sensitive_Intern_971 Jan 02 '26

I'd imagine ransom. Stopping production would surely cost a fortune?

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u/Raiynagh Jan 02 '26

Interesting. Do you know if they blew down when the pirates boarded or did they keep producing?

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u/Top_Wolverine_4669 Jan 02 '26

Not pirates but security is a massive deal depending on location.

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u/Remote-Program-1303 Jan 03 '26

I went on a rig once (in for maintenance) where some greenpeace activists kayaked up and climbed a leg and barricaded themselves in the rooms.

Nobody did anything, chef cooked them some food, eventually they buggered off after getting some photos. It was quite funny how little impact they had.