HEADING FOR THE GULF OF MEXICO
Atlantis, an offshore drilling platform, slowly makes its way from the Gulf Marine Fabricators yard at Ingleside past Cline's Landing in Port Aransas to the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, Aug. 7. It is scheduled to be moored in the Gulf about 185 miles south of New Orleans in Green Canyon block 787 in a record water depth of 7,074 feet. Atlantis weighs about 46,856 tons and displaces 88,826 tons, making it the second largest semi-submersible in the world, smaller only than Thunder Horse. The Atlantis mooring system includes the longest continuous wire mooring ropes ever built. Twelve large steel canisters, called suction piles, will be embedded in the ocean floor to anchor the platform in place. Part of the chain used in this mooring system is the largest of its type in the world. Plans for the Atlantis include drilling and completion of 16 production and 4 injection wells in the adjacent Green Canyon block 743. The host facility is designed to process 200,000 barrels of oil and 180 million cubic feet of natural gas daily.