Mothballing the World's Fanciest Oil Rigs Is a Massive Gamble
- Off the coast of Trinidad, high-tech drillships are piling up
- They were shut down to cut costs. Will they ever come back on?
Transocean Decides to Shut-Off Drilling Ships
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In a far corner of the Caribbean Sea, one of those idyllic spots touched most days by little more than a fisherman chasing blue marlin, billions of dollars worth of the world’s finest oil equipment bobs quietly in the water.
They are high-tech, deepwater drillships -- big, hulking things with giant rigs that tower high above the deck. They’re packed tight in a cluster, nine of them in all. The engines are off. The 20-ton anchors are down. The crews are gone. For months now, they’ve been parked here, 12 miles off the coast of Trinidad & Tobago, waiting for the global oil market to recover.