This Giant Oil Rig Could Usher in a Radically Altered Arctic
A floating oil rig just delivered to Italian and Norwegian oil companies will soon be operating farther north than any other.
What's orange, white, and big all over—and a potential harbinger of big changes in the Arctic if not the whole planet?
The answer is Goliat, a mammoth, beer-glass-shaped, floating oil platform that’s set to become the northernmost in the world. Last week the 65,000-ton rig arrived for commissioning near the remote Norwegian town of Hammerfest.
It had ridden piggyback all the way from a South Korean shipyard, more than 15,000 miles, aboard the world's largest heavy lift vessel, the Dockwise Vanguard.
This summer Goliat, which belongs to the Italian oil company Eni Norge and to Norway’s own Statoil, will be towed 53 miles (85 kilometers) northwest to its permanent mooring, near where the Norwegian Sea meets the Barents Sea.
