   an oil platform, offshore platform, or (colloquially) oil rig is a large structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, or to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing. in many cases, the platform contains facilities to house the workforce as well. depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, may consist of an artificial island, or may float. remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. these subsea solutions may consist of one or more subsea wells, or of one or more manifold centres for multiple wells. == history ==  around 1891, the first submerged oil wells were drilled from platforms built on piles in the fresh waters of the grand lake st. marys (a.k.a. mercer county reservoir) in ohio. the wide but shallow reservoir was built from 1837 to 1845 to provide water to the miami and erie canal. around 1896, the first submerged oil wells in salt water were drilled in the portion of the summerland field extending under the santa barbara channel in california. the wells were drilled from piers extending from land out into the channel. other notable early submerged drilling activities occurred on the canadian side of lake erie in the 1900s and caddo lake in louisiana in the 1910s. shortly thereafter, wells were drilled in tidal zones along the gulf coast of texas and louisiana. the goose creek field near baytown, texas is one such example. in the 1920s, drilling was done from concrete platforms in lake maracaibo, venezuela. the oldest subsea well recorded in infield's offshore database is the bibi eibat well which came on stream in 1923 in azerbaijan. landfill was used to raise shallow portions of the caspian sea. in the early 1930s, the texas company developed the first mobile steel barges for drilling in the brackish coastal areas of the gulf. in 1937, pure oil company (now part of chevron corporation) and its partner superior oil company (now part of exxonmobil corporation) used a fixed platform to develop a field in  of water, one mile (1.6&nbsp;km) offshore of calcasieu parish, louisiana. in 1946, magnolia petroleum company (now part of exxonmobil) erected a drilling platform in  of water, 18 mil
Offshore_engineering Oil_platforms Structural_engineering