OIL: A Rig Named Bullwinkle

The industry may be mired in a three-year slump, but Big Oil still thinks big. Convinced that crude prices will rise again and anticipating a major new pool of natural gas, Shell Oil last week launched “Bullwinkle,” a lighthearted name for the tallest ever offshore oil-drilling and -production rig.

At 1,615 ft., Bullwinkle will stand 161 ft. higher than the world’s tallest building, Chicago’s Sears Tower, although only 262 ft. of the rig will poke above the waves. Seven tugboats spent three days towing Bullwinkle to its home, 150 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico. When Bullwinkle reaches full production in 1991, its 50 wells will turn out 50,000 bbl. of oil a day, enough to make 2.1 million gal. of gasoline.