AOL News is joining forces with The Huffington Post to bring you the best original reporting, insight and opinion on the web. Join HuffPost Social News using your AOL account!

oil rigs News

oil rigs News From AOL News

BP Gulf Oil Spill: A Look Back [PHOTOS]

Apr 15th 2011 – 7:00PM
AP

AP

On April 20, 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig suffered a massive explosion off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and releasing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Take a look back at the photos that captured the damage the oil spill caused to the Gulf's wildlife and industries....

What Exploded Off Vermilion Bay: An Oil Rig or a Platform?

By David KnowlesSep 2nd 2010 – 3:51PM

(Sept. 2) -- As news broke on Thursday of yet another explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, several media outlets proclaimed that an "oil rig" had gone up in flames, echoing the devastating accident at BP's Deepwater Horizon rig. But as the story unfolds, the U.S. Coast Guard is taking pains to draw a distinction between oil...

Oil Platform Explosion Causes Panic Over Unconfirmed New Spill

By Steven HofferSep 2nd 2010 – 1:45PM

(Sept. 2) -- Initial reports suggest that today's Gulf Coast oil platform explosion is not the beginning of a second major gulf oil spill disaster -- let alone one on the scale of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed 11 (as opposed to today's good news that all 13 workers were saved). Yet many around the Web...

Background on oil rigs

An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a large structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing.

more at wikipedia »