Oil Drilling Rigs Going for LEED Certification

ExxonMobil announced today that they will be pursuing LEED certification for a number of their offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

"The LEED program already recognizes the importance of having buildings that produce their own energy. Photovoltaic panels are a big hit on those gold and platinum buildings, and at ExxonMobil we're all about the gold and platinum," said company representative Paul Myfinger. "Look at how much energy our rigs produce compared to what they use, it's obvious that they're super efficient!"

Myfinger cited a number of other aspects of drilling rigs that makes them suitable candidates for LEED certification:

• Open work platforms and fresh sea air make air quality quite high. You also can't have any carpet or particle board products in this environment, so there are no offgassing issues. Everyone out on the deck also has a great view of the outdoors.

• Fresh water must be shipped in, so the platform is very efficient in its water use.

• A drilling rig has zero on-site parking, and everyone ride-shares using company transportation. Use of personal vehicles to get to work is simply not allowed.

ExxonMobil hopes this will enable them to become the country's leading LEED building owner.

[added 02 April 2007]: Hope everyone enjoyed this year's April Foolery.  I found myself thinking about the realities of doing something like this as I was writing the article.

Fundamentally, I think it should be possible to gain LEED acreditation for an oil rig, though it might entail major changes.  After all, it's possible to have busses that use battery/hybrid/electric power and regenerative braking.  It just takes a will to do it.

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