Elegant engineering is solving the sloppy problem of raising offshore oil and gas platforms swept by the 85-ft waves of hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Rita to the Gulf of Mexico’s bottom.
Using trusses, four winches and four blocks counterbalanced and stabilized catamaran-like on two barges, Houston-based Versabar Corp.’s Bottom Feeder can lift a platform topsides weighing up to 1,800 tons from 400 ft depths in less than an hour. Versabar is a specialized lifting company.