Quiz: The world’s deepest offshore oil-drilling platform sits in how many feet of water?

This week’s quiz question: The world’s deepest offshore oil-drilling platform sits in how many feet of water? a) 5,280 feet (1mile)    b) 6,600 feet (1.25 miles)    c) 8,000 feet (1.5 miles) Answer after the jump …   C, 8,000 feet.  The world’s remaining oil supply is becoming harder and harder to reach, so oil ...

By , copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009-2016 and was an assistant editor from 2007-2009.
STF/AFP/Getty Images
STF/AFP/Getty Images
STF/AFP/Getty Images

This week's quiz question:

This week’s quiz question:

The world’s deepest offshore oil-drilling platform sits in how many feet of water?

a) 5,280 feet (1mile)    b) 6,600 feet (1.25 miles)    c) 8,000 feet (1.5 miles)

Answer after the jump …  

C, 8,000 feet. 

The world’s remaining oil supply is becoming harder and harder to reach, so oil companies are having to operate even deeper in the water. In March, Perdido, an offshore oil drilling and production facility in the Gulf of Mexico operated by Shell, broke the water-depth record when oil flowed to the platform while it was moored with polyester rope in 8,000 feet (1.5 miles) of ocean.

Of course, with the massive BP oil spill, many people might no longer be in awe of what a "technological tour de force" the Perdido facility is.

(In the photo above, the Norwegian oil-drilling rig Statfjord B produces oil in the North Sea on Sept. 19, 1984.)

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009-2016 and was an assistant editor from 2007-2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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