Benguela-Belize Lobito-Tomboco Platform, Offshore oil platform in lower Congo Basin, Angola.
The Benguela-Belize Lobito-Tomboco Platform is an offshore oil production facility in the lower Congo Basin, anchored to the seabed at a depth of around 390 meters. It uses a compliant piled tower structure, a design where a slender tower is fixed to the seafloor and allowed to flex slightly with ocean currents.
Chevron found the Benguela and Belize oil fields in 1998, and the Lobito field followed in 2000. The separate discoveries were later brought together into a single production system covering all four fields.
Angola's offshore oil industry is central to the country's public life, shaping its economy and its role in global energy markets. This platform is part of that industry and sits in a region where several major oil fields were found in the same period.
The facility is located far offshore in open ocean and is not open to the public, as it operates as an active and restricted oil production zone. Only specialized crew and supply vessels can access the site, and no visitor access of any kind is permitted.
This platform was the first compliant piled tower structure ever built and installed outside the Gulf of Mexico. That meant the engineering methods used here had never before been applied at this water depth in any other part of the world.
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