TIME Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.

Current subscribers for full access. Not a TIME subscriber? .

OIL: A Rig Named Bullwinkle

The industry may be mired in a three-year slump, but Big Oil still thinks big. Convinced that crude prices will rise again and anticipating a major new pool of natural gas, Shell Oil last week launched "Bullwinkle," a lighthearted name for the tallest ever offshore oil-drilling and -production rig.

At 1,615 ft., Bullwinkle will stand 161 ft. higher than the world's tallest building, Chicago's Sears Tower, although only 262 ft. of the rig will poke above the waves. Seven tugboats spent three days towing Bullwinkle to its home, 150 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico. When Bullwinkle...

Time.com on Digg

POWERED BY digg

Quotes of the Day »

DAVID CAMERON, British Prime Minister, on England's soccer manager, Fabio Capello, who resigned after challenging the FA's decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy; Terry denies a charge of racially abusing QPR's Anton Ferdinand
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.