Oil is not extracted from seawater. Oil extraction, in the context of offshore oil rigs, involves drilling through the seabed to reach underground reservoirs of oil. The reference material explains the process of how offshore oil rigs drill down to reach these underground oil deposits.
Here's a breakdown of the process, clarifying that the oil is under the sea, not in the sea water itself:
- Drilling: A drill bit, enclosed within a large pipe called a casing, is lowered to the seabed.
- Wellhead: The top part of the casing is called a wellhead.
- Drilling Deeper: The drill then starts drilling down through the various layers of rock and sediment beneath the ocean floor.
- Reaching the Oil Reservoir: The goal is to reach an oil reservoir, which is a porous rock formation saturated with oil.
Therefore, the process is not about extracting oil from seawater; it's about drilling through the seabed to access oil deposits that are located far beneath the ocean floor. Seawater is merely the environment in which the extraction operation takes place.
