An offshore platform is often referred to as an oil rig or oil platform. It is a massive structure used to house workers and the machinery required to drill wells into the ocean bed, or to extract natural gas etc and pipe them to shore. Some rigs are fixed to the ocean floor, yet others may be part of an artificial island or may even float.
Due to the nature of their operation, platforms have risks to deal with. Accidents can happen unfortunately, especially when dealing with the extraction of volatile substances under extreme pressure in hostile environments.
A typical oil production platform is usually self sufficient in energy and water needs. It will house electrical generation, water desalinators and any other equipment which is necessary to process oil and gas.