semisubmersible rig

British

noun

Sometimes shortened to: semisubmersible. (in the oil industry) a type of drilling platform that floats supported by underwater pontoons, with much of its structure below the water line for stability in high winds: usually used only for exploratory drilling for oil or gas

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Explosions rocked the rig on the evening of April 20th, 2010, after the ultra-deepwater semisubmersible rig Deepwater Horizon had just completed drilling another exploratory well.

From The Verge

The semisubmersible rig was drilling some of the 16 gas wells in the Mariscal Sucre offshore natural gas project.

From Reuters

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023