Shallow water drilling

Imagine you are playing with your toy boat in a big bathtub. Now imagine that instead of a toy boat, you have a big metal tube. This tube is called a drilling rig, and it helps people dig deep holes in the ground, often in the ocean.

Shallow water drilling is when this drilling rig is used in water that is not too deep, like in a swimming pool. The drilling rig is set up on the ocean floor and reaches down into the earth below.

People use shallow water drilling to search for oil and natural gas that can be found underground, beneath the surface of the ocean. The drilling rig pumps a special liquid—called drilling fluid—into the hole to help break up the rocks and bring up any oil or gas that is down there.

After finding the oil or gas, people use other special machines to pump it out of the earth and transfer it to ships or pipelines that can transport it to places where people use it to make fuel, heat their homes, or even make plastic toys like the one you are playing with!