A hooting tugboat nosed up to an odd-looking 4,200-ton contraption in West Germany's Audorf shipyards (on the Kiel Canal) last week, made towlines fast and headed to sea, outward bound for the Persian Gulf, 6,800 miles away. No ordinary barge, the contraption bristled with a 140-ft. derrick, a crane, a heliport, had air-conditioned quarters for 50 men. Built at a cost of $3,500,000, it was the most advanced mobile oil-drilling platform ever built, and a device that its owners, British Petroleum Co. and Compagnie Franchise de Petroles, hope will open up a...
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