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EspañolR. G. LETOURNEAU
(Redirected from R.G. LeTourneau)
'Robert Gilmore LeTourneau' (November 30, 1888 – June 1, 1969) was a prolific inventor in the earthmoving industry. His machines represented nearly 70% of the earthmoving equipment used during World War II and was responsible for nearly 300 patents. With the help of his wife, Evelyn, he founded a private Christian college, LeTourneau University, in Longview, Texas and was known as a devoted Christian and generous philanthropist to Christian causes.
He created a colony in Liberia to bring Christianity to "savages" (his words). He named the colony Tournata. He designed and built gigantic 'jungle crusher' machines that would clear paths through the rainforests.
This is all described in a biography of his life, ''Mover of Men and Mountains'' (ISBN 0-8024-3818-0).
During the early 1950’s, offshore drilling was, for the most part, limited to non-mobile (fixed) platforms that were embedded in the sea floor by permanent foundations and/or pilings. The use of these non-mobile platforms was an expensive proposition since recovering the cost of the foundation had to be achieved from a single drilling location. The very few mobile platforms operating during that era were supported by sunken refloatable vessels, and were considered unsuitable for use in the turbulent waters of open seas and, therefore, confined to inland waters.
R.G. LeTourneau, an inventor, innovator, and pioneer (with literally hundreds of U.S. patents) had an idea for a vessel that could safely drill for oil and gas offshore. During a career that had spanned nearly 40 years, LeTourneau had become renowned for designing and building machines that elevated the earthmoving industry to new levels of efficiency and productivity. He was the first to develop all-wheel electric drives for these heavy-duty machines, a key technological component in the successful development of a mobile offshore drilling platform.
LeTourneau envisioned a stable and secure mobile platform that could safely operate in often-treacherous open waters. He knew that such a vessel would greatly reduce the costs of offshore drilling by being able to move from site-to-site rather than being permanently fixed to one location. His company, R.G. LeTourneau, Inc. (now LeTourneau Technologies, Inc.™) after conducting extensive engineering studies in oceanography, hurricane winds, and tidal waves, began design work on a mobile, self-elevating offshore drilling platform. The objective was to build an all-weather offshore drilling platform that could be floated to the drill site then quickly converted to a stabilized structure by lowering open lattice tripod-type support legs to the sea floor.
Although the concept of a deep-sea, mobile, offshore platform aroused considerable interest among the oil companies, none were prepared to help finance the construction of such an expensive (nearly $3 million) and unproven project. That is until LeTourneau proposed the idea to Zapata Off-Shore Company of Houston, Texas, headed by future United States President, George Bush.
Bush later described LeTourneau in his autobiography, Looking Forward.
“A kind of George Patton of engineering. … He’d come to us with a proposition: he’d build the Scorpion at his own expense. We’d advance him $400,000 – refundable if the completed rig didn’t work; if it did, he’d get an added $550,000 and 38,000 shares of Zapata Off-Shore common stock. Our feeling was that anybody who had that much confidence in himself was worth the gamble.”
The contract to deliver the first mobile offshore platform was signed on November 11, 1954 and construction began in late 1954 near the company’s Vicksburg plant on the shores of the Mississippi River. With the need to overcome the design constraints of conventional platforms, its construction was considered by many in the offshore oil industry to be quite a daring attempt.
The LeTourneau Mobile Offshore Platform was basically a large, shallow-draft barge, equipped with three electro-mechanically-operated lattice type legs. Dimensions of the platform were 186 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 24 feet in section with a 24-foot by 28-foot derrick slot. The hull structure comprised two 20-foot diameter barge-like hulls, which were reinforced by corrugated steel plate and utilized for fuel storage, mud tanks, and water supply storage. The three 140-foot lattice type steel legs (also known as spuds) were located on two sides and one end of the hull. Living quarters for the crew and helicopter landing pads were fitted to the deck.
In December 1955, the 4,000-ton platform “walked” into the Mississippi River under its own power. Construction of the platform was completed with the installation of a drilling derrick, pumps, and associated equipment.
The platform was handed over to Zapata Off-Shore and officially christened “Scorpion” on March 20, 1956 in a ceremony where R.G LeTourneau presented a 3-foot “Key to the Gulf” to Zapata’s president, George Bush. Scorpion went into service off the coast of Port Aransas, Texas and drilled its first well for the Standard Oil Company of Texas. The rig then moved to another location off the coast of Galveston, Texas, then to the Gulf of Mexico.
In June 1956, the Scorpion set a drilling rig world relocation record by traveling approximately one mile under tow from one well site to another and commenced drilling a new well within 8 ½ hours. Scorpion’s unprecedented repositioning speed was due to its ability to stabilize with only 5 to 7 feet of sea floor penetration and then quickly elevate. Other platforms of the day typically required as much as a hundred feet of spud penetration and days to jack before operations could begin.
Construction soon began on a second LeTourneau platform, which was delivered to Zapata Off-Shore in early 1957. The LeTourneau platforms soon had an opportunity to prove themselves, as they were the only rigs on the Gulf Coast to withstand the forces of Hurricane Audrey in 1957 without sustaining damage.
The Zapata Scorpion revolutionized offshore oil and gas exploration a half century ago by greatly reducing the costs of setting an offshore oil well into operation. Well regarded as a robust and efficient drilling platform, LeTourneau had built and placed 10 offshore platforms around the world by 1959.
Today, after having designed, engineered and built 179 jack-ups (more than anyone else) and with more than 135 operating throughout the world, LeTourneau Technologies Offshore Products stands as the leader in offshore jack-up drilling rigs, with a well-known track record of dependability, a reputation for the finest construction technology, and a company-wide commitment to innovation and customer responsiveness.
★ LeTourneau University
A statue of R.G. LeTourneau on the LeTourneau University campus.
Several of R.G.'s original machines are on display on the LeTourneau University campus.
He created a colony in Liberia to bring Christianity to "savages" (his words). He named the colony Tournata. He designed and built gigantic 'jungle crusher' machines that would clear paths through the rainforests.
This is all described in a biography of his life, ''Mover of Men and Mountains'' (ISBN 0-8024-3818-0).
During the early 1950’s, offshore drilling was, for the most part, limited to non-mobile (fixed) platforms that were embedded in the sea floor by permanent foundations and/or pilings. The use of these non-mobile platforms was an expensive proposition since recovering the cost of the foundation had to be achieved from a single drilling location. The very few mobile platforms operating during that era were supported by sunken refloatable vessels, and were considered unsuitable for use in the turbulent waters of open seas and, therefore, confined to inland waters.
R.G. LeTourneau, an inventor, innovator, and pioneer (with literally hundreds of U.S. patents) had an idea for a vessel that could safely drill for oil and gas offshore. During a career that had spanned nearly 40 years, LeTourneau had become renowned for designing and building machines that elevated the earthmoving industry to new levels of efficiency and productivity. He was the first to develop all-wheel electric drives for these heavy-duty machines, a key technological component in the successful development of a mobile offshore drilling platform.
LeTourneau envisioned a stable and secure mobile platform that could safely operate in often-treacherous open waters. He knew that such a vessel would greatly reduce the costs of offshore drilling by being able to move from site-to-site rather than being permanently fixed to one location. His company, R.G. LeTourneau, Inc. (now LeTourneau Technologies, Inc.™) after conducting extensive engineering studies in oceanography, hurricane winds, and tidal waves, began design work on a mobile, self-elevating offshore drilling platform. The objective was to build an all-weather offshore drilling platform that could be floated to the drill site then quickly converted to a stabilized structure by lowering open lattice tripod-type support legs to the sea floor.
Although the concept of a deep-sea, mobile, offshore platform aroused considerable interest among the oil companies, none were prepared to help finance the construction of such an expensive (nearly $3 million) and unproven project. That is until LeTourneau proposed the idea to Zapata Off-Shore Company of Houston, Texas, headed by future United States President, George Bush.
Bush later described LeTourneau in his autobiography, Looking Forward.
“A kind of George Patton of engineering. … He’d come to us with a proposition: he’d build the Scorpion at his own expense. We’d advance him $400,000 – refundable if the completed rig didn’t work; if it did, he’d get an added $550,000 and 38,000 shares of Zapata Off-Shore common stock. Our feeling was that anybody who had that much confidence in himself was worth the gamble.”
The contract to deliver the first mobile offshore platform was signed on November 11, 1954 and construction began in late 1954 near the company’s Vicksburg plant on the shores of the Mississippi River. With the need to overcome the design constraints of conventional platforms, its construction was considered by many in the offshore oil industry to be quite a daring attempt.
The LeTourneau Mobile Offshore Platform was basically a large, shallow-draft barge, equipped with three electro-mechanically-operated lattice type legs. Dimensions of the platform were 186 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 24 feet in section with a 24-foot by 28-foot derrick slot. The hull structure comprised two 20-foot diameter barge-like hulls, which were reinforced by corrugated steel plate and utilized for fuel storage, mud tanks, and water supply storage. The three 140-foot lattice type steel legs (also known as spuds) were located on two sides and one end of the hull. Living quarters for the crew and helicopter landing pads were fitted to the deck.
In December 1955, the 4,000-ton platform “walked” into the Mississippi River under its own power. Construction of the platform was completed with the installation of a drilling derrick, pumps, and associated equipment.
The platform was handed over to Zapata Off-Shore and officially christened “Scorpion” on March 20, 1956 in a ceremony where R.G LeTourneau presented a 3-foot “Key to the Gulf” to Zapata’s president, George Bush. Scorpion went into service off the coast of Port Aransas, Texas and drilled its first well for the Standard Oil Company of Texas. The rig then moved to another location off the coast of Galveston, Texas, then to the Gulf of Mexico.
In June 1956, the Scorpion set a drilling rig world relocation record by traveling approximately one mile under tow from one well site to another and commenced drilling a new well within 8 ½ hours. Scorpion’s unprecedented repositioning speed was due to its ability to stabilize with only 5 to 7 feet of sea floor penetration and then quickly elevate. Other platforms of the day typically required as much as a hundred feet of spud penetration and days to jack before operations could begin.
Construction soon began on a second LeTourneau platform, which was delivered to Zapata Off-Shore in early 1957. The LeTourneau platforms soon had an opportunity to prove themselves, as they were the only rigs on the Gulf Coast to withstand the forces of Hurricane Audrey in 1957 without sustaining damage.
The Zapata Scorpion revolutionized offshore oil and gas exploration a half century ago by greatly reducing the costs of setting an offshore oil well into operation. Well regarded as a robust and efficient drilling platform, LeTourneau had built and placed 10 offshore platforms around the world by 1959.
Today, after having designed, engineered and built 179 jack-ups (more than anyone else) and with more than 135 operating throughout the world, LeTourneau Technologies Offshore Products stands as the leader in offshore jack-up drilling rigs, with a well-known track record of dependability, a reputation for the finest construction technology, and a company-wide commitment to innovation and customer responsiveness.
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★ LeTourneau University
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