instance_of alexander l. kielland 
Alexander L . Kielland was a Norwegian semi - ___MASK59___ drilling ___MASK49___ that capsized while working in the Ekofisk oil field in March 1980 , killing 123 people . The capsize was the worst disaster in Norwegian waters since World War II . The ___MASK49___ , located approximately 320 km east of Dundee , Scotland , was owned by the Stavanger Drilling Company of Norway and was on hire to the U . S . company Phillips Petroleum at the time of the disaster . The ___MASK49___ was named after the Norwegian writer Alexander Lange Kielland . The ___MASK49___ was built as a mobile drilling unit at a French shipyard , and delivered to Stavanger Drilling in July 1976 . The floating drill ___MASK49___ was not used for drilling purposes but served as a semi - ___MASK59___ ' flotel ' providing living quarters for offshore workers . By 1978 , additional accommodation blocks had been added to the platform , so that up to 386 persons could be accommodated . In 1980 , the platform was working in the Norwegian north ___MASK74___ providing offshore accommodation for the production platform Edda 2 / 7C . Groundwater ( or ground ___MASK56___ ) is the ___MASK56___ present beneath Earth ' s surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations . A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of ___MASK56___ . The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with ___MASK56___ is called the ___MASK56___ ___MASK72___ . Groundwater is recharged from , and eventually flows to , the surface naturally ; natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps , and can form oases or wetlands . Groundwater is also often withdrawn for agricultural , municipal , and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells . The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology , also called groundwater hydrology . Seakeeping ability is a measure of how well - suited a ___MASK77___ is to conditions when underway . A ship or ___MASK17___ which has good seakeeping ability is said to be very seaworthy and is able to operate effectively even in high ___MASK74___ states . An ___MASK92___ , offshore platform , or ( colloquially ) ___MASK31___ ___MASK49___ is a large structure with facilities to drill wells ( optionally ), to extract and process ___MASK31___ and natural gas , or to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing . In many cases , the platform contains facilities to house the workforce as well . The North ___MASK74___ is a marginal ___MASK74___ of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain , Scandinavia , Germany , the Netherlands , Belgium , and France . An epeiric ( or " shelf ") ___MASK74___ on the European continental shelf , it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ___MASK74___ in the north . It is more than long and wide , with an area of around . A semi - ___MASK59___ ( semisubmerged ship ) is a specialised marine vessel used in a number of specific offshore roles such as offshore drilling rigs , safety vessels , oil production platforms , and heavy lift cranes . They are designed with good stability and seakeeping characteristics . Other terms include " semisubmersible ", " semi - sub ", or simply " semi ". A ___MASK24___ is a naturally occurring ___MASK12___ compound , usually of crystalline form and abiogenic in origin . A ___MASK24___ has one specific ___MASK12___ ___MASK8___ , whereas a ___MASK85___ can be an aggregate of different minerals or mineraloids . The study of minerals is called mineralogy . Ekofisk is an ___MASK31___ ___MASK61___ in block 2 / 4 of the Norwegian sector of the North ___MASK74___ about southwest of Stavanger . Discovered in 1969 by Phillips Petroleum Company , it remains one of the most important ___MASK31___ fields in the North ___MASK74___ . This was the first discovery of ___MASK31___ after the drilling of over 200 exploration wells in the North ___MASK74___ " triggered " by the Groningen gas ___MASK61___ discovery . In 1971 , Phillips started producing directly to tankers from four subsea wells . Oil production is planned to continue until at least 2050 . A drilling ___MASK49___ is a machine that creates holes in the earth sub - ___MASK84___ . Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill ___MASK56___ wells , oil wells , or natural gas extraction wells , or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person and are called augers . Drilling rigs can sample sub - ___MASK84___ mineral deposits , test rock , soil and groundwater physical properties , and also can be used to install sub - ___MASK84___ fabrications , such as underground utilities , instrumentation , tunnels or wells . Drilling rigs can be mobile equipment mounted on trucks , tracks or trailers , or more permanent land or marine - based structures ( such as oil platforms , commonly called ' offshore oil rigs ' even if they don ' t contain a drilling ___MASK49___ ). The term " ___MASK49___ " therefore generally refers to the complex of equipment that is used to penetrate the ___MASK84___ of the Earth ' s crust . Earth , otherwise known as the world , is the third ___MASK52___ from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to ___MASK5___ life . It is the densest ___MASK52___ in the Solar ___MASK75___ and the largest of the four terrestrial planets . ___MASK66___ is a mixture of minerals , ___MASK64___ , gases , liquids , and countless organisms that together support life on Earth . ___MASK66___ is a natural body called the pedosphere which has four important functions : it is a medium for plant growth ; it is a means of ___MASK56___ storage , supply and purification ; it is a modifier of Earth ' s atmosphere ; it is a habitat for organisms ; all of which , in turn , modify the soil . A ___MASK56___ well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging , driving , boring , or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers . The well ___MASK56___ is drawn by a ___MASK23___ , or using containers , such as buckets , that are raised mechanically or by hand . Wells were first constructed at least eight thousand years ago and historically vary in construction from a simple scoop in the sediment of a dry watercourse to the stepwells of India , the qanats of Iran , and the shadoofs and sakiehs of India . Placing a lining in the well shaft helps create stability and linings of wood or wickerwork date back at least as far as the Iron ___MASK19___ . Natural ___MASK100___ is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon ___MASK100___ mixture consisting primarily of methane , but commonly including varying amounts of other ___MASK78___ , and sometimes a small percentage of carbon dioxide , nitrogen , hydrogen sulfide , or helium . It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the ___MASK84___ of the Earth over millions of years . The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of chemical bonds in the ___MASK100___ . Stavanger is a ___MASK51___ and municipality in Norway . ___MASK99___ is the third - largest urban zone and ___MASK96___ area in Norway ( through conurbation with neighbouring Sandnes ) and the administrative centre of Rogaland county . The municipality is the fourth most populous in Norway . Located on the Stavanger Peninsula in Southwest Norway , Stavanger counts its official founding ___MASK7___ as 1125 , the ___MASK7___ the Stavanger ___MASK88___ was completed . Stavanger ' s core is to a large degree 18th - and 19th - century wooden houses that are protected and considered part of the ___MASK51___ ' s ___MASK40___ . This has caused the town centre and inner ___MASK51___ to retain a small - town character with an unusually high ratio of detached houses , and has contributed significantly to spreading the ___MASK51___ ' s population growth to outlying parts of Greater Stavanger . Phillips Petroleum Co . was an American ___MASK70___ incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining , marketing and transportation , natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors .