Oil rig jobs can seem very appealing in any job market, but there are a number of harsh realities to working on them that nobody really talks about.

Hilcorp’s Spurr platform, photographed last year, has not produced any oil or gas since 1992. (Nathaniel Herz for Alaska Public Media) The Spurr oil platform stopped pumping crude from beneath the silty ocean water outside Anchorage in 1992. The platform ...

Over 50 migrants were headed to the Italian island of Lampedusa Sunday after a charity ship rescued them from an abandoned oil platform in the Mediterranean, where one woman gave birth, according to a rescue group. The vessel Astral, operated by the Spain ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Robert Rapier is a chemical engineer covering the energy sector. MIDLAND, TX - JULY 29: President Donald Trump speaks to city officials and employees of Double Eagle Energy on the site ...

A specialized unit called a jackup rig, at left, drilled a natural gas well last year at Hilcorp’s Tyonek platform, right, in Cook Inlet. (Nathaniel Herz for Alaska Public Media) There are 17 offshore oil platforms in the waters of Cook Inlet, not far ...

Even before I could make out the silhouette of Platform Holly on the foggy horizon, I could see and smell oil. Ripples of iridescent liquid floated on the sea’s surface, reflecting the cloudy sky. But the oil wasn’t coming from a leak or some other ...