Multipurpose platforms

Abstract

A multipurpose platform is an offshore system designed to serve the purposes of more than one offshore industry. Indeed, a number of industries have expanded, or are expanding, from onshore to offshore locations, adapting to the harsh environment in order to extract energy (conventional or renewable) or useful materials (deep mining), to produce food (aquaculture), nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals (blue biotechnology), to expand the urban areas, or to simply develop the local tourism, to name a few. This process starts to appear like, and certainly has the potential to become, a further `agricultural/industrial revolution', characterised by: (a) a substantial shift from `gathering of resources where available' to the systematic, settled use of the resources offered by the ocean, (b) a shift from offshore facilities of a specific industry operating independently to an `ecosystem' of offshore industrial activities, and (c) the resulting development of new technologies. Expanding the above-mentioned industries towards this new frontier can help to respond to two of the main challenges facing mankind: the sustainable, safe, and reliable production of energy and food, driven by an increasing population and rising prosperity. For these reasons, and also due to the huge potential to create jobs and revenues, many countries around the world are proposing and implementing strategies to develop the so-called Blue Economy.