Alexander L. Kielland (capsized 1980)
semi-submersible flotel · Phillips Petroleum (contractor)
- Type
- semi-submersible flotel
- Operator
- Phillips Petroleum (contractor)
- Water depth
- 80 m
- Region
- Ekofisk field, North Sea
- Country
- Norway
- Commissioned
- 1976
- Status
- lost-1980
About this platform type
Flotels are floating accommodation platforms — semi-submersible hulls dedicated to housing offshore crew rather than drilling or production. Used to expand the accommodation capacity of a working platform during major projects. The 1980 Alexander L. Kielland capsize, in which the flotel capsized killing 123 workers, remains a defining incident in offshore safety history.
For seafarers
Offshore-fleet roles command significantly higher pay than equivalent deep-sea cargo ranks (see /career-maps/offshore-vs-deep-sea-pay-tradeoff) but require sector-specific certification — DP-2/3 for marine officers on dynamically-positioned units, process-safety and operator-specific training for production-platform crews, and the offshore-specific rotation patterns (28/28 or 35/35 day). Entry requires either a maritime-academy background plus offshore conversion or transition from a related onboard-engineering background.
Sources: operator websites, classification-society publications, and offshore-industry news for the public data above. The platforms' status changes — confirm currency before relying on it for crew-scheduling decisions. Cross-references: /career-maps/highest-paying-niches-2026, /shipyards.