Look up at a retired jack-up rig now moored in Galveston harbor. Here in Galveston, the museum is dedicated to the offshore oil and gas industry and is housed on a retired jack-up rig set up in the Galveston harbor, right next to the Strand National Historic Landmark District. The Ocean Star was built in 1969 in Beaumont, Texas by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation (Hull Number 6845) for the Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company fleet.
She worked throughout the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast and drilled approximately 200 wells during her active life. The museum is sponsored by the Offshore Energy Center, a non-profit funded through private donations, admissions, and corporate donations. The OEC acquired the Ocean Star and spent two years converting her into a museum that opened to the public on April 27, 1997.
In 2022, the Offshore Energy Center was renamed the Energy Education Foundation to broaden the scope of education to include all energy sources. Inside you can follow exhibits such as "Offshore Drilling: The Promise of Discovery," which takes you behind the scenes of the technical process of extracting. Notice the rig's massive legs and deck, once built to drill roughly 200 wells across the Gulf Coast.