The first offshore oil platform installed in the Gulf of Mexico in 1947 was Kermac 16.
Kermac 16 was installed by Kerr-McGee Oil Industries in the Ship Shoal area off Louisiana. It was placed in about 20 feet of water and stood roughly 10 miles from the shoreline. The project demonstrated that oil drilling could move beyond land and coastal marshes into open water.
The platform was associated with the discovery of the Ship Shoal Block 32 field and helped establish techniques later used in deeper offshore environments. Early Gulf platforms were relatively close to shore and operated in shallow water, whereas modern installations can work far offshore beneath thousands of feet of water.
The name is sometimes confused with Mr. Charlie, a 1950s drilling platform that became an important early mobile offshore drilling unit. Kermac 16 is the specific platform generally credited as the first fixed offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.