Thursday panel to examine surface BOP technology · ning means arranging travel and coordinating with details of the trip with a project team at home. While some spend months planning

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It was apparent from the second the doors opened on Mon-day morning that every single person here at OTC is on a mis-sion. Some are here to prepare the event space, assemble booths or organize conference materials to be distributed. Others are here to meet with current clients, sit down with new ones or even train sales staff. Regardless, there is no doubt that every single person that crosses the parking lot onto the Reliant Park property this week has an agenda in mind.

Planning for OTC means something different to everyone attending the show. For some attendees, pre-conference plan-ning means arranging travel and coordinating with details of the trip with a project team at home. While some spend months planning logistics, others focus on the message that they want to share with others at OTC. Press conferences, brightly-lit LED screens and larger-than-life samples of equipment attract animated groups of people throughout the day, even piquing the curiosity of bystanders and leading them to join the crowd and find out what all the buzz is about.

Behind each of these crowds, is a group of people who have spent months planning exactly what their company’s message will be and how they will get that message across to their tar-get audience. Whether representing a global company or a na-tion itself – these communications specialists know that the 96 hours they’ve been waiting for are here and it is “go time.”

For Cathrine Tjessem, marketing and information assis-tant for Offshore Northern Seas (ONS), OTC 2010 is a dif-ferent experience from last year’s show. At 2009’s OTC show,

Tjessem had stand space to sell for the annual ONS confer-ence. She is here at OTC promoting ONS’ annual confer-ence, exhibition and festival being held in August of this year. She admits that with the passing of a year, the atmosphere of uncertainty felt at last year’s show – and the goals established for the show – have changed.

While the general atmosphere of the show is more optimistic and forward-looking, Tjessem explains that in roles like hers, the amount or scope of planning for the show didn’t change. In fact, because of the recent travel freezes around the world due

Solidarity in solace: When the unexpected happens

Traditional ly, the Offshore Tech-nology Conference is a time to tout and show off the latest in technology, re-acquaint ourselves with friends and competitors, and rejuvenate the spir-its of the offshore industry. This year, the technology still amazes, the booths

still tantalize and the sessions inform, but the mood is far more somber and introspective.

In the last 16 days, we have faced what we fervently hoped would never happen; an uncontrolled discharge of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and the tragic loss of 11 lives. We mourn their loss and pray that their families find comfort. We also thank all those who have worked, and continue to work 24 hours a day, in rescue and response efforts, as well as in environmental impacts mitigation and oil spill cleanup.

Our industry strives for safety—safe-ty of our personnel and safety for the environment. It is personal to us when something goes wrong, as it did here. There is never a “good” time for an ac-cident, but with an opportunity to ex-plore new offshore areas on the horizon, this is a particularly bad time.

The policy, environmental and po-litical ramifications of this incident will likely have a direct correlation with the duration and impact of the actual dis-charge of oil. The first concern of all of us—industry, government, propo-nent or opponent—must be to staunch the flow of oil, clean up and recapture the oil, and protect and rescue fragile natural resources. Once that is accom-plished, then comes the time to find the answers to why and how this happened and what can be done to prevent a re-

Randall Luthi, President, National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA)

See Solidarity page 21

There is never a more necessary component of a drill rig than a BOP and there is never a more immediate need to ascertain how they work and how they can be improved than now following the Deepwater Horizon inci-dent. What are the differences between conventional subsea and surface BOPs (SBOPs) and what does the future hold for SBOP designs being used on rigs drilling in deep water?

The industry began drilling with SBOPs in about 100 ft of water in early 1996 but quickly moved into every in-creasing water depths. A special panel session this afternoon will examine SBOP technology. Many deepwater-development projects in operators’ portfolios require lower costs to meet internal economic thresholds. As pres-sure increases to reduce deepwater well costs, technology trends are surfacing that could revolutionize the industry, re-

sulting in improved rig availability, low-er day rates and reduced development time. Use of surface BOP technology in deepwater is one of the most promising trends. It is already a highly regarded enabler for driving well costs down in some deepwater applications and float-ing drilling rig-based surface BOP is more readily adapted to other emerging drilling methods than a conventional subsea BOP configuration. General in-dustry focus has been to apply SBOP to third generation moored rigs, allowing them to operate in the deepwater envi-ronments dominated by fourth and fifth generation units.

A panel of SBOP technology experts, in addition to discussing drivers and barriers to SBOP technology, will offer a range of perspectives from operators, drilling contractors, consultants and reg-ulators. These diverse experts have one thing in common: they all are actively engaged in safely applying this technol-ogy to lower deepwater well costs.

The session’s moderators are Greg Carter, owner, Nautilus Offshore Co. Inc., and Neil Kavanagh, chief science and technology manager, Woodside Energy. Kicking off at 2 p.m. today, panelists will provide insight as to how SBOPs can reduce costs in deepwa-ter projects, compare views on where SBOP technology is headed next and discuss how SBOPs are currently be-ing considered in upcoming projects to keep costs down in future develop-ment schemes. The technology behind new SBOP designs will be discussed in addition to current practices and as an enabling technology.

Panelists include Russell Hoshman, petroleum engineer, Minerals Manage-ment Service (MMS); Brian Tarr, senior engineer, Shell; Earl Shanks, senior en-gineer, Deepwater Offshore Co.; John Kozicz, Transocean; Gavin Humphreys, new business and technology manager, Stena Drilling; and David Bond, general manager, Drilling, Ophir Energy. •

Thursday panel to examine surface BOP technologyBy Diane Langley

A day in the life at OTCBy Nell L. Benton

See A day in the life, page 21

Cathrine Tjessem, marketing and information assistant for ONS, is shown here at ONS Booth 5041.

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tHURSDAY 6 MAY 2010 – PAGE 3

As the world seeks a greater role for renewable energy, oil and gas operators and service companies are discovering new opportunities for their technical expertise. A recent example of such a transition is wind energy.

Statoil, a leading international oil and gas company, launched itself into wind energy last September by in-stalling a 2.3 MW pilot wind turbine in the North Sea, 10 km off the town of Karmøy.

Hywind is the world’s first full-scale offshore floating wind turbine. The project draws on Statoil’s off-shore experience, Siemens’ turbine technology and Technip’s engineering and construction skills in building floating structures.

After assembly in the Åmøy Fjord near Stavanger, Technip towed the

120-m tower 10 km offshore to 220-m depth in June 2009. The spar float-ing structure extends 100 m beneath the ocean surface and is attached to the seabed by a three-point mooring spread. Subsequently, Nexans Norway installed the submarine power trans-mission cable to the southern end of Karmøy, where local electric power company Haugaland Kraft operates a receiving station. The pilot turbine is expected to generate 9 GW·h/yr.

Statoil has invested $80 million in the construction and further devel-opment of the pilot, and in research and development related to the wind turbine concept. The R&D phase in-volved the testing of a 3-m-high model at Marintek’s Sinteff wave simulator. Enova, a Norwegian public corpora-tion promoting the transition to envi-ronmentally friendly energy, has pro-vided $11.5 million.

After the two-year pilot study, Sta-toil hopes to launch a manufacturing line of identical floating turbines for installation in water depths between 120 m and 700 m.

Technip is displaying a Hywind scale model in Booth 2741. •

Schedule of EventsFor more detailed information about each day’s sessions and events, pick up an official OTC program or visit www.otcnet.org.

Thursday, May 6

EditorBilly Thinnes

OTC ContactsCraig MoritzMargaret Watson

Publisher, World OilRon Higgins

Editors, World OilPramod KulkarniDavid M. CohenNell L. BentonDiane Langley

Contributing EditorsBuddy IvesJerry GreenbergJim ReddenHenry Terrell

PhotographerJohn Polek

LayoutAngela Bathe

Corporate DesignerAmy Dodd

Artist/IllustratorDavid Weeks

Manager– Advertising ProductionCheryl Willis

Director–ProductionSheryl Stone

SalesWorld Oil Sales Staff

www.WorldOil.comwww.HydrocarbonProcessing.comwww.GulfPub.com

John Royall, President/CEORon Higgins, Vice PresidentPamela Harvey, Business Finance Manager

Publishers of and

Part of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. Other energy group titles include: Petroleum Economist

otC 2010SHoW NEWSPAPERpublished by .

The official

Burst! .......................................................... 4Silver lining of recession ........................ 5Egypt ........................................................... 6Azurite field ............................................... 8Digital imaging ........................................ 10

Subsea excavation challenges........... 12DOE’s database ...................................... 13Asset handover issues ........................ 14Deeper drilling spurs ............................. 16Metocean ................................................ 17

News in brief ........................................... 18

Downturn momentum ........................... 19

Energy future .......................................... 20

Scenes from OTC 2010 .......................... 22

Inside this issue...

Registration 7 a.m.–2 p.m. Topical Breakfast, Industry Breakfast 7:30–9 a.m. Energy Education Institute: Teacher Workshop 7:30 a.m.–3 p.m. Energy Education Institute: STEM Event 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Exhibition 9 a.m.–2 p.m. Technical Sessions 9:30 a.m.–12 p.m. Topical Luncheons 12:15–1:45 p.m. General Panel Session 2–4:30 p.m. Technical Sessions 2–4:30 p.m. Closing Reception 4–5 p.m.

Even if you aren’t at OTC, you can still

read the official newspaper!

Visit WorldOil.com

to read a digital version of each day’s coverage.

Statoil and Technip are applying the offshore expertise gained in oil and gas projects to build a pilot floating wind turbine.

Hywind turbine spins Statoil, Technip into wind energyBy Pramod Kulkarni

Close collaboration with proj-ect partners and suppliers, as well as among staff engineers, was a key ele-ment in the safe and successful startups of Shell’s BC-10 and Perdido projects, said John Hollowell, the company’s ex-ecutive vice president of deep water.

At a topical lunch Wednesday, Hol-lowell said teamwork was essential at the two deepwater projects offshore Brazil and in the Gulf of Mexico, re-spectively, because they pushed the en-velopes of deepwater technology.

Although Shell operates Perdido, he said, “BP and Chevron did so much more than shoulder their percent of the financial risk, that we wouldn’t be standing here talking about complet-ing Perdido without them.”

Hollowell said BP’s experience using single-lift topsides on the Horn Mountain project and Chevron’s experience with

spar technology at Tahiti were crucial to the project: “Both partners freely and lav-ishly shared their experiences, learnings and staff to review, enhance and acceler-ate the Perdido design and planning.”

Similarly, close coordination with suppliers helped save the BC-10 project after a winch malfunction occurred while trying to pull a riser into the FPSO.

“We had the riser hanging below the FPSO about three weeks while we were trying to figure out how in the world we were going to recover from it,” Hollowell said. “First we had to figure out how to safely secure the FPSO from any further damage. Then we had to figure out how to safely transfer the load back to the in-stallation vessel and where we had to lay the riser down before we could start to repair the winch itself.”

In addition to the contributions of Shell personnel including one engineer recovering from surgery and another who flew in from India to help, suppli-

ers SBM and Subsea 7 “quickly mobi-lized their global experts to collaborate on options and solutions,” he said. •

John Hollowell is Shell’s executive vice president for deep water.

Shell VP touts frontier deepwater successesBy David Michael Cohen

Arbitrary Top Ten OTC Tchotchkes10 Your company here9 Hägglunds —Combination keyboard brush/letter opener8 China Highland—cowboy hat7 Louisiana Recruitment—teddy bear6 IHS—Texas-shaped pad containing bluebonnet seeds

you can plant5 University of Houston—flashlight/key ring

4 Weidmüller—pen and screwdriver set3 Mustang Engineering—Color-changing “Magic Ball”

that changes from blue to white if you throw it with just the right spin

2 Brooksbank Valves—Monte Blanc pen1 Boskalis Offshore—Cardboard luggage with wheels and

extendable handle to carry your tchotchkes around the show and onto your flight home

PAGE 4 – tHURSDAY 6 MAY 2010

By Buddy Ives

Burst! What is it?

When asked what burst was, John Bomba of Technip, the moderator for the Wednesday pipeline session, pro-vided a straight forward answer: “When your pipeline blows up.”

One of the principle criteria for the design of a deepwater pipeline is the se-lection of the proper wall thickness need-ed to satisfy installation, test and oper-

ating conditions. The definition of the term burst impacts the selection process.

Over the past year, researchers have devoted significant time looking into the ramifications of the several equations for determining burst failure of a pipeline.

During the Wednesday session a knowledgeable high-level panel discussed the implication the “burst” term has on the design of submarine pipelines and risers in deep water in the Gulf of Mex-ico and worldwide. The panel consisted of Bomba; Paul Stanton, also of Technip; Carl Langer, Carl Langer & Associates; David Garrett, Stress Engineering Ser-vices, and Kim Mork, DNV.

As the leadoff session panelist, Langer set the stage for discussing the develop-ments of codes that tackled the pipeline “burst” concerns of the industry. He said during his days with Shell Development Co. there was a continuing program studying the strength in pipe the rela-tionship to pipe collapse and buckling.

From this early work, API RP 1111 was developed to fill in the offshore gaps that were not addressed in the pipeline code B 31. “With the industry moving to deeper waters with higher pressures on flow lines it became evident that B 31 did not represent the strength of pipe for such situations,” he said. “What we needed to start doing was design lines to the best pressures instead of a code. RP 1111 modified the offshore pipeline portions of the code to address areas not initially addressed.”

During the early development work, he said there were seven different for-mulas that were considered by the com-mittee working on the code. From those seven, three fit the data gathered by the committee, which included MMS rep-resentatives.

Stress Engineering’s Garrett touched on the burst question from the ductile burst angle focusing on the theory be-hind the formula, test data and the se-lected formula. He touched on the ques-tion of why use 0.45 as the coefficient?

The theory was based from data based on nominal dimensions or higher if ac-counting for minimum “wall.” He also said the coefficient fits the theory and data and fits the current practice for high D/t.

Garrett said the burst test data was based on 267 tests with ranges for diam-eter from 2.65 in to 20 in; D/t of 6 to 32; burst pressure of 6 ksi to 43 ksi and yield of 48 ksi to 138 ksi. In the discus-sion, he accounted for actual properties with a flow stress factor that gives a best fit factor to reach a point that determines burst data.

DNV’s Mork focused on pressure containment in his brief remarks on the “burst factor.” He observed that it is worth noting that even though the work on RP 1111 took one approach and the DNV approach for ISO took another di-rection the conclusions ended up at the same point.

Which is the best hoop stress formula? “In limit state based design, the formula-tion that best represents the burst capac-ity,” he answered.

As for establishing a design criteria, using a best scientific design formula that considers statistics and industry practice. •

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A distinguished panel discussed deepwater pipeline design on Wednesday.


While it may seem like a difficult pill to swallow, companies that plan ahead can weather the severest of recessions without having to go on life support, Mustang Engineering President Steve Knowles told a topical luncheon yesterday.

During the lunch, Knowles said the key is changing the mindset of an orga-nization during upbeat times filled with exhilaration, anticipating and a healthy dose of satisfaction.

“Change is hard during the boom times, but mandatory in the tough times. I contend that what we need to change is our approach to change and look at it during the boom times when we have the resources to make change,” he said.

He pointed to a recent Harvard Business Review survey of 4,700 pub-lic companies that studied the last three recessions of 1980, 1990 and the most recent one. The results, he said, showed 9% of the companies surveyed emerged from the recession stronger than they were before. “The good news is, from this data we will not see another 10 years, but the bad news is more than 90% of the companies surveyed came out worse than they were before the downturn,” he said.

What is also surprising, he said, was that 85% of the pre-recession market leaders were dislodged from their domi-nate peaks when the recessions ended. “This might spell bad news if you were a market leader before the recession, but is good news if you were aspiring to be a market leader,” he said.

The keys to surviving a major downturn in business is to look at re-ducing costs, but also function under a healthy mix of continuing to invest in the future, especially when it comes to R&D spending.

“You can’t save you way to prosperity. During the downtimes, you have to take both a defensive and offensive approach. That is when you must really concentrate on continuous improvement – to do bet-ter to get better,” he said.

Using Mustang as an example, he said there is a new normal in the worldwide economic picture today. “We were a 5,000-employee company and now we have 3,500 employees, so that’s our new normal. We’re working our way back to 5,000, but how long will it take?” Knowles said.

With that, he said it behooves com-panies to keep its core talent during a recession to help it better respond to the

business environment when it improves. He said it is critical to do whatever pos-sible to limit attrition, be it voluntary of involuntary, by giving key employees new and perhaps unfamiliar assignments and always being consistent in delivering the company message.

“Employees have been through a lot in a recession. It is up to us as managers to convince them that while the grass may appear brown now, it will definitely turn

green. It is vitally important that you le-verage the talent you have,” he said.

Knowles added that one of the actual benefits of a slowdown in business is ex-posing the strengths and weaknesses of a corporation. “That’s the silver lining, because when we have a recession what is working and what is not working are clearly exposed.”

Returning to the Harvard survey, Knowles said respondents were asked

what measures they feel should best be followed in a recession and their respec-tive odds of beating the competition by 10%. The majority sentiment, he said, included a mixture of cost cutting and progressive approaches for planning for the future.

As the economic world is shifting, he said it behooves companies to remain firm to their vision, mission and values, while readjusting for the realities of today. •

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Steve Knowles, president of Mustang Engineering, discussed the silver lining of a recession.


Egypt, the ancient cradle of civiliza-tion, now offers a cradle of oil and gas investment opportunities, according to a panel of experts at an OTC industry breakfast on Wednesday. Organized by the US Department of Commerce and OTC, the panel consisted of Abdel Alim Taha, first undersecretary for production affairs in Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum;

Rod Eichler, president of international operations for independent oil and gas company Apache; Mark Richard, vice president for business development and marketing for Halliburton’s oilfield ser-vice company; and Susan Farrell, senior director of upstream and fas for strategic consulting company PFC Energy. The panel moderator was Dr. Arnis Judzis, member of the OTC board of directors and vice president of testing services for Schlumberger.

“Egypt’s oil production is declining,” Dr. Judzis said in explaining the country’s rationale for seeking additional invest-ment in the oil and gas sector. “While Egypt’s proven oil reserves stand at 3.7 billion barrels , production has declined from 950,000 b/d in 1995 to 664,000 b/d to 2007, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The poten-tial for reversing this decline represents an opportunity for investors in Egypt’s oil and gas projects.”

Under secretary Taha said a total area of 2,230 km2 in Egypt was suitable oil and gas operations of which approxi-mately 33.3% was still open acreage. “In a March 2009 report, energy consultant Wood MacKenzie lauded Egypt for hav-ing the second highest level of oil and gas hot spots with an average success rate of 27%.”

Potential oil and gas regions in Egypt include offshore Mediterranean, Nile Delta, Western Desert , Upper Egypt and the Red Sea.

“Egypt’s investment assets include political and economic stability, fis-cal capital, transparent regulations and reliability as an exporter,” Mr. Taha ex-plained. “These factors make Egypt a potential energy hub.”

Halliburton’s Mark Richard, delineat-ed the company’s long history in Egypt. “We started our activities in Egypt through cementing and stimulation ser-vices for international oil companies in the 1950s. In subsequent decades, we added logging and geophysical surveys, directional drilling and now we provide reservoir focused technology and solu-tions instead of just ‘you call, we haul’ type of hardware products.”

Richard lauded Egypt’s human re-sources. “As much as 98% of our staff-ing in Egypt is nationalized. Addition-ally, more than 500 Egyptians work for Halliburton in international locations outside Egypt.”

Apache Energy, the largest indepen-dent oil company with international E&P operations, is the leading producer of hydrocarbon liquids in Egypt and the number one natural gas producer in the Western Desert. In 2009, Apache pro-duced 33.6 MMb of oil, 132.4 MMscf of natural gas, and achieved revenues of $2.5 billion.

“Egypt presents highly repeatable op-portunities that are similar to the Perm-ian Basin,” Rod Eichler said. “While the area is geologically complex, we’ve been able to achieve a 90% success rate in the 1,500 wells we’ve drilled.”

PFC Energy’s Susan Farrell lauded Egypt’s growing gas demand, but she cited potential risks as a moratorium on gas exports and the government’s finan-cial weakness. •

By Pramod Kulkarni

Egypt: Cradle of opportunities

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Abdel Alim Taha said Egypt could become an energy hub due to the country’s fiscal incentives, human resources and transparent regulations.


The Azurite field offshore the Congo came on stream in August 2009, em-ploying the industry’s first floating, drill-ing, production, storage and offloading (FDPSO) vessel to develop the field. The FDPSO, a former VLCC with its moonpool in the center of the vessel and located directly over the subsea wells, helped field operator Murphy Oil to fast track the field, which was discovered in January 2005. The lease block covers

1.9 million acres, an area equivalent to 300 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico. Wa-ter depths across the field range between 1,100-2,000 m.

Murphy had considered and evalu-ated four concepts: subsea tiebacks to a third party facility; subsea tiebacks to an infield FPSO; a dry tree unit producing to an FPSO; and an infield FDPSO.

“Faced with deepwater rig shortages and subsequent high dayrates, and the

desire to make a step-change improve-ment in project economics, the FDPSO alternative was chosen,” said Harry J. Howard with Murphy West Africa.

The versatility of the FDPSO is sig-nificant. Economics favor the concept when reserves can be produced from a single location while it also has appli-cation for fields with multiple drilling centers. The FDPSO can be located over the drill center containing the

majority of a field’s reserves and other wells can be tied back to the FDPSO. However, while the FDPSO can be considered a game changer, it employs no new technology.

For example, both wet and dry tree solutions were evaluated. Murphy opt-ed for a wet tree development because it represented less of a technological step-out. The moonpool is located in the center of the former VLCC in or-der to minimize rig motion, a modular platform drilling rig was installed and the wells drilled from the vessel com-pleted subsea.

The FDPSO is a unique system but it is not limited to the particular field in which it is installed, Howard noted. Among the applications are marginal fields, as an early production system used as part of a phased development, and in fields where other storage and offloading infrastructure are already available.

“There are several key variables to determine the suitability of an FDPSO in a particular application,” Howard said. “Its technical and commercial viability (for the application) must be established first.”

Some of the key variables include water depth. Competition to an FDP-SO includes jackups that could be used as production facilities suitable in wa-ter depths up to about 300 ft. Beyond that depth, and less than 1,000 ft, a fixed structure could be an alternative with either wet or dry trees, and with or without an FPSO used in conjunction with the development scheme. Howard noted that 7,000 ft of water roughly corresponds to the maximum water depth for which flexible risers have been qualified, which also would limit the FDPSO to about that depth. However, FDPSOs still could be a viable applica-tion by qualifying the flexible risers on a case-by-case basis. One possible solu-tion would be to use a riser tower with flexible jumpers in the shallow part of the water column to accommodate ves-sel movement.

A key enabler of an FDPSO in West Africa is the relatively benign sea state. Swells emanate form the southwest, ef-fectively serving to fix the FDPSO bow heading in order to minimize roll during drilling and production operations.

Subsurface characteristics also are key variables to determine the applicabil-ity of an FDPSO in a particular field. Parameters considered for use of an FDPSO include reservoir depth, areal extent, degree of compartmentalization, reservoir permeability and directional drilling operations.

Reservoir depth, areal extent and di-rectional drilling capabilities will impact the well count and subsea tree locations. The degree of compartmentalization and reservoir permeability also impacts the well count. Shallow and large reservoirs are difficult to drain from a single drill center so in some cases a conventional FPSO development with subsea trees is economic. However, Howard said, if a critical mass of reserves can be produced from a single drill center, then the FDP-SO still has merit as a development tool. Remaining reserves can be produced via tiebacks to the FDPSO. •

Azurite field boasts first FDPSO

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Digital imaging detects corrosion

A real-time digital imaging system was successfully used to detect corrosion under insulation on a platform process piping system for a major deepwater Gulf of Mexico operator. The technol-ogy halved the expected project time, from eight weeks to four weeks, and led to significant cost savings.

The advanced radiation technology was recently introduced to the non-de-structive examination service offering of RBG, a leading fabric maintenance and construction support firm serving the energy industry. The service is a non-intrusive method of checking insulated pipe work and associated equipment for corrosion. Traditionally, operators would have to identify and sample areas within the piping circuit where insulation had

to be removed and inspections carried out, which can be time-consuming, cost-ly and ineffective, since potential defects are not always identified.

RBG’s versatile process allows techni-cians to quickly scan large areas of piping circuits and identify problem sections without shutting down production. On detection, these problems can be ad-dressed effectively and efficiently with a targeted maintenance plan. This in turn,

helps to maintain long-term asset integ-rity by avoiding issues associated with se-lective testing, such as water ingress.

The lightweight system uses a low-cu-rie source of radiation to identify the cor-roded areas. As there is a low gamma ex-posure, only a reduced area of operation has to be cordoned off to carry out the procedure, compared with convention radiography techniques that are often used for this type of work. This allows the client to continue operations with minimal disruption to ongoing activity.

The real-time digital imaging system projects digital video images onto a hand-held LCD and a head-mounted display in real time, at 30 frames per second. Unlike previous X-ray systems, the image is presented continuously, allowing rapid in-motion scanning of pipes through a range of material densities. The high-resolution images can be recorded and stored onto a digital video recorder. The system is operated by a two-person team (see figure); one operator inspects the pipe work while the other is able to act as a guide, analyzing results in real time, with options for additional displays that can be viewed live by a third party.

The system can be combined with RBG’s expert rope access capability, al-lowing for easy access to elevated pipe-lines and connections on offshore plat-forms, as well as petrochemical plants, without the need for scaffolding.

RBG was contracted to undertake in-spection of a carbon steel piping system in the Gulf of Mexico to determine the location of internal and external corro-sion or water ingress. Using the advanced radiation technique allowed the opera-tor to identify the defects and prepare a maintenance plan, without the associated cost of removing sample sections of insu-lation. The system’s portable nature also allowed it to be used in tandem with rope access, meaning the project was complet-ed four weeks ahead of schedule.

The success of the project has led to contracts being secured for several of the operator’s other offshore platforms.

RBG was formed in 2005 through the merger of Mach-ten, MacGregor Energy Services and Rigblast Group. Headquar-tered in Aberdeen, UK, the company operates in the UK and internationally and employs more than 4,500 people. RBG facilities and offices are located in principal areas of energy exploration and production activity, including Azerbai-jan, Italy, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Trinidad & Tobago, the UK and the US. •

By Steven Henderson, RBG USA

The real-time digital imaging system is operated by a two-man team.

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While conducting platform recov-ery and permanent abandonment op-erations in the Grand Isle lease block of the Gulf of Mexico, Wild Well Control (WWCI) encountered a single platform that required extensive excavation to gain vertical access for well head installa-tion. As the debris removal phase ended

and the excavation phase progressed, it became apparent that mass excavation of the entire well bay would be required. Scrutinizing multiple options, WWCI decided to pursue the option of a modu-lar cofferdam system.

A proven philosophy is chal-lenged. Initially, WWCI utilized ex-isting marine excavation technologies to remove the soft and intermediate

layers of material from the excavation site. Over a four month period, WWCI removed approximately 240,000 cubic feet of material utilizing these methods. Tubular deformation at depths greater than anticipated led WWCI to estimate additional excavation requirements to exceed 25–30 ft below mudline, requir-ing an additional 601,000 cubic feet of material to be removed. This addition-al excavation requirement prompted

WWCI to begin investigating methods to increase excavation rates, while at the same time develop a method to reduce footprint and maintain safety standards for diving operations.

The Jetting Air Lift. WWCI Marine Engineers trouble shot the existing exca-vation technologies and identified their shortcomings in an effort to develop a more productive excavation tooling. The result is the WWCI Jetting Air Lift. The tool has no mechanical parts to jam and provides approximately 800 psi of water pressure at –100 fsw. It is capable of cut-ting through soil strata with undrained shear strengths of 1.0 ksf at an approxi-mate rate of 20–25 cubic feet per hour. Although the Jetting Air Lift was a great improvement from existing marine ex-cavation technologies, a greater rate of excavation was desired.

Limiting Excavation Scenarios. WWCI possesses self jetting cofferdams in its inventory for use in limiting exca-vations and insuring the highest stan-dards for diver safety. These units can be utilized to isolate 3–5 wellbores in a sin-gle installation depending upon spacing. However, repetitive recovery and instal-lation of the units would be required and the effective utilization of these units at this site was not seen as a viable option.

The driving of 5 round steel coffer-dams with a diameter of 10–12 ft and height of 25 ft was the second option proposed. These units would be installed in an offset pattern in 2 phases to isolate as many as 5 wells in the first phase, and 4 in the second phase. Again, the repetitive installation of this solution in order com-plete single work phases of wellhead in-stallation and well P&A during separate mobilizations prompted this solution to also be seen as a less viable option.

The solution is installed. Thirdly, based on gaining the most efficient cof-ferdam design, WWCI began looking at driven pile options to create a cofferdam that would encompass the entire well bay. BOH Bros. Construction was ap-proached with the idea and, working with WWCI Engineers to determine the full scope of needs, provided a driven pile system that utilized a series of inter-locking 48-in OD piles driven around a subsea template. This option was chosen over a sheet pile version due to the final durability reduced diver exposure dur-ing installation.

Once driven pile system was installed at the site, localized excavation activities were implemented, utilizing WWCI’s jetting air lift conveyed from a 4 pt. dive vessel, to gain access to the conductors at a depth up to –140’ (+/- 49’ below natural bottom).

This cofferdam design was able to eliminate the need to reposition sys-tems and also alleviate future excavation activities in order to gain access to the wells for abandonment. Once all wells were properly P&A’ed the cofferdam pil-ing could be removed and available for reuse at another location, if deemed fi-nancially practical. The removal process would be a reverse installation in which the piles are vibrated out. •

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Over the course of the last four de-cades, the National Energy Technol-ogy Laboratory (NETL) has conducted extensive research and development of technology for oil and gas exploration, drilling and production. The results of this impressive program are now publi-cally available in the NETL Knowledge Management Database (KMD) at www.netl.doe.gov/kmd.

The online database contains nearly 20,000 reports and papers on R&D projects, in addition to an extensive li-brary of CDs covering topics ranging from geologic characterization of major producing basins in the U.S. to primers on topics such as CO2 EOR. The KMD also contains a wealth of visual material, including resource and basin maps, Gulf of Mexico activity maps and illustrations of the NETL’s (and the oil and gas in-dustry’s) contributions to science and the environment. The database of material includes R&D carried out under both historical and ongoing DOE oil and gas R&D programs funded through Con-gressional appropriations, as well as work that is currently underway as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Title IX, Sub-title J, Section 999 R&D program.

The KMD provides four options for searching the variety of documents and data that NETL-managed oil and gas re-search has produced.

Document database. This search function allows the user to search all documents from past and current R&D projects. This database includes oil and gas documents from the CD/DVD li-brary, the NETL Internet site, the NETL Project Management Information System (ProMIS), the Tulsa Project Office, and links to hardcopy documents currently available from the NETL library. Links to relevant offsite documents from the Of-fice of Science and Technical Information (OSTI) are also included. The search is conducted by author or key-word search of titles and document abstracts.

CD/DVD database. This search func-tion allows the user to search all of the CDs and DVDs of oil and gas research reports compiled from past R&D pro-grams as well as currently available docu-ments from the NETL Internet site (i.e. SCNGO and Section 999). The user can download individual reports or order an entire CD or DVD.

Section 999 database. This search function allows the user to search only project summaries related to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Title IX, Subtitle J, Section 999 R&D program by author or keyword. A variety of reports, publica-tions, and presentations will be produced for each of the individual research proj-ects during and after the research per-formance period. Each of these project documents, in addition to project sum-maries, which are updated regularly, con-tains links to all of the research products related to that specific project.

Section 999 tech transfer index. This index allows the user to search the KMD for Section 999 project summa-ries by program element, project name

or project performer. The search then links to the product of interest. The data is updated regularly.

GIS and data visualization. In ad-dition to the search options listed above, the user can access a compilation of geo-spatial data for oil and gas resources in the U.S. This map-driven feature allows the user to correlate KMD data to re-gion, basin and/or play type. The user

interface allows the user to relate resource size, technical issues and challenges, and associated national, regional and local benefits arising from industry supported research and development.

In addition to the features listed above, at least two “expert system” interactive, problem-solving features will be inte-grated into the portal. One of these, the Produced Water Information System, has already been added to the NETL website

(www.netl.doe.gov). The other, the self-teaching expert system for the analysis and prediction of gas production from fractured shales, will be developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab under on the selected R&D projects adminis-tered by the Section 999 Consortium.

For more information on the NETL KMD, please visit www.netl.doe.gov/kmd or contact Roy Long at [email protected]. •

DOE’s knowledge management databaseBringing energy and the environment into harmony.SM

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Every time Mustang Engineering closed a project in the oil and gas, chemi-cal, and process industries, the question arose: How could it efficiently and ef-fectively handover assets to owner/op-erators who might be using different and incompatible information management systems and formats?

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) management com-pany faced several data management is-

sues in its search for a solution. First was its own diversification. Mustang’s Project Information Management (PIM) depart-ment supported six business units spread across 14 offices worldwide. Each unit had unique information management needs.

Second, each client Mustang con-tracted with had differing data require-ments, with specific datasets and class libraries that must be adhered to in order to successfully transfer data elec-

tronically. Oftentimes, electronic data was stored in formats and applications which didn’t work with each other or with Mustang’s systems.

Finally, scheduling had to be addressed. With ever-shortening project timelines, data cleanup was becoming a time-con-suming, laborious and expensive process.

Mustang needed a way to better vali-date and share information internally and with customers, communicate with sever-

al different applications in often far-flung locations and streamline data cleanup.

The company turned to AVEVA, one of the world’s leading engineering and information management software providers. AVEVA demonstrated its AVEVA NET solution, a powerful, ISO 15926-compliant information manage-ment hub to control, link, evaluate and deliver all types of data, regardless of ap-plication and format.

AVEVA NET provides a centralized digital information hub that acts as a se-cure, collaborative and application-neutral data manager. Data of any type, produced using any program, can be managed with-in AVEVA NET and be made accessible and useful to any application, whether built by AVEVA or from a third party.

Mustang sought a system that would work not only with their owner/opera-tor clients’ existing asset management systems but could also utilize Mustang’s own applications. It needed to be a con-solidation database, perform data checks, be application independent, quickly deployable, have open architecture, be easily configurable, be web-enabled and have an intuitive user interface.

The company chose AVEVA NET because it is application neutral, allows flexibility/scalability, doesn’t require special programming skills to support, and is fully configurable to fit into any working environment without forcing change. “Efficient data management and access to information have always been challenges to global project execution,” said Mustang Executive Vice President John Dalton. “With AVEVA NET, we are able to provide our global projects with an easily accessible, single source of project data, ensuring more efficient data management, consistency across deliver-ables and true global collaboration.”

Mustang initially tested AVEVA NET on select brownfield assignments then ex-panded deployment. The results? AVEVA NET has enabled Mustang to provide progressive, streamlined handover rather than a single end-of-project event. The company now enjoys improved interop-erability, data quality and project execu-tion. Mustang can now better respond to clients’ information needs, regardless of the clients’ technology platform.

Owners and operators have also en-joyed major cost-saving results from part-nering with AVEVA. Australia’s Woodside Petroleum has seen a AUD $1.5 million cost reduction to date on its Angel plat-form and estimates AVEVA NET will save it AUD $16.8 million company-wide in handover costs in 2010.

To learn more about AVEVA NET, visit http://www.aveva.com/products_services_aveva_net.php. •

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ENERGYU.S. DEPARTMENT OF

Aker Solutions invested count-less development hours together with Transocean to design an award-winning drilling machine designed for 99.9% uptime and radically reduced time to repair and replace key components. The MH MDDM 1000 AC emerges at a crucial time, as many rigs are built

or upgraded to requirements of deeper water and higher utilization.

The MH MDDM 1000 AC was de-signed to accommodate pretty much any of Transocean’s more than 50 drill-ing rigs, which means it is appropriate for the upgrading of hundreds of rigs worldwide (see figure).

Deeper drilling programs are taking many top drives to the edge of their operational limits and beyond, with a

deleterious effect on failure rates. With day rates climbing up to and over $500,000, those failures were increas-ingly costly. The new top drive was designed around this new operational logic, stepping up the power available on the drillstring while enabling rapid replacement of wearing parts without downtime.

“The operating environment of many drillers is different than it was

only a decade ago; legacy top drives are struggling to maintain satisfactory levels of performance,” said Arnt Aske, the Aker Solutions project director who coordinated the top drive’s de-velopment. “The MH MDDM 1000 AC was designed specifically to change that, and launch a new paradigm for top drives in this market.”

The machine’s size makes it available to the vast majority of drilling rigs to-day. Operational efficiency is improved by a pipe handler that swivels freely 360°. Flexibility is improved by a mud intake that can come in directly behind the top drive, or from either side.

Of greatest interest to most rig owners, however, will be how the ma-chine performs on site. The top drive has already logged thousands of hours operating in the US Gulf. These initial experiences have shown to be positive, and logged downtime is on a par with that demanded by Transocean.

The first units, installed on Dis-coverer Luanda, were commissioned in South Korea late last year, and the ship is headed for West Africa to drill its first well. The top drives, however, have already been through extensive tests at what Aker Solutions calls the world’s most extensive top drive test-ing facility.

“The MH MDDM 1000 AC was pull-tested, run continuously for 96 hr, and the IBOP mechanism was test-ed in an operating environment,” said Aske. “The full-scale pull test put the top drive into a mechanical frame and tested it. It didn’t make one sound. As an engineer, you love that. It was per-fectly designed and assembled.”

The 96-hr continuous operation test involved connecting the main shaft to a dynamic braking table, including a torque measuring device, to study the full operational power and torque it will experience in the field.

In mid-March, Aker Solutions’ new top drive was selected by OTC orga-nizers as a recipient of a Spotlight on New Technology award. •

By Ryan Skinner, Aker Solutions

Deeper drilling spurs top drive design

The Aker Solutions MH MDDM 1000 AC on the drill floor.

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With the Gulf of Mexico storm sea-son just around the bend, OTC attend-ees had the opportunity to hear updated reports on various predictive models for Gulf storms and design criteria for off-shore structures during the Metocean technical sessions.

Tuesday morning’s session featured five presentations on similar, but differ-ent modeling approaches for hurricanes, cyclones and tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and North West Aus-tralia. Eight companies, organizations and educational research groups took part in preparing the five papers present-ed at the technical session.

Each presentation looked at the background for developing the models and the methodology used to validate the model results. Past hurricanes, such as Katrina/Rita, Ike, Frederick and Ca-mille, were studied to provide historical data. Also, it was noted that a storm’s impact did not necessarily correspond to the storm’s category rating.

In the first discussion, it was noted the immense impact of Hurricane Ike on the Gulf of Mexico infrastructure and production was clearly not anticipated considering it was a Saffer-Simpson Scale (SSS) Category 2 hurricane

In his presentation, V. J. Cardone of Oceanweather described the compre-hensive “hindcast” of the surface wind and sea state fields generated by Ike. He said the storm showed the extreme ocean response was mainly caused by expansion of the wind circulation after the storm’s eye crossed the western tip of Cuba.

This led to a storm with a large radius of maximum wind speed and a shelf-like radial wind speed profile. The modeling for these attributes required the descrip-tion of the radial pressure distribution in the boundary layers to be represented in terms of a double exponential ana-lytical formulation.

“Fitting that functional form utilized all conventional meteorological data, high-temporal density flight level mea-surements from reconnaissance aircraft and remotely sensed satellite meteoro-logical data within analyst-assisted work-station,” Cardone said. “This allowed the fitting of, either the classical single expo-nential form, or if appropriate, the more complex form. The surface wind field is specified by solutions of a newly reca-librated primitive equation mesoscale boundary layer model augmented by available kinematic analyses of the inner core wind structure derived directly from measuring wind data.”

The presentation noted the wave re-sponse is hindcast for a third generation spectral wave model adapted to GOM at high resolutions that include shallow wa-ter effects and incorporated a saturated surface wind drag formulation consistent with recent hurricane inner core mea-surements of the same.

“Hindcast and available measure-ments support the fact that Ike generated significant peak wave heights of about 45 feet in the north central GOM,” he explained. “The hindcast is compared to public domain wave measurement cur-rently available.”

In near term, these results are valuable in evaluating causes, along with the dam-aged platforms and other structures, to assess suitability of related design.

For long term significance, the hind-cast methodology applied to Ike has been used to incorporate the lower ranked SSS hurricanes, as well as all hurricanes that exhibit the non-classical radial pressure and wind structure on the specifications of extreme metocean

criteria derived by either the direct his-torical or deductive approaches.

S. A. Frolov, WeatherPredict Con-sulting, reported on his group’s investi-gation of ocean’s response to hurricanes in presence of the loop current (LC) or a loop current eddie (LCE). He told the group that the ability of the ocean model to simulate adequately hurricane-generated currents has been thoroughly validated.

The model’s ability to simulate hur-ricane generated currents in absence of any mesoscale features was tested using data collected during hurricane Ka-trina. The ocean response in the vicinity of the instrument buoys was unaffected by the LC and/or LECs. Consequently, validation experiments used a horizon-tally uniform ocean to simulate hurri-cane generated currents.•

By Buddy Ives

Predictive models for Gulf storms

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3D training programs for offshore industry

Svitzer Safety Services has partnered with Virtual Lab to develop 3D emer-gency response training for the maritime and energy industries. Based on more than 175 years of experience working in the offshore environment, Svitzer and Virtual Lab have designed and de-veloped a new virtual training program called Svitzer 3D Simulator. This unique program is designed to be as close to the real world as possible, and has the fur-ther advantage of allowing participants to take the courses locally at their own PCs at time that suits each individual. The new virtual training solution allows clients to train in lifesaving routines re-gardless of weather and location.

”More training improves safety,” said Lars Christian Zøhner , Managing Direc-tor of Svitzer Safety Services. ”Besides al-ready developed programs, we have sever-al more on the drawing board, and I look forward to more collaboration in the fu-ture, and to developing solutions that will set new standards for safety training.”

”This as a strong partnership with Svitzer,” said Allan Frikke Hansen, CEO of Virtual Lab. “Their many years of experience the field of safety training, combined with Virtual Lab’s interactive 3D expertise, will create major value for the energy and maritime industries. We are delighted that Svitzer had the cour-age to be a first mover for this line of business. In a time when most employ-ees are familiar with 3D, with it becom-ing more commonplace in cinema and other entertainment facilities, we are pleased that we can use our expertise to make 3D products for serious, life-saving purposes.”

Next generation riser management system

SeaFlex Riser Technologies, a busi-ness unit of Kongsberg Oil & Gas Tech-nologies, has developed a new riser man-

agement system (RMS). The Kongsberg RMS is a highly flexible advisory and monitoring system for optimum opera-tion of drilling risers and completion/workover risers, and features numerous advances to benefit riser operations. The system enables users to quickly config-ure operational parameters for a new well location, such as tallies and opera-tional limits. The configuration and riser planning tool substantially increases the flexibility of the RMS. It is easy to learn, and reduces the time required to set up a well operation or plan future opera-tions. Additionally, risk of error and the time required to perform calibration are significantly reduced through the introduction of automated calibration and verification testing, which is made possible by enhancements to the math-ematical models.

A number of add-ons have been developed for the RMS, including a forthcoming Riser Joint Tracker, which tracks the usage of each individual riser joint. Already available is a Riser Shape & Clearance tool including optimum vessel heading advice, which improves parallel operations for rigs operating with a drilling riser and top-tensioned production riser by monitoring both riser strings in real time during vari-ous operations. By installing cable-free, hydro-acoustic instrumentation along the riser, the RMS keeps track of the actual shape and clearance between the risers from the surface to the sea-bed. Based on the data from the posi-tion transponders and resulting riser shapes, optimum vessel heading advice, maximizing the clearance between the two riser strings, will be calculated, dis-played and continuously updated.

AMEC wins Angola contract

AMEC, the international engineer-ing and project management company, has been selected by Chevron subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Co. Ltd. (CABGOC) to perform front-end engineering design (FEED) for a significant portion of the Mafumeira Sul development project, offshore Cabinda Province, Angola. The contract is expected to run until mid-2011. The project will include a central production platform complex of three platforms, two bridges and a flare tower. Oil and liquefied petroleum gas will be exported to the Malongo Oil Terminal and the Sanha FPSO vessel, respectively. The project is located in the Mafumeira field, Block 0, in water depths ranging from 150 to 160 ft, and will provide for future development of additional fields in the southern Malongo area.

“We are pleased to continue our sev-en-year collaboration with Chevron and CABGOC,” said Terrance Ivers, Presi-dent of AMEC’s Houston-based oil and gas business, which will manage the work executed in both Luanda and Houston through Paragon Angola. “Our previ-

ous and existing experience working on the Area A Gas Management and Sanha Condensate projects proved valuable in securing the pre-FEED and FEED work for this project.” He also noted that the new contract will boost AMEC’s recent commitments to sustainable local con-tent for Angolan oil and gas projects.

DEME Group launches new fallpipe vessel

A new next-generation fallpipe ves-sel has been launched at Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore. The Flintstone was built on behalf of Tideway, the offshore oil and gas subsidiary of Bel-gium’s Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering (DEME) Group. The Flintstone has a carrying capacity of 19,000 t, and can place rock with high accuracy at absolute record depths of up to 2,000 m (6,500). The Flintstone is Tideway’s third and biggest fallpipe, after the 11,500-t Rollingstone and the 17,500-t Seahorse.

A fallpipe vessel is a highly special-ized ship that holds graded rock. The rock material is placed at an exact lo-cation on pipelines or the sea bottom through a fallpipe, at the lower end of which an ROV is fixed. This ROV is op-erated from the deck and controls the rock placement in three dimensions. Offshore, rock is applied mostly to sta-bilize and protect pipelines, flowlines and power cables.

The €115 million ($148 million) in-vestment will boost Tideway’s oil & gas activities. DEME CEO Alain Bernard said that in the next few years the group will focus on oil and gas activities, the mining industry and energy utilities. Flintstone is equipped with Dynamic Positioning, an active heave-compen-sated ROV and state-of-the art survey equipment. The vessel is fully certified to work in arctic conditions.

Jotron launches SatCom product group

Jotron Group has announced the launch of Jotron SatCom AS, which will be responsible for the group’s new Sat-Com product group, joining Maritime Products, Phontech Communication Systems, Consultas Maritime Software and Ground to Air & Coastal Com-munication as the group’s 5th product group. Jotron SatCom AS was formed in 2008 by main shareholder Jotron AS and two partners, Tronrud Engineering AS and Nerasat AS.

The Managing Director of Jotron SatCom AS is Ottar Bjåstad, a long-time veteran of the global SatCom busi-ness. The new group is primarily staffed with management and R&D personnel in order to focus on the development and industrialization of a new VSAT stabilized antenna product. The highly experienced members of the R&D team all have between 10 and 30 years of ex-perience in developing and manufactur-ing maritime SatCom products based on stabilized antennas for the Inmarsat System, and from the development and engineering of other VSAT products. The main product will be a high-perfor-mance stabilized Ku-band antenna for broadband communication at sea, with global coverage. It will be introduced in the 2nd half of 2010.

Sealing solutions company features BMW sport bike at LKS product launch

In a move to rev up the launch of its new LKS Seal for high pressure/high velocity applications, Bal Seal Engineer-ing, Inc., brought the newest and fast-est BMW sport motorcycle to the 2010 Offshore Technology Conference. Bal Seal, a Calififornia-based provider of sealing solutions for the oilfield indus-try, featured an “Acid Green Metallic” BMW S 1000 RR in its exhibit at Reli-ant Park. The company said it chose to make the cycle a central element in its OTC booth to illustrate the premium quality and innovative design of the new LKS High PV Seal product.

A multi-component seal consisting of a canted-coil spring-energized, graph-ite-reinforced PTFE seal jacket, a PEEK anti-extrusion element and a metal locking ring, the LKS is engineered to provide increased service life in pump systems, top drives, rotary steerables and LWD/MWD tools. The LKS has been lab and field tested to outperform and outlast more costly, less efficient seal types, and its combination of materials and design can help OEMs significantly increase equipment uptime. •

News in brief

When it comes to powering the pumping capac-ity of deepwater and especially ultra-deepwater de-velopments, the oil and gas industry is in the process of identifying and evaluating the optimal system to deliver the electrical power necessary. The technol-ogy in need of power includes oil pressure boosting, gas compression, seawater injection and water separa-tion/re-injection.

“Today’s offshore projects are in increasing water depths, and sometime producing from marginal reser-voirs,” said Cornelia Noel, a senior staff engineer with Shell. “In other cases, the power may be used in sensitive projects such as floating LNG or to mitigate emissions.”

Some of the drivers for investigating powering deepwater and ultra-deepwater developments include

remote distances from a production hub; marginal reserves; increasingly deeper waterfields; a large deep-water production hub; projects sensitive to power out-ages; and stranded gas development. “Additionally, the industry is expected to meet societal and regulatory obligations such as mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases,” Noel said.

Noel noted that the single biggest economic “drag” is the low realized efficiency of the power system value chain, including power generation, transmission and distribution and end load. Large power consuming applications exacerbate the situation while they also provide access to more reserves and accelerate produc-tion. Improving subsea power transmission and better distribution for the AC power transmission and dis-tribution network are both works in progress by the industry. There are presently three competing power

system architectures: local micro-grid power, long-distance AC transmission and distribution, and long-distance DC transmission and distribution, which is an emerging solution.

However, Noel offers up another possible solution. “The door is open to revolution, where a single entity or a group can position themselves to own the power system value chain (fuel through end load) and provide the service to asset owners.”

The win/win is improved power system efficiency, reliability, energy cost and smaller carbon footprint for asset owners and a new market for the service provid-ers. National oil companies and independents would be the largest beneficiaries as preventing disruption in the offshore business model aids their ability to move into ultra-deepwater and take on subsea boosting and EOR projects, Noel noted. •

Providing power for ultra-deepwater By Jerry Greenberg

Allan Frikke Hansen, CEO of Virtual Lab, and Lars Christian Zøhner, managing director of SVITZER Safety Services, have partnered together to offer a new virtual training solution.

Bil Nissim of Bal Seal (far right) shows some clients from GE why he likes the BMW S 1000 RR motorcycle.


Does your company have what it takes to maintain innovative momentum in challenging economic times? During a topical breakfast on Wednesday morn-ing, representatives from independents and majors shared insights into how their companies approach research and devel-opment (R&D) today. The panel of six agreed that the traditional R&D funnel approach remains viable in these times of challenge. If anything, R&D budgets are increasing and further increases are projected. Fostering and sustaining in-novation in the economic downturn re-quires commitment, talent, investment, balance and collaboration.

Setting the stage for the group pre-sentations, moderator Robert Peterson, vice president of CRA International, commented that R&D during the reces-sion has been regrouped and retrenched. Developing, managing and monetizing technology has far from ceased. Work continues to investigate new resources and manage carbon.

Apache’s Executive Vice President Mike Bahorich said that in the world of independents, “It all starts with people, without a doubt.” Experts, knowledge sharing, professional societies and con-sultants all play key roles in today’s land-scape. From the technology perspective, what is needed is equipment, complex imaging at low cost and development of new technologies for marine acquisi-tion. The deepwater has been a new area for Apache; the company is involved in unconventional exploration, result-ing in perhaps the largest frac job in an unconventional play. Apache is also in-volved in implementing an LNG plant using hydroelectric power. Therefore, the need for R&D has not diminished. “We do have a technical service budget (not named R&D) and research and service partnerships,” he said. Further, Apache sees importance in recruiting expertise from nontraditional disciplines and pur-suing collaborative efforts with partici-pants outside of the energy industry. For example, the company has a partnership with Yale on mathematical research.

ConocoPhillips Senior Vice President Stephen Brand addressed how his com-pany views innovation. “It took a bit of a hit with the recession, but we are start-ing to see a flow of funds back into it.” According to Brand, the company is in a position to become more innovative, ad-dressing more opportunities for the fu-ture and is developing existing and future

businesses. The answer to the question “What is innovative technology?” for Brand is that it is dependent on variables such as company vision, business plan, existing or future portfolios and innova-tive strategy. It is the differentiator and provides competitive advantage. Brand and the panel viewed collaboration as a key to innovation in the future scenarios while the evolutionary future of inno-vation lies in new areas such as nano-technology, biotechnology technologies, energy efficiency technologies, CO2 cap-ture and sequestration technologies, and water technologies.

Andy Bradshaw, vice president of emerging science for BP, pointed out that balance is a challenge; there is a need to align technology to the portfo-lio. In the lean times, people and tech-nology are needed to compete. “They are more important now than they have ever been,” said Bradshaw. “We look at tech-nology as more of an opportunity and distinguisher rather than a cost.” The company also leverages skills of talent not normally associated with the oil and

gas industry, such as chemists. According to Bradshaw, those business models that resemble those of existing models will succeed in this lean business climate.

Tim Probert, president of global busi-ness lines and corporate development for Halliburton, said that innovation uptake is “not without angst.” For success, a real-time solid foundation is needed as inno-vation is ultimately a cultural change. For Halliburton innovation takes place in three areas: wellbore placement in uniting reservoir and drilling in the same platform, maximizing reservoir volume and beating the drilling curve.

Total’s Bernard Seiller said that the company has witnessed a dramatic in-crease in R&D budget between 2005 and 2010. Innovation is one of the main drivers in growth of production. Total spends 50% of the innovation budget on R&D partnerships but stressed that in-tellectual property issues remain impor-tant in these partnerships. The company employs the traditional R&D funnel, us-ing the qualification process to shorten the time between generation and exploi-

tation. A particular focus is on nurturing and seeding inventions. Commenting on collaborative relationships with nontra-ditional participants, Seiller said, “May-be the industry doesn’t do enough.” •

Momentum in a downturnBy Diane Langley

Stephen Brand was a featured speaker during Wednesday morning’s breakfast on the topic of sustaining innovation.

Total E&P: strategic growth

It has become clear over the last de-cade that the future of oil supply – and energy demand – must be addressed by the oil and gas industry with immediacy and urgency. On Wednesday, Total E&P CEO Yves-Louis Darricarere addressed the issue of the future of oil reserves through presenting Total’s strategic plan and what direction the industry as a whole would need to go in to ensure a sustainable energy future.

Darricarere painted a snapshot of today’s world energy supply, emphasiz-ing the fact that the oil and gas industry must make some challenging decisions that will directly affect the immediate and future progress of the energy indus-try. “Technology and investment are the key words,” Darricarere explained. “We need to focus on objective, profitable growth.” In addition to this, he added that it is necessary to limit CO2 emis-sions to create a plan that is both strate-gic and sustainable.

According to Darricarere, diversifica-tion of energy supply is a must, some-thing that is only possible through fo-cusing on high-potential segments and strengthening partnerships across the oil and gas industry. •


Meeting ever-rising demand with hydrocarbon reserves that are becoming more difficult and expensive to exploit will require a makeover of the oil and gas industry over the next 40 years, a panel of operators and government officials told a general session Tuesday afternoon.

With even the most conservative mainstream forecasts showing energy consumption rising by more than 40% over the next 20 years, the pressure on identifying and developing new conven-tional and unconventional fossil fuel re-serves will be intense, the panelists said. At the same time, it also is incumbent on traditional oil and gas companies to help further the economical develop-ment of renewable resources.

Like many of this year’s technical and general sessions, the discussion quickly turned from the advertised topic of “What is the right global energy mix” to the ongoing Deepwater Horizon tragedy.

“I was going to look at the future and discuss the priority for technology and science, but as I stand before you, my thoughts are in the Gulf of Mexico and the loss of our colleagues and the environmental challenge were are con-fronting,” said panel moderator Ahmed Hashami, BP vice president of technol-ogy management and finance. “It’s a challenging time for us and the indus-try. We are using the full resources of BP and the industry to deal with this challenge and take every measure to en-sure it never happens again.”

Without mentioning the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, an official of the US

Department of Energy followed, saying the federal government will continue its research and development efforts for all energy sources, including oil and gas. She echoed the current administration’s battle cry that any energy mix must in-clude alternative and clean technologies.

“Environmental stewardship and in-creased use of fossil fuels need not be mutually exclusive,” said Deputy As-sistant DOE Secretary Phyllis Yoshida. “We in the Department of Energy be-lieve firmly that technology and science are critical to maintain and enhance our standard of living. The decisions we make today can impact our world for a generation. Right now, the US is im-porting 60% of its oil, so to reduce un-certainties we must make investments for new energy sources here, including fossil fuels.”

Even though Saudi Aramco remains a powerhouse oil and gas producer, its ex-ecutive director said real-world realities demand that it, too, look at renewable energy sources. “Energy is too impor-tant to have a future clouded by anxiety. Decisions cannot be made today based on over-heated emotions,” said Mo-hammed Al-Qahtani, adding that the kingdom alone still has more than 4.7 trillion bbl of proven oil reserves and well over 275 tcf of known gas.

“By all reliable standard of measure-ment, the world has enough reliable reserves for several more decades. How-ever, we as an industry will be more di-verse than we’ve been over the last 100 years. We must constantly assess how we do our business. We need to increase the momentum for gas and we must maintain and increase our investments in renewable resources and environ-mental efficiency,” he said.

Chevron President Ali Moshiri agreed, saying all avenues must be on the table and that includes continued research and development of new oil and gas reserves.

“What is the proper energy mix be-tween fossil fuels and alternative sources is not a right or wrong answer. No one size fits all, but it has to be decided by the marketplace and not government. Our industry has delivered reliable sup-plies for 100 years, often during some very turbulent times, “ he said.

Acknowledging that energy use is ex-pected to rise by as much as 40 percent over the next 20 years, Matthias Bichsel, director of projects and technology for Royal Dutch Shell, he said oil and gas must play the predominate role. “There is going to be even more pressure on oil and gas reserves, but at the same time we have to do all we can to reduce our foot-print. Right now, the world’s CO

2 con-tent, for example, is way too high.” •

By Jim Redden

Energy future must include mix of renewable sources

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Phyllis Yoshida, deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of Energy, said that “environmental stewardship and increased use of fossil fuels need not be mutually exclusive.”

Ali Moshiri, president of Chevron, said there is no right or wrong answer to the question of a proper energy mix.

Matthias Bichsel, director of projects for Royal Dutch Shell, said “we have to do all we can to reduce our footprint.”

Ocean thermal investment urged

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) could generate all the electric-ity needs of the state of Hawaii at a level-ized cost of less than $0.18 per kilowatt-hour, a University of Hawaii researcher said at an OTC technical presentation.

The little-known renewable power source exploits the temperature differ-ence between warm tropical waters near the sea surface and the colder water deep below to produce electricity and, in some schemes, desalinated water and potential energy carriers such as ammo-nia and hydrogen.

Luis Vega, of the university’s Nation-al Marine Renewable Energy Center, urged government investment to build OTEC demonstration plants of about 5-megawatt capacity. He said opera-tional records from such demonstration plants is necessary to attract the private investment that will be needed for the 50–100-megawatt plants required to make OTEC cost-competitive with tra-ditional sources of electricity.

Several experimental projects over the last few decades have demonstrated that the technology works. •


to the airborne volcanic ash from Iceland, some last-minute contingency plans had to go into effect.

“We were worried about if the flights would be running on schedule and whether we would make it here, whether many other attendees wouldn’t be able to go,” she said. In the end though, “everything start-ed to settle down and well, we were here and ready to go.” Her day-to-day duties at the show have stayed focused on promoting the ONS show and she admits, with a smile, that the positive energy from the crowds definitely makes her job much easier.

Danielle Biermans, media and promotion manager for Dockwise, had quite a different set of goals—and challenges—when sitting down at the end of last year to plan this year’s OTC. Aside from tailoring a custom marketing plan for the show, Biermans admits that OTC is the ultimate platform through which to con-nect people with information. “Everybody is here at the same time, networking and talking with competi-tion,” she said. “You come here to show that you’re still in it.”

For Dockwise, however, establishing a brand pres-ence as they had in past year’s shows took on level of strategy and planning. Since last year’s OTC, Dockwise acquired both OKI and Ocean Dynam-ics, companies which brought brand new capabili-ties to Dockwise as a whole. One of the main goals in planning for OTC was to, “Help our new col-leagues integrate and let the public know how we all three work together and how we’ve excelled through the last year,” Biermans said. Because of the focus on the integration of the two new companies into Dockwise, Bierman’s planning work – and all work at the booth – has focused around the press, media and building up a network. She also had to devote a specific part of the project planning re-desiging OKI and Ocean Dynamics’ websites and brochure for the show. “It was very busy, like taking on the project of promoting and publicizing three companies at once,” Biermans said.

Despite the challenges and stringent project plan-ning timelines to get Dockwise show-ready and the

energy it takes to stay on-target each day, Biermans appreciates the feeling of camaraderie and team spirit at the show this year. The aisles are busy, the chairs are empty and she says, “You can feel that the worst is behind us and that everyone is looking ahead.”•

peat in the future.Due to this terrible incident, the off-

shore industry will once again be closely examined in state and national political and policy spotlights. The members of NOIA welcome that review and stand ready to participate and assist as aggres-sively as we are in the response and clean up efforts. As you read this, a massive response and cleanup effort is under-way by BP, the 16 federal departments and agencies comprising the National Response Team, and an army of volun-teers. In addition, in an unprecedented cooperative effort, NOIA member com-panies are lending their resources to the effort in the form of expertise, person-nel, technology, equipment, vessels, air-craft and land-based and offshore stag-ing bases and platforms.

This is personal to us, and I believe that no one will look harder at why and how this happened than the industry itself. Most of the personnel in the off-shore industry are families, neighbors and friends. The Gulf of Mexico is their home. They hunt, fish, boat and recre-ate in these very waters and submerged lands on which the oil is produced.

Through all this, the nation’s en-ergy situation has not changed. A bal-anced energy policy that will lead us to greater national security must still involve oil and gas for the foreseeable future. Energy is energy, and we need all forms of energy. Everything from our macro-level economy to individual family livelihoods relies upon secure, reliable and affordable energy. Domes-tically produced oil and gas will serve as a bridge for our nation and world as they migrate toward the nontraditional energy sources, such as wind, biofuels and solar.

There are risks, impacts and tradeoffs associated with the development of all energy sources. The element of risk—risk of accidental injury or death, or of an accidental discharge—can never be completely eliminated, particu-

larly when exploring at great depths. Our industry operates using incred-ible technology that rivals the space program. This technology and the un-precedented cooperation of the Gulf of Mexico’s many stakeholders will be key to developing a solution that stops this accidental flow of oil and helps restore the faith of the American public in the offshore industry.

So, as we cautiously anticipate the fu-ture, recognizing that there will be polit-ical fallout, we stand committed to find-ing out what happened and why, and to making the necessary changes to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

Those who have sacrificed all must not be forgotten. The pioneering spirit of America has always asked that hu-mans go to the extremes of the envi-ronment, be that hundreds of miles into space, thousands of feet below the ground in mines, or working on rigs 50 miles from shore in 5,000 feet of water.

All of these places can be danger-ous. Sadly tragedies, do happen. We will always seek to learn from them and to ensure that they do not hap-pen again. These setbacks should not, however, overshadow the incredible progress these industries have made for

our nation nor lessen the effort, dedi-cation and sacrifices by those involved in these industries.

Randall Luthi is the current presi-dent of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA). An attorney and rancher from Freedom, Wyoming, and a former Speaker of the Wyoming State House of Representatives, Mr. Luthi most recently served as the director of the US Minerals Management Service from July 2007 through January 2009. He earned a BS in administration of justice in 1979 and his law degree in 1982, both from the University of Wyoming. •

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Solidarity continued from page 1

Danielle Biermans, media and promotion manager for Dockwise, speaks with a client in Dockwise’s Booth 5225.

A day in the life continued from page 1

Gustavo Martinez shows a potential customer how Discflo’s disc pumps operate.

John Pratten displays Fluke Corp.’s heat map technology on a willing subject.

Scenes from OTC 2010

OTC attendees take a break from the conference to enjoy some of Houston’s lovely spring weather.

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Documents

Thursday panel to examine surface BOP technology · ning means arranging travel and coordinating with details of the trip with a project team at home. While some spend months planning