Subsea gas feels the pressure

The final chapter of a 30-year saga is unveiling itself in Norway. For here, the dream that was a twinkle in the eye of engineers in the 1980s is fast approaching reality as three existing offshore developments look to extend their economic producing lives by adding gas compression facilities — on the seabed.

Petrobras reshuffles its R&D priorities

When Petrobras re-launched its deepwater research and development programme at Houston’s 2011 Offshore Technology Conference excitement about the pre-salt discoveries was at its peak.

Cenpes cuts its cloth

Although the Petrobras research and development budget remains huge, peaking in 2012 at $1.4 billion, it will slip back to $1.1 billion this year as a consequence of the more results-driven strategy demanded by chief executive Marias das Gracas Foster.

Hot times on the seabed

As if making ready to install the world’s first subsea gas compression project was not achievement enough, Statoil has ushered another industry first into the subsea arena.

The future is long – and deep

As the oil & gas industry plots its vision of where it must go globally to exploit future opportunities, we keep looking to the ocean floor. Industry players must consider the economics of developing difficult new fields or declining existing fields, since many of the easy-to-reach ones are either economically played out (using the technology of the last 30 years), or less accessible due to geopolitical uncertainties.

An ounce of prevention

A former chief engineer at ExxonMobil and now a drilling professor at Texas A&M University, Fred Dupriest believes new technology has little value unless it changes how work is done. “That’s a major issue with many companies, and not just in the oilfield. We are often better at creating new technology or new understanding than we are at getting the technology used effectively by operations personnel. I’ve been on the receiving end of new technology. When someone simply throws new technology over the wall to operations, what do we do? We often just say duck!”

The cutting edge

As top-of-the-range construction vessels become ever more multi-purpose in the jobs they can do, it was inevitable that their proud owners would start to use the phrase “as versatile as a Swiss army knife”.

SURF players push the boats out

With subsea vessel operations in the field development, inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) and well intervention sectors set to grow exponentially over the next five years, offshore contractors have been reassessing their forward strategies and working out how best to fill any remaining capability gaps in their fleets.

Aegir expands Heerema’s horizons

Rob Hovinga — the project director widely acknowledged as a central figure in helping shape the concept. In mid-2012 Wijdeveld was appointed to succeed Hovinga at the time of the latter’s untimely death.

Emas also opts for offshore reel supply

The enterprising mid-tier company Emas AMC is also adopting the novel “lifted reel” concept for its new multi-lay and crane vessel Lewek Constellation. This is due to be ready for service in August next year, less than a year after Heerema’s Aegir appears.

Lifted reels give new freedom

Perhaps the most unusual and ambitious ingredient in Heerema’s recipe for Aegir is the offshore handling of reels of pipe. Even empty, one of these giant 24 metre diameter steel reels weighs 1000 tonnes.

Transforming for the top tier

McDermott’s transformation-in-progress aims to position the company squarely in the subsea solutions arena. “We’re investing and have invested about $1 billion, all in, in new assets and upgrades to become a tier one subsea solutions provider,” says John T “Jack” McCormack, the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “We looked at this market very closely. We believe there is room for a third tier one contractor” alongside Subsea 7 and Technip.

Taking the strain

The success of heavy marine construction operations is intimately bound up with the performance of the highly advanced wire ropes that snake around mighty offshore cranes, or coil around powerful winches for subsea service, writes Adrian Cottrill.

How the seismic fleets size up

For years marine seismic contractors have been trying to fight the commodity label being attached to 3D towed streamer seismic surveys. Companies have sought to differentiate themselves with proprietary acquisition techniques such as broadband seismic but have rarely been able to maintain sole leadership for very long.

Divine intervention in the deep

Forecasts by energy analyst Infield Systems suggest the North American subsea well population will swell to 637 by 2017, with the annual average rate of new subsea completions in the region rising from 74 to 89 in that time. Intervention specialist Helix ESG, for one, hardly needs reminding. Its flagship Q4000 is booked solid into 2016 and the company is pinning its hopes of cutting a Gulf of Mexico intervention backlog on the planned mid-year arrival of a converted drillship and, two years down the road, a major newbuild semisubmersible.

Riser-based or riserless?

The decision to use a riserless or a riser-based intervention system comes down to what the operator wishes to do downhole and the water depth.

Spreading the light intervention word

The new joint venture between FMC Technologies and Edison Chouest Offshore is seen as a natural extension of the two companies’ existing relationship in Island Offshore, which has been providing light well intervention services in the North Sea since 2004. Under that Norway-based partnership agreement, FMC provides the equipment and Chouest, as part owner of Island Offshore, furnishes three vessels.

Transports of delight

If you want to pick up a whole production platform or a newly-constructed semi-submersible drilling rig as a complete unit, and then take it halfway across the world at a reasonable speed, the oil industry’s specialist contractors can almost certainly do it for you.

High-end maintenance

The ice-classed, newbuild IMR vessel Seven Viking is in the vanguard of the push toward more sophisticated service vessels capable of handling tricky assignments in challenging conditions.

Dynamic positioning demystified

Dynamic positioning (DP) enables an offshore vessel to stay on the same spot at sea for hours on end without anchoring, for example while divers work on the seabed below, and requires not only dedicated equipment but also specialist personnel. It is used extensively on vessels that need to maintain position, such as dive support vessels and drilling units, as well as pipelay, cablelay, survey and other vessels that need to move along a fixed route.

Upstream Technology


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