Yearly archives: 2020

Over the course of the last four decades, there have been projects that have been noteworthy for advances in technology and others that have changed the way the industry has done business, but few that have done both. One of those was Kerr-McGee Gryphon in the UK sector of the […]

I had such a a good chuckle a week or two back that I could not resist commenting on. Please indulge me. The offshore oil and gas supply and service sector has had a long history of bad names. Some of the less than glorious monikers tagged onto companies have […]

(PROLOGUE: I feel that it is necessary to repeat something I wrote when I started my subsea history series. It was never way meant to be comprehensive. It is written from my point of view having edited Subsea Engineering News for 30 plus years. I am sure some folks will […]

AFTER LAST WEEK’S BLOG, I had a note from Dave Brookes, ex-BP, commenting on a few points from the most recent portion of my subsea history lesson. Firstly, Dave reminded me that the Snorre subsea controls failure was the result of problems with the wet mateable connectors, so I was […]

LAST WEEK I came upon a review, from Journal of Petroleum Technology, of a paper written for this year’s OTC, which, of course, was not held due to the current virus pandemic. The paper, prepared by three Saipem engineers was entitled ‘Developing Technologies Can Lower Subsea Tieback Cost’ (OTC30667). I […]

{Prologue: It is quite interesting to recall – my memory jogged by reading endless back issues of Subsea Engineering News – the unconstrained enthusiasm for new technology back in the mid 1980’s when subsea production was still very new and seen as the next big thing. So much money was […]

[As a prologue, firstly I would like to say sorry for being so long between episodes. Been overwhelmed as most people have just trying to stay safe and well and have also had problems with my office glasses. Such a sign of age – what an admission! My regards go […]

POST-UMC: SCAPA and HIGHLANDER It is easy to divide everything subsea from the early days of the UK sector as before and after Shell/Esso’s Underwater Manifold Centre (UMC), which was deployed on the Central Cormorant field. Except maybe not, at least philosophically. Shell/Esso, or Shell UK Expro as it was […]

Most of my readers over the years think of me as an oilfield journalist and commentator, but I began my career as a general reporter and feature writer. As such, I feel the need to run up the flag to campaign for freedom of the press. The events of this […]

No one, as of yet, has written the definitive history of subsea production technology. It probably should be me. Back in 2018, I spoke at two different Subsea UK events and during the course of each of those days, young engineers came up and thanked me for giving them a […]

During the first decade of publishing Subsea Engineering News – that is beginnning in 1984 – the North Sea, and the UK sector specifically, was the epicentre of the subsea/floater world. It was not that there was not meaningful activity elsewhere – assuredly the Brazilians were moving slowly, but surely […]