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3 thoughts on “LIFE AFTER OFFSHORE EUROPE: PART II”
Ian Ball ‘s contribution to the subsea industry at meetings, tech papers and seminars was always an eye opener , it pointed the way to leadership ! on a tech basis a challenging guy, no so sure about the political side of it after all we are representing the people who pay the salary ! Best of luck to Ian and his undertakings up North, mountains are a good place to see the world above water line. But there is always time for a pint ….
I am battling my way thru the Data Protection syndrome, who is protected the company collecting the data or the guy giving infos over the phone ? Better work subsea ….
Hi Steve – I’ll even be happy to travel down to Cheltenham one day to celebrate with you all sorts of high and low milestones over 5 decades from the 1968 beginnings over that pint – and the rest.
Before I do that though, I feel honour-bound to step in with a little more of the traditional “Sasanow slant” to your article, than you were so uncharacteristically polite to do yourself. Incidentally, I advise any reader with any degree of attention deficit disorder to look away from these ramblings now. I’ve left it a couple of weeks to see if anyone else might be bold enough to do that for us, so on balance I offer sincere thanks to all of you who bit your tongue! One can generally though rely on the highly esteemed John Daeschler to avoid holding back on his fascinating observations. Sure enough, my heartfelt thanks go to John for reminding us that I have not always been averse to rocking the boat a bit when it seemed like a potentially dangerous complacency may be pulling the wool over our eyes, or rendering a conference to become overly dry and dumbed down. He calls that a “political” characteristic. I always intended it simply to be a constructive thought provoker. (Don’t even mention Brexit to me!!)
It’s absolutely true that one of the great highlights for me was being able to be a part of that wonderfully innovative and bold TOGI team in the late ‘80’s. I actually had to quit Shell to do that, but in 1985, the first big oil-price downturn had made that hitherto unthinkable action a little more feasible. My first task within Hydro was a formal review of their Oseberg plans to create a harsh-environment production test FPSO to be called “Petrojarl-1”. It was also to have its own subsea tree, hanger, riser and connectors, and I dutifully highlighted all the issues and risks involved. My second task followed all too quickly, namely managing all those identified risks into a successful delivery of Petrojarl-1 conversion in just 12 months flat! That was a real stretch for me, and I couldn’t believe how I fell into that trap! That’s when I set in stone my previous impressions of what immense value to the industry constructive collaboration really is (in this case with Golar-Nor). I rejoined Shell in Aberdeen in 1990.
My initial collaboration exposure had actually occurred 10 years earlier, when in 1974 I was tasked with delivering Shell’s first subsea tie-back technology pilot to the planned 1976 Brent-Bravo concrete platform (since decommissioned). Shell had truly inspirational technology leaders and teams in both The Hague and USA at the time, and Brent-7 was to incorporate for testing as many of their new-fangled technologies as possible to pave the way for future larger-bore production cost reductions. This included through flowline (TFL – not Transport for London!) circulation of 4” downhole maintenance tools (3” had been the maximum bore tested to date). The particular collaboration of note was with a certain infamous Coflexip outfit, to create a larger-bore flexible flowline installation vessel for harsh environments, ultimately to be called Flexservice-1. This was going to be needed for a first-end pull-in/connection at the Brent-7 tree, and a layback to the Brent-B j-tube pull-in.
It’s a long-involved story, but suffice it to say that the operation (to deliver a successful hi-tech pilot installation to production in 1976) was a great success – even though the patient (sustained production) ultimately died! We managed to get the first production congratulatory telex (remember those?) back from shore to where I was based on the platform, just before the TFL standing valve ball cage in the upper completion shattered under the monster Brent flow conditions, and back-checked in the upper tubing as solid as a rock! It was never deemed cost-effective to re-enter that well for repair, once the massive platform wells themselves were coming online fast and furious.
Whilst still reeling from that sobering experience, I was tasked in 1978 with installing another technology pilot on the equator in Brunei – would you believe a subsea tree system that could cope safely with being scraped off the seabed by an iceberg! That one did end up producing sustainably, albeit with the reduced 3” TFL tubing. However, it did prove more problematic to do a convincing test to demonstrate its ability to deal safely with real-life iceberg scour!
So there we are Steve, I’ve finally fessed up with just an inkling of what went on before your arrival on the scene, and feel all the better, if a little more thirsty, for it. Now it’s just a question of us arranging exactly where and when you get that first reflective pint on the table. Thanks mate, hope you’ve had a good break, and thanks again so much to all subsea friends across the whole industry who’ve tolerated and humoured me so obligingly over so many decades. It’s all been so very rewarding and ever so much appreciated. Best wishes for similar outcomes to all still carrying the batons forward in the much-changed but still as challenging a subsea world.
John JL Daeschler
With a lot of convincing we purchased and laid a 4 ” Coflexip in 1979 in the Argyll field North Sea took 8 hours connected each end by divers. Because the product was sold on the basis of being easy to install , our response was that we would install it ourselves. We rented the 70 tons winch reel from Coflexip in Le trait and installed it on a Smitt LLoyd supply boat wood deck !
The early scope of Coflexip was to produce a flexible 5 K hose 3″ 12 ft long to replace articulated kill and choke lines and cementing manifold ect .. the dedicated fabrication and testing was a great achievment after many failures , but this is what research is all about , the technology , personnel and tooling derived from cable manufacturing ,a lot of support from Technip / IFP institut Francais des petroles and ELF in Pau and others early 1970, the 3″Dia x 12 ft line grew into the most interesting technical break for the subsea production industry, static , dynamic and sizes and pressure …
In 1992 we repaired a Coflexip flowline subsea in 140 m water depth in the Mobil Beryl field , again innovation was key considering the product we had to deal with.
There is always some fun subsea, as long as plan B, and often C have been fully tested and equipt available.