You may also like
Offshore Europe 2019 starts next week and as per usual, there are talking points a many, some actually to do with business […]
Anyone who has been involved in the development of new technology for the subsea sector knows that it is a long slog. […]
Here are a few names to conjour with: Ultramar Exploration, Thomson North Sea, Monument Resources, British Borneo Oil & Gas , Union […]
(PROLOGUE: I feel that it is necessary to repeat something I wrote when I started my subsea history series. It was never […]
11 thoughts on “No big deal? What?”
Ironically from what I recall having watched “Last Breath” and the formal in house documentary, Chris Lemons Umbilical appeared to get trapped on a Clamp On Transponder Bucket , which are for structure installation purposes and normally recovered once complete.
Maybe we should consider a flush mounted permanent bucket that can be used for the purpose you suggest.
However the coordinates of the structure must have been known to carry out the job in the first place.
Am I correct in assuming that Bibby Offshore was running Topaz at that time?
Shore approach … always a solution , tunnel ? Or drill a long horizontal directional well from shore and connect the flow line at the end of it ? Via a vertical one . Always find it interesting that the piles supporting the trans Alaskan pipeline above ground are kept individually frozen in the permafrost , meanwhile the animals can migrate under it with no problems.
JJD – good to see that you still have something to say.
“A triple redundant BOP … “ as long as the failure of No 1 is erased completely before activating No2 and that errors /failures of No 1 & 2 are completely erased before initiating the last resort being No3 . Easy to say, when panic steps in and the various remote control units in the early phase of a blow out . Other part of the system may have suffered mechanical / hydraulic failure irrespective of the electronic command on surface alone , the subsea part of it by underwater acoustic control is another level.
We had identified similar hydraulic locks in early North Sea BOP (1970) when simply switching from Yellow pod to blue pod became locked ? Simple ? Not when you are you are in a panic situation.
With all that software available , you often need the one you have not got ! Or insufficient testing program is often the source of the disaster in most subsea applications.
Another “subsea to shore” example is ONGC’s Vashishta / S1 development (East Coast India).
thanks for that.
… and Corrib? (although I never seem to be able to establish that project’s status)
On your Subsea to Shore comments, not long ago I was asked for advice regarding a similar project offshore Africa. It was indeed the approach-to-shore aspect that had potential issues – in this case where some equipment materials compatibility/lifetime assumptions had been based on subsea conditions; temperatures in shallow water and on the beach in Africa tend to be much higher than those in mid to deepwater. Do the right questions get asked of the right people?
Isn’t that always the issue – who knows about what and who remembers what has been done before?
….and understands why it was done like it was, before introducing some “smart improvement” that brings unintended consequences.