The ongoing Deepwater Horizon tragedy—and let us not forget that it is a human tragedy beyond the unfolding environmental and business impacts, in that the lives of 11 men were lost—is also an opportunity to learn and to educate.
Lance Cole
It is an opportunity for the industry to learn from any operational mistakes made that might have led to this devastating accident—and from what did work, didn’t work, and could still work among the engineered-on-the-fly, improvisational solutions.
It is also an opportunity for the industry to educate all stakeholders about the technology challenges of operating in deep and ultra-deep waters off America’s coast and, in the process, take steps to repair a newly battered image of an industry operation that is still critical to our energy future.
Sober tone at OTC
Interest in offshore technology is stronger than ever, as evidenced by the nearly 73,000 in attendance at this year’s Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.
Although the Deepwater Horizon tragedy cast a sobering tone over the massive annual conference and exhibition, it was left to Noble Energy Chairman and CEO Charles Davidson to note that industry must also celebrate its offshore successes even as it takes steps to clean up the spill, “find out what happened, and fix it so that it never happens again.”
Davidson added that industry’s “willingness to take on the impossible has led to immense change and success.” Appropriately, his keynote address was titled “Today’s reality is yesterday’s impossibility.”
It is difficult enough for us greybeards in the industry to comprehend industry’s offshore technology advances of the past 25-30 years. It was just three decades ago that production in 1,000 ft of water was the deepwater limit, and only a handful of wells had been drilled in as much as 2,000 ft of water. Today, 10,000 ft of water has been surpassed for drilling, and is almost there for production.
As planned and improvised solutions proliferate to control the wild well in the Gulf of Mexico and mitigate the environmental damage, the public is getting a rare glimpse into both the daunting operational challenges of ultra-deepwater drilling and the level of technological sophistication that’s involved.
Resources for deepwater challenges
For example, the issue of methane hydrates in deep waters whhich arose anew when hydrates clogged up the cofferdam BP had installed over the wild well must be an eye-opener for the millions of folks unfamiliar with deepwater operations.
Could the average person have any notion that this odd substance, which has long posed an operational hazard when it forms in deepwater exploration and production pipes and equipment, also represents potential energy resource when it has accumulated naturally in shallow sediments worldwide? The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is working extensively with Industry and academia to better understand naturally occurring gas hydrates and its role in the environment: for more information please visit NETL’s gas hydrates site at www.netl.doe.gov
/technologies/oil-gas/futuresupply/methanehydrates/maincontent.htm.
A lot of discussion has also focused on the reliability of blowout preventers (BOPs) in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. And a related hot-button topic is industry’s interface with regulatory agencies.
At PTTC’s Deepwater/Ultra-Deepwater, you’ll find information on a NETL/RPSEA (Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America) project to undertake a program to move the oil and gas industry, particularly the ultra-deepwater community, toward a more efficient and effective means of evaluating safety barriers such as valves and BOPs. Southwest Research Institute (SRI) of San Antonio, Texas, the project performer, notes that a key component is industry’s interface with regulatory bodies. SRI suggests that approaches developed during the project are likely to be on the right track toward acceptance as regulatory-approved industry practices. It’s become a bit of a political buzzword in the past year, but don’t let that deter us from making this tragedy a “teachable moment” for all concerned.
Moving to the more general realm of environmental cleanup and safety, PTTC is making a “special advertising/white paper” offer to those offering technologies, products, and services in that realm. Watch for it in our next Tech Alert (you are subscribed, correct?) If you are not, you can subscribe online. It’s just another way to keep up with things in the oil and gas technology realm.
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Tags: BOPs, Deepwater drilling, Deepwater Horizon, DOE, Gulf of Mexico, methane hydrates, NETL, Offshore Technology Conference, PTTC, RPSEA. Noble Energy Chairman and CEO Charles Davidson, wild well
