October 1999 Vol. 220 No. 10  Offshore

Robert E. Snyder,  Editor

Offshore Europe 99, accident databank

The 14th biennial Offshore Europe Conference and Exhibition held in Aberdeen, September 7–10, was an important and well-organized event. Despite the fact that several large service companies, including Schlumberger and Halliburton, were missing, the exhibition was well worthwhile for the attractive displays and helpful, knowledgeable personnel.

Unfortunately, also missing from the exhibition — as is typical of the Aberdeen show — were technical representatives of the oil companies that operate Northern Europe’s offshore fields. There was one exception to this in the form of a complete stand devoted to the Elgin-Franklin offshore development of Elf Exploration UK PLC.

The conference side of the show presented three days of practical, useful sessions, including the introductory panel; four management round tables covering relevant topics of the industry’s status / prospects, people issues, industry’s reputation relative to recruiting quality people, and evolving natural gas markets.

On the technical side, some 50 SPE-sponsored technical presentations did a good job of covering the important stuff — exploration, geophysics, facilities design, well engineering, field development, reservoir engineering and environmental performance. Two poster presentations showed the contents of 30 other SPE papers zeroing in on upstream technology.

Greenpeace and other adversarial environmentalists were missing from the program and the premises. The one "environmental performance" technical session was properly oriented toward operations integrating environmental protection. As the session organizers noted, "Improving environmental performance is a key issue for the sustainable development of our industry. The challenge is to report such performance in a way that is both relevant for industry managers, and meaningful for the wider public." Offshore Europe 99 did an enviable job of getting that mix just right.

Task Force initiatives. Probably the biggest news on the management side was publication of The Oil & Gas Industry Task Force Report — A Template for Change, September 1999. As noted by Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade & Industry, in the report itself and at the Aberdeen show, "The oil & gas industry task force was announced last November and established to meet for a 7-month period to draw up short, medium and long-term objectives and actions for government and industry to achieve together."

Too comprehensive to summarize here, information on the published report, the Task Force’s activities and ongoing / future initiatives can be found on the web at: www.dti.gov.uk/ogitf. A short report on one of the Task Force’s major proposals, dubbed LOGIC (Leading Oil and Gas Industry Competitiveness) is noted in Looking Ahead.

One example initiative from the Task Force is the Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF), which will focus on "driving forward new technologies and industry collaboration on marginal North Sea fields." Energy Minister Helen Liddell said the Task Force estimates that an additional 5.6 billion barrels of recoverable reserves could be added over the next five years if the right decisions are made now."

Shares in ITF will be held by the 16 major UK oil companies. It will be supported by a Technology Advisory Committee drawn from operating contractors, small and medium companies, and scientists. ITF will be based in Aberdeen and operate as a small company, owned and governed by oil companies active on the UKCS. Board members include representatives from Shell, BP Amoco, Marathon, Kerr McGee and Statoil. Ian Bilsland is ITF’s Chief Executive. The group’s web address is: http://www.dti.gov.uk.

Action from UKOOA. The UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) says it welcomes the series of initiatives announced by the government’s task force. The group’s Director General, James May, said the UK Continental Shelf has about as much remaining oil / gas as has been recovered, but most of this lies in small fields and complex reservoirs. The offshore industry’s long-term future will, therefore, "depend on its ability to compete successfully in a world market where lower costs exist."

In an initiative of its own, UKOOA has awarded 15 R&D contracts as part of a £1-million($1.6-million) first-phase investigation into options for dealing with drill cuttings accumulations under oil / gas installations in the North Sea. UKOOA says those options include removal, in-situ treatment or leaving the accumulations undisturbed. Environmental impact of these options and the required technologies are the subject of the current study program.

The program is being coordinated by Det Norske Veritas Technical Consultancy in Aberdeen, appointed as independent project manager. The first phase is to be completed this year; second-phase testing could see offshore trials after 1st-quarter 2000. More information can be found under "Drill Cuttings" in UKOOA’s website: www.oilandgas.org.uk.

Accident databank. On another subject, as a service to those engaged in offshore safety and reliability, as well as cost-benefit evaluations and insurance, biennial statistical reports on offshore accidents are being published by DNV through its Worldwide Offshore Accident Databank (WOAD). The WOAD Statistical Report 1998 give details of some 3,200 accidents to mobile offshore units and fixed offshore oil / gas installations on a worldwide basis in the period 1970 to 1997.

Information is presented in tables, with accident statistics grouped under different aspects, such as rate of accidents, type of structure, mode of operation, fatalities, spills, etc. Information such as the number of operating mobile platforms each year and the number of people involved per platform type and geographical area of operation is given. More than 1,250 workers lost their lives in offshore accidents from 1970 through 1997. During this period, 166 offshore units were lost and a further 950 units suffered severe or significant damage.

The report sells for NOK 2,200, about $305, plus shipping / handling. Contact Det Norske Veritas (DNV) in Høvik, Norway, Tel: 47 67 57 99 00, Fax: 47 67 57 99 11.

Copyright © 1999 World Oil
Copyright © 1999 Gulf Publishing Company