|
Vol. 231 No. 2 |
Shell announced that its Perdido Development, the world’s deepest offshore oil platform, won the “ENR Energy Construction Project of the Year” award at the Platts Global Energy Awards Ceremony. In addition, Shell was a finalist in three other categories. Shell designed the Perdido host spar, a floating production facility, which is jointly owned by Shell (35%, operator), Chevron (37.5%) and BP (27.5%). The regional development is located in about 8,000 ft of water in an isolated sector of the Gulf of Mexico and will act as a hub for and enable development of three fields—Great White, Tobago and Silvertip. The project has set a world water-depth record in drilling and completing a subsea well 9,356 ft below the water’s surface, with plans to drill a deeper well at 9,627 ft.
TAM International Inc. will supply casing annulus packers, port collars, and metal-to-metal-seal Hatch packers to Total E&P Indonesia for a three-year period. Under this contract, TAM will provide equipment and services to Total for two-stage cementing and control of shallow gas migration offshore Kalimantan, Indonesia.
M-I Swaco has acquired UK-based Cyclotech, a provider of process enhancement technologies for the oil and gas production industry. Based in Basingstoke, Cyclotech specializes in produced water treatment, sand management and process debottlenecking of oil and gas production. The company was formed in 1994 as a provider of specialized, compact separation technology and processes to the petroleum industry.
Oceaneering International Inc. has commissioned the construction of a dive-support vessel (DSV) with an estimated capital cost of $17 million. Expected delivery of the 200 × 46-ft vessel from a US Gulf Coast shipyard is late in the fourth quarter of 2010. The new vessel will replace the Ocean Project, which was built in 1972. The DSV will be US flagged and outfitted to perform subsea inspection, repair and maintenance services and support construction operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The vessel will have built-in diving equipment, including a dive control system and decompression chambers, to maximize the availability of deck space for job-specific equipment and to ensure safe working conditions. It will have accommodations for 50 personnel and be equipped with a 40-ton crane, a working moon pool and a four-point mooring system, enabling operations in 700 ft of water.
Omron Oilfield & Marine, a provider of AC and DC drive systems and rig automation control systems for the oil and gas drilling industry, will partner with drawworks provider Alta Rig Systems Inc. (ARS) to deliver automated control systems for its electric drawworks product line. Based in Edmonton, Alberta, ARS designs and manufactures standard and custom gear-driven drawworks in the 600- to 3,000-hp range. These drawworks are lighter, have a smaller footprint, and offer more torque and efficiency than chain-driven drawworks.
Geotrace has completed one of the world’s largest onboard data-processing projects for BP, as operator in its EPSA 4 NOC/LIC/BP exploration contract in BP’s Sirt Basin concession off the coast of Libya. The 3D marine survey covered 17,500 sq km. The area was split into four tracts of approximately equal area. The contract stipulated onboard processing, including 2D SRME and full pre-stack time migration with velocity model picking, within six weeks of last shot for each tract. The aim was to produce a high-quality image for prospect identification and to enable the complete well planning process to begin in 2009. Each of the four tranches was delivered within the six-week target set by BP. In addition to the conventional pre-stack time processed data, a high-resolution shallow hazard cube was processed onboard and delivered from the vessel, as well as a multiple-azimuth test run over a subset of the full survey area.
Breitling Oil and Gas Corp. has made a preliminary agreement to purchase Southwest Energy Exploration of Oklahoma City. Under terms of the agreement, Southwest will be a wholly owned operating subsidiary of Breitling. The purchase includes all Southwest Energy Exploration property, equipment and leases of developable land in Oklahoma and Texas. Management is contracted to remain with the business for a minimum of five years.
Paradigm has signed a multi-year global access agreement with Taiwan-based CPC Corp. to provide that company with full access to the Paradigm seismic interpretation suite, including SeisEarth, VoxelGeo, Stratimagic and Geolog. The Paradigm seismic interpretation software equips geoscientists with tools for creating seamless interpretation and analyzing seismic data within a fully functional 3D canvas. Advances within this technology improve interpretation time and assist geoscientists in identifying potential exploration prospects and drilling targets.
Cameron has received an order worth more than $230 million for the supply of subsea production systems for Stage I of Chevron’s Jack and St. Malo subsea development in the Gulf of Mexico. The project will include twelve 15,000-psi subsea trees, production control systems, four manifolds and associated connection systems, engineering and project management services. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2011.
UK-based Corus Tubes, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, has been awarded an American Petroleum Institute 5LD accreditation for the manufacture of its corrosion-resistant, clad pipeline at its Hartlepool 42-in. mill. The pipe is made from plate with a stainless steel alloy layer, finished with a submerged arc weld. The product helps allow cost-effective recovery of previously unviable reserves in mature and sour service fields, which contain high levels of H2S and CO2. The license allows Corus Tubes to use the API’s monogram, certifying the business as an accredited manufacturer in line with API’s manufacturing and quality assurance standards. The company has developed a process called the UOE method, which forms bonded clad plate into linepipe. The material is formed into a “U,” then an “O” shape, before being expanded to the final dimensions.
|
