Deepwater Development crowd hears latest technical advancements in sector
Attendees on Day 2 (March 26) of World Oil’s Deepwater Development Conference (MCEDD) in Madrid, Spain, were treated to a wide-ranging assortment of presentations on technical innovations in this special sector of the upstream industry. The speakers covered infrastructure development; the challenges of deeper, harsher environments; the latest, most promising frontier province; breakthroughs in usage of pipelines, flowlines and risers; emerging trends for technology partners in deepwater projects; the continuing impact of digitalization; and a variety of challenges for floating facilities, FPSOs and mooring systems.
Leading off the morning was Mahesh Swaminathan, an Executive Committee member and Senior Vice President, Subsea and Floating Facilities, at McDermott, Fig. 1. Given the world’s growing energy demand in a quickly changing market, he discussed the role that EPC contractors must play in ensuring responsible offshore infrastructure development. Noting the large scale and complexity of deepwater projects, Swaminathan urged his colleagues to work to reduce risk but also ensure the dependability of their partner firms.
Contractors’ Panel. The only panel of the day focused on the innovations and concerns of deepwater contractors. Participants included Mike Dohm, Senior Project Director, Subsea and Floating Facilities, at McDermott; Stephen Dyer, Production Technology Integration-Electrification Program Manager for SLB; Danilo Machado, Principal Project Manager at DNV; and Umberto Nespolo, Global Sales and Commercial Director, Subsea Project and Services, Oilfield Services and Equipment, Baker Hughes.
The panelists discussed the advancing of technologies to address the greater challenges of deeper, harsher environments while still enabling more efficient operations. Also on their minds was creating value while driving these additional innovations. Illustrating the predicament of deepwater contractors perfectly, one panelist said his firm was focused around two things: 1) controlling cost factors; and 2) taking advantage of opportunities that could be rewarding financially while simultaneously reducing risk and uncertainty.
Another panelist seconded that thought, noting that his company was involved in everything that represents a challenge. Yet another panelist said that if the group was being totally honest, the discussion of how to proceed an all deepwater projects will always revolve around complexity, cost and risk. Another participant added on to this thought, noting that any examination of risk and cost has to start with a look at the asset in question, itself.
Regarding specific items of concern, all the panelists agreed that electrification is poking its nose into deepwater operations. Stating that he actually hates the word, electrification, one participant did admit that electric systems allow contractors to standardize and configure equipment more easily. Another panelist added on to that thought, stating that one can clearly see the benefit and reliability of electricity in deepwater operations. Still another panelist said he thought that the industry may be closer to a new adoption of electric operations more than anyone realizes.
Automation of various offshore functions and the efficiencies and cost benefits that can be derived were certainly on the minds of all participants. However, full automation of some platforms and vessels is still mostly a concept. One panelist noted that governments are behind on this subject, and there are no regulations written for so-called fully autonomous vessels.
Is Liberia potentially the next Namibia? Perhaps the most intriguing presentation of the day was offered up by James Deckelman, CEO of Canadian independent BluEnergies, Fig. 2. Noting that Namibia finally emerged as a significant deepwater play after years of frustrating exploration, Deckelman said he thinks Liberia could be a similar case. He pointed out that the Harper basin is the only South Atlantic basin containing a potential multi-million-barrel play. To that end, BluEnergies holds just the second reconnaissance license issued by Liberia.
Deckelman said his firm’s exploration efforts are aided by governmental stability in Liberia. There is a new administration that took office in 2024, and it will be in office for six years. So, this will provide a certain level of stability and consistency that might not be present in other countries. His firm estimates that if oil is found, that the crude encountered would be high-quality, in the range of 37o to 44oAPI.
It is Deckelman’s belief that opportunities of this scale are going to be required to replace major IOC reserves. He said that his company had had expressions of interest in the Liberia play from a number of major operators.
Individual presentations. In the final session of the morning, several presenters delineated advancements and techniques in the use of pipelines, flowlines and risers in deepwater projects. For instance, Carolina Aguiar, Technical Manager-SURF at 2H Offshore Engineering, discussed the use of composite pipes in deepwater dynamic applications. Enrico Girello, Pipeline Emergency Solutions Manager at Saipem, explained the process of repairing cladded or sour service pipelines with his firm’s metal seal connector. A McDermott presentation discussed the firm’s creative approach to deepwater riser installation. And Marcos Martins, Riser Engineer at Petrobras, spoke to an improved DVM for VIV modeling of circular sections under critical flow regimes.
Afternoon sessions. After lunch, Domenico Di Giambattista, VP, OFSE-Subsea at Baker Hughes, addressed the matter of emerging trends for technology partners. He noted that spending for deepwater projects is likely to grow at a faster pace than overall investment in oil and gas globally. And brownfield spending, particularly, is set to rise substantially over the next 10 years. Di Giambattista spoke to the fact that the evolving needs of deepwater development will require new approaches from technology partners. Indeed, close collaboration results in faster production and lower costs for deepwater development.
In the mid-afternoon, the Digitalization session held forth with three presentations. Milene do Canto, Application Engineer, and Renner Vaughn, CCO, of FutureOn, discussed digital twin applications for deepwater asset management. Kristian Grjotheim, V.P. and Manager of Strategic Accounts at Aize, spoke to the wide-ranging leveraging of digital twins from topside to subsea. And Djalene Maria Rocha, Equipment Engineer at Petrobras, described the development of a collaborative web portal to enhance efficiency and digital transformation in subsea engineering.
The final session of the day, Floating Facilities, FPSOs and Mooring Systems, featured four speakers. David Filho, Technical Manager at MODEC, explained the steps his firm is taking to improve FPSO integrity and reduce embodied carbon by using composite materials in new applications. He was followed by Beatriz Alonso Castro, Marine Engineer and Naval Architect at Repsol, who provided an assessment of a spread-moored design for an FPSO in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America). Next up was Angelique Spies, Weight Control Specialist at Wood, who discussed strategies for improved topsides weight management for floating offshore developments. Finally, Luiz Feijo, Director, Global Offshore at ABS (Fig. 3), explained the first step toward an autonomous, normally unattended facility, particularly remotely controlled FPSOs.
