WorldWideScience

Sample records for international offshore oil

  1. Drilling in troubled waters. For an international regulation on offshore gas and oil activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rochette, Julien

    2014-01-01

    Due to an increased energy demand, offshore activities are being extended to deep and ultra-deep waters: nearly one third of consumed oil and one quarter of consumed gas come from offshore drilling. This development threatens the environment and natural resources, and may have an impact on human activities which depend on the concerned ecosystems. As some accident had cross-border consequences, the relevance of the international regulatory framework is put into question again. This article first outlines the incomplete character of the legal framework for the safety of offshore activities: uncoordinated national systems, lack of an international convention, fragmented regional initiatives (some agreements exist for some specific regions: Arctic Sea, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North-Eastern Atlantic, Persic Gulf and Oman Sea, Africa, western Indian Ocean). The author outlines that there is no international rules regarding responsibility and compensations. While highlighting the risks of a status-quo on these different issues, the author proposes and discusses a set of recommendations aimed at strengthening the regulation of offshore drilling activities

  2. The International Standards Organisation offshore structures standard

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snell, R.O.

    1994-01-01

    The International Standards Organisation has initiated a program to develop a suite of ISO Codes and Standards for the Oil Industry. The Offshore Structures Standard is one of seven topics being addressed. The scope of the standard will encompass fixed steel and concrete structures, floating structures, Arctic structures and the site specific assessment of mobile drilling and accommodation units. The standard will use as base documents the existing recommended practices and standards most frequently used for each type of structure, and will develop them to incorporate best published and recognized practice and knowledge where it provides a significant improvement on the base document. Work on the Code has commenced under the direction of an internationally constituted sub-committee comprising representatives from most of the countries with a substantial offshore oil and gas industry. This paper outlines the background to the code and the format, content and work program

  3. Offshore oil and gas : a community development perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pierce, J.; Vodden, K.; House, D.

    2003-01-01

    A community perspective on offshore oil and gas development in British Columbia was presented. It was noted that local benefits depend greatly on the level of regulation and government intervention in the industry. Community preparedness, jurisdictional certainty and corporate ethics also play a vital role. It is also necessary to clearly understand legal, economic, environmental, social and industrial aspects of offshore development. Jurisdictional concerns include the International Free Trade Agreement, ambiguities over mineral rights, and claims by First Nations to seabed and ocean resources. It was emphasized that the impact of offshore development on ecotourism and fisheries should not be underestimated. Community-based planning is critical. Economic imperatives include international prices, recovery costs, distribution of royalties, and alternative opportunities. It was also noted that communities in British Columbia have much to learn from other gas dependent regions

  4. Screening Criteria and Considerations of Offshore Enhanced Oil Recovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pan-Sang Kang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The application of enhanced oil recovery (EOR in offshore oil fields has received significant attention due to the potentially enormous amount of recoverable oil. However, EOR application offshore is in its very early stage due to conditions that are more complex than onshore oil fields, owing to the unique parameters present offshore. Therefore, successful EOR applications in offshore oil fields require different screening criteria than those for conventional onshore applications. A comprehensive database for onshore applications of EOR processes together with a limited offshore EOR application database are analyzed in this paper, and the important parameters for successful offshore application are incorporated into the new EOR screening criteria. In this paper, screening criteria to determine acceptable EOR processes for offshore fields, including hydrocarbon gas miscible, CO2 miscible, and polymer processes, are presented. Suggested screening criteria for these EOR processes comprise quantitative boundaries and qualitative considerations. Quantitative screening criteria are predominantly based on quantifiable data, such as oil and reservoir properties. Qualitative screening considerations mainly focus on the operational issues present offshore, including platform space constraints, limited disposal options, injectant availability, and flow assurance matters (including hydrate formation and difficulties in emulsion separation.

  5. Offshore oil: Correctness of perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burns, R.F.

    1993-01-01

    Except for the Gulf of Mexico, the offshore oil industry has been virtually banned from the US Exclusive Economic Zone for ten years. The oil potential in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is also off limits. The Gulf of Mexico is the only place with prospects for future success and a number of companies both large and small are determined to move forward. The depressed price of oil does not encourage development but recently gas prices in the US have increased, making offshore gas development more feasible. Perhaps most significant is development and application of new technology and more intense management to make sure it works. The offshore oil companies and support industries have made significant technological advances, expending over and above the dollars paid in taxes, lease fees, and royalties. The ocean industries harbor a great reservoir of high technology knowledge. They have demonstrated the ability to successfully meet a vast array of challenges in exploring for, drilling, and producing oil and gas in extreme conditions. These facts beg the question as to the rational basis of each and every regulation and the ban on drilling

  6. To put an end to the oil blue. For a better regulation of offshore oil and gas activities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rochette, Julien; Chabason, Lucien; Callet, Sarah; Wemaere, Matthieu

    2014-01-01

    After having outlined the context of an endless race to offshore oil and gas, and the increased associated risks for the environment, this report discusses the relevance of the international regulation framework for offshore activities. While addressing the issues of responsibility and compensation, the authors analyse existing international and regional regulations, outline legal loopholes, and identify ways to address them. The objective is to propose a comprehensive analysis of the current international framework, to make some propositions to strengthen it. After an analysis of rules which now govern offshore activities, and of the framework regarding responsibility and compensation in case of accidents, the authors highlight the main loopholes of the international regulatory framework, and identify some perspectives to correct them. They discuss the main existing challenges and present some options for a better supervision of offshore activities

  7. Offshore newcomer : world-scale megaproject spawns international-calibre skills and facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sorensen, D.

    1997-01-01

    The development of Hibernia marked the beginning of Newfoundland's booming oil industry. The offshore platform located 300 km offshore in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland has an estimated 615 million barrels of recoverable reserves to be produced at a projected average rate of 135,000 barrels per day. Newfoundland personnel and facilities acquired much expertise during the building of the offshore facility and are ready to enter the world market for oil and gas services and supplies. Newfoundland's biggest operations are the fabrication yards at Bull Arm and Marystown which have the capacity for steel fabrication, concrete construction, outfitting installation, hook-up and commissioning of industrial facilities. Plans are currently underway for the Terra Nova project. Newfoundland also has a strong labor force, with international calibre skills. The capacity is here, and as confidence in that capability increases, Newfoundland firms are beginning to form partnerships with international firms. 6 figs

  8. Fragmented International Governance of Arctic Offshore Oil : Governance Challenges and Institutional Improvement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Humrich, Christoph

    The governance architecture in the Arctic region is subject to broad public and academic debate. Existing governance arrangements are not considered sufficient to minimize risks and impacts from Arctic offshore oil activities. These governance arrangements are fragmented between law of the sea

  9. Canada's east coast offshore oil and gas industry: a backgrounder

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bott, R.

    1999-06-01

    Another of the backgrounder series published by the Petroleum Communication Foundation, this booklet describes Canada's offshore oil and natural gas operations in the North Atlantic Ocean, specifically in the Hibernia (off Newfoundland, crude oil), Terra Nova (off Newfoundland, crude oil), Cohasset-Panuke (off Nova Scotia, crude oil) and Sable Island (off Nova Scotia, natural gas) fields. Together, these project represent an investment of more than 10 billion dollars and constitute a growing portion of Canada's 400,000 cubic metres of crude oil and natural gas liquids per day production. The booklet explains the importance of the offshore oil and natural gas industry to Canada, the benefits accruing to the maritime provinces locally, prospects for future offshore oil and natural gas development and provides a brief summary of each of the four current major projects. The booklet also provides an overview of the facilities required for offshore energy projects, environmental impacts and safeguards, exploration, drilling, production, processing and transportation aspects of offshore oil and gas projects. 9 refs, photos

  10. Efficiency Assessment of Economic International Cooperation in Development of Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Resources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Polina V. Beresneva

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The research is focused on efficiency assessment of economic cooperation in development of Arctic offshore oil and gas resources. The author developed an economic model based on cost-benefit analysis (CBA. CBA is used in some countries (EU, USA, Australia as an analytic tool to make public policy decisions. CBA is based on the method of discounting cash flows associated with costs and benefits of public policy. It is assumed that all public goals are equally important inter alia, hence public bodies should opt for those initiatives that maximize public benefits for every dollar spent from the state budget. There are five stages of economic modeling: 1 the definition of public benefits and costs associated with the public initiative; 2 monetary valuation of costs and benefits; 3 the definition of discounting period and discounting rate; 4 the calculation of net present value of cash flows; 5 the comparison of initiatives' net present values. The model is built with a number of hypotheses assumed. It allows making evaluation of investments into the technology to decrease the cost of Arctic offshore oil and gas development. Moreover, the model has two scenarios describing a public policy to support technology development with international economic cooperation and without it. Under given hypotheses both scenarios return positive net present value of policies which proves that governmental initiative to support Arctic technology development is economically justified. Also the model sows that the scenario with international cooperation is more efficient from economic point of view. It is explained by two factors: the higher speed of technology transfer (due W international cooperation and the opportunity to use financial leverage (attracting the funds from foreign partners. The model allows closing the existing scientific gap between the theory of CBA method and its practical use in public decision making.

  11. Bridging IMO e-Navigation Policy and Offshore Oil and Gas Operations through Geospatial Standards

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Filipe Modesto Da Rocha

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available In offshore industry activities, the suitable onboard provision of assets location and geospatial marine information during operations is essential. Currently, most companies use its own data structures, resulting in incompatibility between processes. In order to promote the data exchange, oil and gas industry associations have pursued initiatives to standardize spatial information. In turn, the IMO - International Maritime Organization - started the implementation of e-Navigation policy, which is the standardization of technologies and protocols applied to maritime information and navigation. This paper shows relationship and integration points between maritime activities of oil and gas industry and e-Navigation technologies and processes, highlighting geospatial information. This paper also preludes out an initiative for a suitable product specification for the offshore oil and gas industry, compliant with e-Navigation and IHO S-100 international standards.

  12. Environmental law issues: Offshore oil and gas activities and tanker transportation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chapman, P.M.

    1991-01-01

    The environmental law issues that arise from offshore oil/gas activities and petroleum transport are reviewed, focusing on marine oil pollution and especially on the issues surrounding accidental spills. Some observations are offered on the context of these issues, namely on the risks of oil spills, the difficulty of spill response in the ocean and on shorelines, and the possible environmental damage. Environmental control of petroleum operations is discussed with reference to Canadian regulation, the primary source of which is the Oil and Gas Production and Conservation Act. These regulations require developmental approval for offshore operations, formulation of plans for foreseeable spill emergencies, and compensation to those affected by spills, notably those in the fishing industry. Ship-source oil pollution and spill compensation is discussed with reference to international agreements and the Canada Shipping Act. Some problems and trends with oil spill compensation and recovery for environmental damage are noted in such areas as tanker ship standards, cleanup capabilities, and inadequacy of spill penalties and compensation. 18 refs., 1 fig

  13. The effect of the 2010 Gulf oil spill on public attitudes toward offshore oil drilling and wind development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lilley, Jonathan; Firestone, Jeremy

    2013-01-01

    In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil well exploded, releasing over four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. This paper presents data from two national mail surveys undertaken in 2008 and 2010 that compare public attitudes to both offshore oil drilling and offshore wind development pre- and post-spill. The results show that while there was a drop in support for expanded drilling (from 66% in 2008 to 59% in 2010) the change was not significant. There was, however, a significant decrease in support for offshore drilling among coastal residents. There was a slight, non-significant increase in support for offshore wind development which remained significantly higher than support for offshore oil (80% in 2008 and 82% in 2010). Despite there being no significant change in overall support levels, there was a shift in the strength of feeling regarding offshore oil, with 80% of Americans either less supportive or more opposed to expanded drilling in 2010 than they were in 2008. -- Highlights: •We assess whether the Gulf oil spill affected attitudes to offshore energy. •Overall support for offshore wind (82%) was greater than for offshore oil (59%). •Support for expanded offshore oil drilling decreased but not significantly. •Support for offshore wind development increased slightly, again not significantly. •Although overall support levels did not change, the strength of feeling did

  14. Governance of Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bringing together leading experts from various disciplines, this book offers a comprehensive study of the governance of offshore oil and gas activities in the circumpolar Arctic. As a consequence of energy globalisation, and of a sharp increase in world energy demand, the Arctic Ocean is also now...... being targeted for its offshore oil and gas resources, at the same time as an increasing demand for democratic legitimisation and recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples is emerging in the civil spheres of society. The volume analyses how, in the daunting context of climate change......, the interactions between the various levels of governance structure the policy process and impact on the efficiency of environmental management and the effectiveness of public participation, including the participation of indigenous peoples. Any governance system for Arctic offshore oil and gas activities...

  15. Federal Offshore Statistics, 1993. Leasing, exploration, production, and revenue as of December 31, 1993

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Francois, D.K.

    1994-12-31

    This document contains statistical data on the following: federal offshore lands; offshore leasing activity and status; offshore development activity; offshore production of crude oil and natural gas; federal offshore oil and natural gas sales volume and royalties; revenue from federal offshore leases; disbursement of federal offshore revenue; reserves and resource estimates of offshore oil and natural gas; oil pollution in US and international waters; and international activities and marine minerals. A glossary is included.

  16. Legal aspects of financing Canadian offshore oil and gas developments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Green, J.M.; Hudec, A.J.

    1992-01-01

    A review is presented of the significant legal considerations involved in structuring, negotiating, and documenting commercial financing of a Canadian offshore oil and gas production facility. Emphasis is placed on the Hibernia Project in the Newfoundland offshore as an example, and more specifically the $450 million bank financing completed in November 1991. The legal framework governing offshore production financing in this case was complex, due to the project's location in international waters on the continental shelf. Complex intergovernmental arrangements have been implemented between Canada and Newfoundland to govern the offshore area and regulate the project. An agreement called the Atlantic Accord allowed the Canada Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board (CNOPB) to grant production licenses and to regulate offshore exploration and development, with matters relating to legislation, taxation, and royalties shared between the governments. Certain other acts were enacted or extended for application to the offshore area. The CNOPB administers a registry system for transfers and security interests in offshore licenses. Security interests including property are ensured by the Hibernia Act, which makes Newfoundland's existing security interest regime applicable to the offshore. The project owners are operating Hibernia as a joint venture, and the structure of project financing and inter-creditor arrangements is examined. The competing security interest of project lenders and non-defaulting participants is discussed, along with assignment of priorities on the security in case of default

  17. Industrial opportunities - offshore

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gerrits, D.J.

    1998-01-01

    Industrial opportunities available in the Canadian offshore petroleum industry are discussed. Oil has been produced offshore from Nova Scotia since 1992, and offshore from Newfoundland since 1997. Special needs that must be addressed in offshore operations in eastern Canada such as the cold North Atlantic environment, isolation, logistics, safety, and quality assurance, are examined. The most obvious opportunities lie with the designing, building and installing the facilities needed to extract oil and gas from beneath the sea floor and transport it to market. However, there are also opportunities in designing and fabricating clothing, customized food containers and other equipment for offshore needs. Short term opportunities also exist in the decommissioning of depleted production fields and their facilities. One of the greatest obstacles facing new entrants into the offshore oil and gas industry is the lack of a track record. To meet this challenge, the ability to seek out partners to pursue local and international opportunities through joint ventures, strategic alliances and technology sharing partnering arrangements is of great importance. It may be the difference between success and failure. 6 figs

  18. Offshore oil production not significant polluter, says government report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Danenberger, E.P.

    1977-11-01

    Only 0.0028% of the oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico from 1971 through 1975 was spilled. World-wide, natural seeps introduce nearly 7 times more oil into the sea than offshore activity, while transportation, the worst offender, puts in 25 times more than offshore oil. The report includes data for spills of 50 bbl or less; about 85.5% of the total spill volume was from 5 of the 5857 incidents. In only one case was environmental damage reported, when minor amounts of oil reached 1000 ft of beach on the Chandeleur Islands after the 9/9/74 Cobia pipeline break. The report states that 50 ppm discharges cause no adverse effect, and that hydrocarbons in this concentration may even benefit microbial sea life.

  19. 75 FR 29397 - National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-05-26

    ... National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling By the authority vested in... Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling (the ``Commission''). Sec. 2. Membership. (a) The... impact of, oil spills associated with offshore drilling, taking into consideration the environmental...

  20. Offshore oil spill recovery operations in the Persian Gulf

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Williams, H.D.; Gangsaas, G.K.

    1993-01-01

    On or about January 25, 1991, Iraqi forces in Kuwait discharged more than 4 million barrels of Kuwait crude oil into the Persian Gulf. The counterclockwise current carried the resulting slick southeastward along the coast of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian oil company, Aramco, chartered the multiclassed tanker and response vessel Al Waasit, based in Dubai, to assist in the offshore recovery operation. The Al Waasit's response resulted in the offshore recovery of about 100,000 barrels of oil during a 42-day period, without a recovery system failure. The authors both served on board Al Waasit as operations managers during this response operation

  1. Tacit knowledge and risk perceptions: Tullow Oil and lay publics in Ghana's offshore oil region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ofori-Parku, Sylvester Senyo

    2018-02-01

    This study examines how local residents make sense of offshore oil production risks in Ghana's nascent petroleum industry. From a naturalistic-interpretive perspective, it is primarily based on in-depth interviews with community residents: 8 opinion leaders, 15 residents, and 1 journalist. Residents associate Tullow's oil activities with health concerns (e.g. conjunctivitis), environmental challenges (e.g. the emergence of decomposed seaweeds along the shore), and socio-economic concerns (e.g. loss of livelihoods, decline in fish harvest, and increased rent and cost of living). Focusing on how the local, practical knowledge of interviewees manifest in their sense of offshore oil risks, the study identifies two strategies-scapegoating and tacit knowing-underlying how residents construe offshore oil risks and benefits. Beyond its theoretical contribution to the social construction of risk process, the study illustrates the challenge the expert-lay publics dichotomy poses (and the potential bridging this dichotomy has) for corporate and societal risk management.

  2. Offshore in depth

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ebdon, J F

    1968-08-01

    The world-wide scope of offshore areas is discussed. Offshore areas of the U.S. and the world are where one of the ''hottest'' hydrocarbon booms--drilling, production, and pipelining--are in action today. Most of the current activity in offshore exploration and drilling is crude oil directed. However, big non-associated natural gas finds have been made. Additionally, for every barrel of crude oil produced, either or both associated natural gas and dissolved natural gas are produced in some varying ratio as casinghead gas. Thus, with worldwide production of some 2.5-million bbl of crude oil per day from offshore areas of Free-World countries, there are vast volumes of casinghead natural gas produced, over and above that produced from non-associated natural gas wells to the seaward of land masses. If offshore gas of any classification is produced in commercial volumes close to onshore population centers, then the possibility of marketing is fairly good. If remote from population centers, it is usually flared or shut-in. The development of gas liquefaction and cryogenic tankers has started, but international ocean traffic in LNG is still in its infancy. Current offshore gas pipelines are described.

  3. IS OFFSHORING AN INTERNATIONAL PROCESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulo Roberto Gião

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This article proposes to analyze the applicability of transaction cost economics - TCE (Coase, 1937; Williamson, 1975, 1979 through its characteristic make-or-buy expression, considering the offshoring pace and emerging economy firms. The make-or-buy decision must be flexible enough to explain offshoring characteristics and developed and emerging economy firms scenarios. As secondary objectives, and to show the trail to the main purpose, two research questions were identified and discussed during the paper: Is offshoring process an international movement only from developed countries to emerging economies? Is the main reason of offshoring the looking for low-cost work / activities? To achieve the proposed objectives, the structure of this paper begins with a reasonable or acceptable definition of offshoring. Some reasons (or “the reason” for the process are also another important starting point. The majority of articles referee the idea that low-cost is the main reason for offshoring, and if it is correct, transaction cost economics seems to be a good basis for our analysis purpose and integrative intention. Also some literature connections between offshoring and TCE are presented and, naturally TCE is presented in highlights for understanding these connections. Ending this section, some different arguments based on newer researches are presented by some authors presenting another perspective as the main reason. After this theoretical approach, a scenario analysis and some discussions are presented based on all possible interactions among firm from developed (DC and emerging economies (EE and examples of international corporations are presented to clarify and improve the understanding of our research questions and to build new contributions to international business theory.

  4. The ARGO Project: assessing NA-TECH risks on off-shore oil platforms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Capuano, Paolo; Basco, Anna; Di Ruocco, Angela; Esposito, Simona; Fusco, Giannetta; Garcia-Aristizabal, Alexander; Mercogliano, Paola; Salzano, Ernesto; Solaro, Giuseppe; Teofilo, Gianvito; Scandone, Paolo; Gasparini, Paolo

    2017-04-01

    ARGO (Analysis of natural and anthropogenic risks on off-shore oil platforms) is a 2 years project, funded by the DGS-UNMIG (Directorate General for Safety of Mining and Energy Activities - National Mining Office for Hydrocarbons and Georesources) of Italian Ministry of Economic Development. The project, coordinated by AMRA (Center for the Analysis and Monitoring of Environmental Risk), aims at providing technical support for the analysis of natural and anthropogenic risks on offshore oil platforms. In order to achieve this challenging objective, ARGO brings together climate experts, risk management experts, seismologists, geologists, chemical engineers, earth and coastal observation experts. ARGO has developed methodologies for the probabilistic analysis of industrial accidents triggered by natural events (NA-TECH) on offshore oil platforms in the Italian seas, including extreme events related to climate changes. Furthermore the environmental effect of offshore activities has been investigated, including: changes on seismicity and on the evolution of coastal areas close to offshore platforms. Then a probabilistic multi-risk framework has been developed for the analysis of NA-TECH events on offshore installations for hydrocarbon extraction.

  5. Offshore oil and gas development costs: Four decades of technical change

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lohrenz, J.

    1997-01-01

    The worldwide offshore oil and gas business is over 40 years old, but is not, nor does it appear to be soon destined to be, in its dotage. The key role of technology played to enable the business to prosper in volatile and severe environments--physically and otherwise--examined here. Offshore oil and gas technology, like all technologies, is only effective when it shows up at the bottom line. Here the author shows how the 1970's offshore technology continued would have virtually ended the business. But that technology changed the bottom line

  6. Liability and compensation for oil spill accidents : International regime and its implementation in China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Yang, Yuan

    2017-01-01

    Marine oil spill accidents have long been caused by ship collisions. However, the proliferation of offshore oil and gas installations portends a marked increase in oil spills from these sources. This presents a unique enforcement challenge for international and Chinese domestic systems for oil

  7. Artificial intelligence applications in offshore oil and gas production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Attia, F.G.

    1994-01-01

    The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained considerable acceptance in virtually all fields, of engineering applications. Artificial intelligence is now being applied in several areas of offshore oil and gas operations, such as drilling, well testing, well logging and interpretation, reservoir engineering, planning and economic evaluation, process control, and risk analysis. Current AI techniques offer a new and exciting technology for solving problems in the oil and gas industry. Expert systems, fuzzy logic systems, neural networks and genetic algorithms are major AI technologies which have made an impact on the petroleum industry. Presently, these technologies are at different stages of maturity with expert systems being the most mature and genetic algorithms the least. However, all four technologies have evolved such that practical applications were produced. This paper describes the four major Al techniques and their many applications in offshore oil and gas production operations. A summary description of future developments in Al technology that will affect the execution and productivity of offshore operations will be also provided

  8. Environmental risk analysis for offshore oil and gas activities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brude, Odd Willy; Aspholm, Ole O.; Rudberg, Anders [Det Norske Veritas (Brazil)

    2008-07-01

    Offshore oil and gas activities always have a risk for environmental impact due to potential accidental releases of oil and gas. The environmental risk can be calculated as a combination of the frequency of such accidents to occur and their environmental consequences in terms of environmental damage to habitats or populations. A method for conducting environmental risk analysis has been in use in Norwegian offshore waters for a decade, with a continuously refinement of methodology over the past years. This paper outlines the principles in the MIRA method and gives examples and discussions regarding use in different environmental compartments. The risk assessment starts with identification of oil spill scenarios with frequencies of potential release rates and spill durations. The next step is to model the oil drift for each accidental oil spill scenario. Drift and fate of oil is modeled probabilistic. Based on the oil spill scenarios and their probability of oil pollution, the potential environmental damage is quantified for each scenario. The endpoint of environmental damage is reduction of a population and the resulting recovery time (in years) for various species and habitats. Environmental risk levels are then evaluated against the operating companies' environmental acceptance criteria. (author)

  9. Placing Brazil's heavy acid oils on international markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Szklo, Alexandre Salem; Machado, Giovani; Schaeffer, Roberto; Felipe Simoes, Andre; Barboza Mariano, Jacqueline

    2006-01-01

    This paper identifies the international market niches of Brazil's heavy acid oils. It analyzes the perspectives for making wider use of heavy acid oils, assessing their importance for certain oil-producing regions such as Brazil, Venezuela, West Africa, the North Sea and China. Within this context, the oil produced in the Marlim Field offshore Brazil is of specific interest, spurred by the development of its commercial brand name for placement on international markets and backed by ample production volumes. This analysis indicates keener international competition among acid oils produced in Brazil, the North Sea and the West Coast of Africa, through to 2010. However, over the long term, refinery conversion capacity is the key factor for channeling larger volumes of heavy acid oils to the international market. In this case, the future of acid oil producers will depend on investments in refineries close to oil product consumption centers. For Brazil, this means investments in modifying its refineries and setting up partnerships in the downstream segment for consumer centers absorbing all products of high added value, such as the USA and even Southeast Asia and Western Europe

  10. Application of natural antimicrobial compounds for reservoir souring and MIC prevention in offshore oil and gas production systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Mette Hedegaard; Skovhus, Torben Lund; Mashietti, Marco

    Offshore oil production facilities are subjectable to internal corrosion, potentially leading to human and environmental risk and significant economic losses. Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) and reservoir souring - sulphide production by sulfate reducing microorganisms in the reservo...

  11. The Role of Well Control Training in Developing Safe Onshore and Offshore Oil Drilling Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abulhassn, Aber

    2016-01-01

    This research investigates the role of the International Well Control Forum (IWCF) Rotary Drilling Well Control Training Program in developing safe oil drilling operations from the perspective of onshore and offshore drilling crews. The research methodology is a qualitative case study. A total of 40 IWCF candidates were interviewed, with 10 from…

  12. Governance of Arctic Offshore Oil & Gas Activities: Multilevel Governance & Legal Pluralism at Stake

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pelaudeix, Cecile

    2015-01-01

    This article analyses the governance process of offshore oil and gas activities in the Arctic with the concept of multilevelgovernance and legal pluralism to address both issues of management of the environment and public participation. The analysis goes beyond the single issue of fragmentation p...... and from regional government, indigenous shareholders and corporation perspectives, could be helpful in providing relevant actors with arguments to weigh the decision on seismic and drilling activities in relation to risk acceptance.......This article analyses the governance process of offshore oil and gas activities in the Arctic with the concept of multilevelgovernance and legal pluralism to address both issues of management of the environment and public participation. The analysis goes beyond the single issue of fragmentation...... pertaining to the international and supranational levels, to encompass national and regional levels and evaluate how the interactions between those levels structure the policy process and impact the efficiency of environmental management and public participation. Four paths of reflection arise from...

  13. Insight conference proceedings : Pacific Canada and north coast offshore oil and gas development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    This conference provided a forum for reviewing oil and gas activities in offshore basins around the world and their influence on British Columbia's plans to reopen its offshore to exploration and development. Details on jurisdictional issues were provided along with potential environmental impacts and remedial actions. Speakers with first hand experience in the latest technologies and mitigation measures addressed issues regarding regulatory regimes used in the Arctic offshore and compared them with proposed developments in British Columbia. Issues specific to the Pacific coast were also discussed, such as the current offshore oil and gas moratorium, land use and the views of First Nations and environmental non-governmental organizations. A current industry perspective of offshore oil and gas development was presented with lessons learned from the east coast. The opportunities for constructing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and their associated facilities in the Pacific coast were also presented. This conference featured 14 presentations, of which 3 have been indexed separately for inclusion in this database

  14. SEASAT demonstration experiments with the offshore oil, gas and mining industries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mourad, A. G.; Robinson, A. C.; Balon, J. E.

    1979-01-01

    Despite its failure, SEASAT-1 acquired a reasonable volume of data that can be used by industrial participants on a non-real-time basis to prove the concept of microwave sensing of the world's oceans from a satellite platform. The amended version of 8 experimental plans are presented, along with a description of the satellite, its instruments, and the data available. Case studies are summarized for the following experiments: (1) Beaufort Sea oil, gas, and Arctic operations; (2) Labrador Sea oil, gas, and sea ice; (3) Gulf of Mexico pipelines; (4) U.S. East Coast offshore oil and gas; (5) worldwide offshore drilling and production operations; (6) Equatorial East Pacific Ocean mining; (7) Bering Sea ice project; and (8) North Sea oil and gas.

  15. Offshore industry: medical emergency response in the offshore oil and gas industry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ponsonby, Will; Mika, Frano; Irons, Greg

    2009-08-01

    The hunt for oil and gas has taken workers into new more distant locations including those offshore. The remoteness of the offshore platforms and vessels coupled with the potential risk of being cut off by bad weather presents particular challenges for medical emergency response (MER). Firstly to define the challenges for MER in terms of locations, population and epidemiology of injuries and illnesses in the offshore environment. Secondly to give examples of legal requirements and industry standards to manage MER. Thirdly to look at existing and emerging practice to manage these challenges. A review of published literature was supplemented with a summary of current practice in the industry. Medical professionals (medics) working offshore on installations and vessels are primarily responsible for the medical care of the workers. The medics have clinics with suitable medical equipment for managing emergencies as well as providing limited primary care. Some countries have legislation that stipulate minimum requirements. Where there is no national legislation, industry and company guidance is used to define the MER standards. Supervision of the offshore medics is often provided by doctors on shore via radio and phone links. These methods of communication are now being augmented with more sophisticated telemedicine solutions such as the Internet and live video links. These newer solutions allow for prompt high-quality care and provide the scope for a variety of new treatment options to be available for the offshore workforce.

  16. Study of environmental concerns: offshore oil and gas drilling and production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baker, R

    1978-01-01

    Material on the environmental concerns associated with offshore drilling and production activities has been synthesized with Department of Fisheries and Environment files on specific projects, these being the primary information source. Recommendations to resolve these concerns have also been provided. Most of the environmental concerns identified in this study are traceable to specific weaknesses in offshore drilling and production procedures and management systems. Hardware weaknesses are seldom of central importance. Areas of concern include the gradual deposition of pollutants from rigs, underwater pipelines and onshore ancillary structures, and the quality of the following: action plans to deal with oil spills, standards for safety and anti-pollution equipment, information provided on the environmental hazards in offshore drilling and production areas, environmental impact assessments, and communication links between those having environmental concerns and expertise (including the public-at-large) and those who make the decisions regarding offshore oil and gas development.

  17. Optimization of Offshore De-oiling Hydrocyclone Performance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Zhenyu; Løhndorf, Petar Durdevic; Pedersen, Simon

    , along with the facts that the global oil demand will continuously grow by 7 mb/d to 2020 and exceed 99 mb/d in 2035, meanwhile, many production fields turn to be matured and thereby the water flooding technology is more and more employed as a key enhanced oil recovery solution for these fields [9]. Fig......One of the biggest environmental concerns in offshore oil & gas production is the quality of tremendous amounts of produced water discharged into the oceans. Today, in average three barrels of water are produced along with each barrel of oil [9]. This concern will become more severe in the future...... companies, Maersk Oil and Ramboll Oil & Gas A/S, launched a research project HTF-PDPWAC with total budget of 10 million dkk. One of the focuses of this project is to optimization of the de-oiling hydrocyclone performance in order to improve the produced water treatment quality without sacrificing...

  18. Challenges in Modelling and Control of Offshore De-oiling Hydrocyclone Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Løhndorf, Petar Durdevic; Pedersen, Simon; Yang, Zhenyu

    2017-01-01

    , and alternatively this task imposes a number of key control challenges. Specifically, there is much research to be performed in the direction of dynamic modelling and control of de-oiling hydrocyclone systems. The current solutions rely heavily on empirical trial-and-error approaches. This paper gives a brief......Offshore de-oiling installations are facing an increasing challenge with regards to removing oil residuals from produced water prior to discharge into the ocean. The de-oiling of produced water is initially achieved in the primary separation processes using gravity-based multi-phase separators...... in the produced water before it can be discharged into the ocean. The popularity of hydrocyclone technology in the offshore oil and gas industry is mainly due to its rugged design and low maintenance requirements. However, to operate and control this type of system in an efficient way is far less simple...

  19. The oil and oil services industry international context 2008

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Serbutoviez, S.; Silva, C.

    2008-11-01

    Oil companies rarely do their own major work within the framework of their investments or in the operation of their facilities. They most often act as project coordinators, thereby opening up a vast market for equipment, services and engineering, involving many companies of widely-varying sizes, which constitute the oil services industry. This document provides a panorama of the international oil context in three distinct parts, for 2007, for the first three quarters of 2008, and aspects of trends for 2009. - The first part is devoted to a rapid description of the oil context and the economic environment in which it is evolving. - The second part examines the evolution of world investment in exploration-production (E and P) activities, distinguishing the investments made by oil and oil product/service companies throughout the E and P chain from the more targeted ones of three specific sectors: seismic, drilling and the construction of offshore production equipment. These markets are observed exclusively for oil product/service companies. - The last part is devoted to investments in the refining sector, focusing on the changes in the fundamentals, particularly the equilibrium between refining capacities and medium- term oil demand. This latter analysis involves both oil and oil product/service companies. (authors)

  20. Can Producing Oil Store Carbon? Greenhouse Gas Footprint of CO2EOR, Offshore North Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, R Jamie; Haszeldine, R Stuart

    2015-05-05

    Carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2EOR) is a proven and available technology used to produce incremental oil from depleted fields while permanently storing large tonnages of injected CO2. Although this technology has been used successfully onshore in North America and Europe, there are currently no CO2EOR projects in the United Kingdom. Here, we examine whether offshore CO2EOR can store more CO2 than onshore projects traditionally have and whether CO2 storage can offset additional emissions produced through offshore operations and incremental oil production. Using a high-level Life Cycle system approach, we find that the largest contribution to offshore emissions is from flaring or venting of reproduced CH4 and CO2. These can already be greatly reduced by regulation. If CO2 injection is continued after oil production has been optimized, then offshore CO2EOR has the potential to be carbon negative--even when emissions from refining, transport, and combustion of produced crude oil are included. The carbon intensity of oil produced can be just 0.056-0.062 tCO2e/bbl if flaring/venting is reduced by regulation. This compares against conventional Saudi oil 0.040 tCO2e/bbl or mined shale oil >0.300 tCO2e/bbl.

  1. British Columbia offshore oil and gas socio-economic issue papers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Boydell, T.; Brar, C.; Dodd, M.; Kwong, N.; Seeley

    2004-05-01

    Some of the key social and economic issues regarding offshore oil and gas exploration and development in British Columbia's coastal waters were examined by the Science, Technology and Environment Division of Royal Roads University in conjunction with Glenn Bridges and Associates. In 1972, the federal government imposed a moratorium to prevent crude oil tankers from travelling the west coast due to concerns over environmental impacts. A provincial moratorium on exploration followed shortly thereafter. The government of British Columbia recently suggested lifting the moratorium, and conducted public hearings and scientific reviews of issues related to offshore oil and exploration. In the Spring of 2002, the provincial government asked the federal government to consider lifting its moratorium. In response, a Federal Interdepartmental Offshore Oil and Gas Socio-Economic Issues Working Group conducted a series of study plans in the areas of science, legal, aboriginal, socio-economic, oceans and management regimes. This report provides the outcomes of the studies. It is organized in tabular form to facilitate presentation. All 8 tabs were catalogued separately for inclusion in this database. They include: (1) an introduction and overview, (2) illustrative development scenarios, (3) resource revenues report, (4) socio-economic expenditure report, (5) human resources report, (6) due diligence issues report, (7) knowledge management strategy for policy formation, and, (8) bibliography. refs., tabs., figs

  2. British Columbia offshore oil and gas socio-economic issue papers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Boydell, T.; Brar, C.; Dodd, M.; Kwong, N.; Seeley [Royal Roads Univ., Victoria, BC (Canada). Science Technology and Environment Division; Bridges, G.; Shrimpton, M.; Burke, H.; Johnson, J. [GE Bridges and Associates, Victoria, BC (Canada)

    2004-05-01

    Some of the key social and economic issues regarding offshore oil and gas exploration and development in British Columbia's coastal waters were examined by the Science, Technology and Environment Division of Royal Roads University in conjunction with Glenn Bridges and Associates. In 1972, the federal government imposed a moratorium to prevent crude oil tankers from travelling the west coast due to concerns over environmental impacts. A provincial moratorium on exploration followed shortly thereafter. The government of British Columbia recently suggested lifting the moratorium, and conducted public hearings and scientific reviews of issues related to offshore oil and exploration. In the Spring of 2002, the provincial government asked the federal government to consider lifting its moratorium. In response, a Federal Interdepartmental Offshore Oil and Gas Socio-Economic Issues Working Group conducted a series of study plans in the areas of science, legal, aboriginal, socio-economic, oceans and management regimes. This report provides the outcomes of the studies. It is organized in tabular form to facilitate presentation. All 8 tabs were catalogued separately for inclusion in this database. They include: (1) an introduction and overview, (2) illustrative development scenarios, (3) resource revenues report, (4) socio-economic expenditure report, (5) human resources report, (6) due diligence issues report, (7) knowledge management strategy for policy formation, and, (8) bibliography. refs., tabs., figs.

  3. Comparative toxicity of offshore and oil-added drilling muds to larvae of the grass shrimp Palaemonetes intermedius

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Conklin, P.J.; Rao, K.R.

    1984-11-01

    Offshore drilling fluids (muds) varied widely in their toxicity to grass shrimp (Palaemonetes intermedius) larvae. The 96-h LC/sub 50/s for the eleven drilling muds tested ranged from 142 to > 100,000 ppM (..mu..l/L). There was a significant correlation between oil content of the drilling muds and their toxicity. Furthermore, addition of diesel oil (No. 2 fuel oil) or mineral oil to an offshore drilling mud having a low oil content or to an oil-free synthetic drilling mud led to a marked increase in the toxicity of these muds. Thus, much of the toxicity of the offshore drilling muds tested can be attributable to the oil content. 24 references, 2 figures, 3 tables.

  4. Application of H∞ Robust Control on a Scaled Offshore Oil and Gas De-Oiling Facility

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Løhndorf, Petar Durdevic; Yang, Zhenyu

    2018-01-01

    The offshore de-oiling process is a vital part of current oil recovery, as it separates the profitable oil from water and ensures that the discharged water contains as little of the polluting oil as possible. With the passage of time, there is an increase in the water fraction in reservoirs...... are inefficient in handling fluctuating inflows or complicated operating conditions. This work introduces a model-based robust H ∞ control solution that handles the entire de-oiling system and improves the system’s robustness towards fluctuating flow thereby improving the oil recovery and reducing...

  5. [Relationship between occupational stress and mental health in offshore oil platform workers].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Hongtao; Xiao, Taiqin; Zou, Jianfang; Shan, Yongle; Li, Zijian

    2014-02-01

    To investigate the relationship between occupational stress and mental health in offshore oil platform workers and to provide a scientific basis for protection of their mental health. A total of 768 workers on offshore oil platform were surveyed with the Occupational Stress Inventory Revised Edition and Symptom Check List-90 (SCL-90). The total score of Occupational Role Questionnaire (ORQ) for the workers (160.27±24.63) was significantly lower than the national norm (166.52±27.01) (P 0.05), but the items of recreation, social support, and rational/cognitive found significant difference (P work seniority, education background, drinking, role overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, responsibility, physical environment, and rational/cognitive conduct impacted the score of SCL-90 (P mental health of workers on offshore oil platform is related to occupational stress, and role overload, role ambiguity, physical environment, and rational/cognitive conduct, etc, are closely associated with the workers' mental health.

  6. Support schemes and market design in international offshore grids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schröder, Sascha Thorsten

    2013-01-01

    International offshore grids can combine the grid connection of offshore wind parks with the possibility for international power trading in the future. This paper investigates the choice of support scheme and power market design in international offshore grids and derives resulting incentives...... support. For a stable investment framework in the near future, a tendering/feed-in tariff may be the best choice. It avoids exposing wind farms to balancing with multiple countries. In the long run, also other support scheme options may be of interest....

  7. THE USE OF OFFSHORE JURISDICTIONS IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL FITTINGS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DANIELA RADU

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Essential legal and financial Structures, sometimes complex, had until recently been small and medium entrepreneurs away from the use of offshore jurisdictions, but the constraints of increasingly heavy taxation of excessive in certain States, you push even those with limited resources to use in these jurisdictions to protect revenue. The purpose of this research is to analyze the offshore jurisdictions in order to determine the possibilities of useof their disadvantages in order to improve measures to combat tax evasion, as well as for the use of their advantages in order to reduce illegal migration and regular employment of capital through the analysis of specific cases of the use of offshore jurisdictions – Case Frabklin Jurado, The Bank of Commerce and Credit InternationalAmerican Express Bank International. Scientific novelty and originality of the investigation consists of:-the identification on the basis of international practice, some offshore jurisdictions specific items in order to reflect their fiscal policies (trade and investment, etc.-analysis of cases of the use of offshore jurisdictions in international financial fittings (such as the Bank of Credit and Commerce International; Franklin Jurado; American Express Bank International,-identification of the impact paradisurilor tax and offshore financial centres of the world economy– revealing secret financial transactions carried out within the framework of ofssore, research instruments jurisdictions and management techniques of cadrulacestor tax jurisdictions.It is interesting to be seen through the prism of analysis of economic-fiscal financiare if a competition is beneficial or not for the welfare of States and to what extent this competition will have a say in future developments and tax paradisurilor finanaciare offshore centres. In conclusion, I appreciate that in order to survive successfully in the global economy of the future, offshoreJurisdictions should promote a

  8. Detection of oil spills near offshore installations using synthetic aperture radar (SAR)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Espedal, H.A.; Johannessen, O.M.

    2000-01-01

    Remote sensing using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is attracting increasing interest for the detection of oil spills from offshore oil installations. Three systems are already operating and three more are planned. SAR can provide high spatial resolution and is not affected by the time of day or cloud conditions. Examples of images obtained from UK and Norwegian offshore installations are shown and their interpretation are explained. SAR image analysis is used by a satellite-based oil spill monitoring service covering the Norwegian sector of the North Sea and part of the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Baltic Sea. An algorithm has been developed at the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre (NERSC) in Norway to help distinguish between oil spills, natural films, current shear zones and rain cells

  9. Economics of Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore oil industry : separating fact from myth

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Locke, W.

    2006-01-01

    This presentation provided an analysis of the Newfoundland offshore oil sector to help inform public understanding and debate. Four questions were posed to the oil sector in order to provide answers to questions the public may have concerning oil and gas operations and their socio-economic impacts in the region. It was observed that Newfoundland's daily production, reserves and activity levels are relatively small in comparison with other major oil producing regions, accounting for only 0.4 per cent of the world's daily oil production. On a per capita basis, oil production in the region is significant in comparison to other oil-producing regions, placing fourth in the world behind the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Norway. The oil and gas sector is the largest single contributor to Newfoundland's economy, providing 16 per cent of Newfoundland's gross domestic product (GDP). An estimated $16 billion will be provided to the province's treasury through the exploitation of the province's resources. Production statistics for Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose and Hebron were presented. Price forecasts and projected royalty payments were also provided. It was noted that the Newfoundland government receives more than 50 per cent of the profits of the combined fields, and higher oil prices will yield higher shares to the government. Equity holders incur more risk and receive lower net present value than royalty and tax collectors. It was suggested that increases in local benefits will lead to increased project costs, which will in turn lead to reduced royalty incomes. It was concluded that the Newfoundland offshore oil sector is vitally important to all aspects of the province's economy. An informed debate on public policy issues that impact Newfoundland's offshore oil industry is needed. refs., tabs., figs

  10. Offshore oil and gas and offshore wind power - different in terms of safety.?; Offshore Oel and Gas und Offshore Wind - mit Sicherheit ''anders''.?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Weise, F.; Tatulinski, M. [DNV GL - Oil and Gas Germany, Hamburg (Germany)

    2014-07-01

    Safety standards in the oil and gas industry have risen to a high level over the past decades, driven in part by momentous accidents. Furthermore, an expanded framework has recently been defined through the new EU Offshore Safety Directive, which in Germany is still in the process of its transposition into national law. The installation of offshore wind farms in the North and Baltic Sea has within the shortest of time brought forth an entirely new branch of industry, most of whose players have no significant experience with offshore operations. One of the greatest challenges is the working environment, which is being approached in different ways by those involved. The supervisory authorities responsible are only just beginning to develop the competence required for their tasks, with the effect that regulations pertaining to onshore operations are often simply adopted as they are. This is in some cases impacting on the oil and gas industry, as is discussed in the present lecture. [German] Die Oel und Gas Industrie hat in den vergangen Jahrzehnten einen hohen Sicherheitsstandard entwickelt, teilweise getrieben durch signifikante Unfallereignisse. Aktuell wurde zudem mit der neuen EU-Offshore Richtlinie ein erweiterter Rahmen definiert, der sich in Deutschland noch in der gesetzgeberischen Umsetzung befindet. Durch die Installation von Offshore-Windparks in der Nord- und Ostsee ist innerhalb kuerzester Zeit zusaetzlich ein neuer Industriebereich entstanden, dessen Marktteilnehmer mehrheitlich nicht ueber signifikante Offshore-Erfahrung verfuegen. Insbesondere das Arbeitsumfeld stellt dabei eine Herausforderung dar, die von den Beteiligten unterschiedlich geloest wird. Ferner beginnen auch die verantwortlichen Aufsichtsbehoerden erst mit dem Aufbau entsprechender Kompetenzen, so dass vielfach auch Regelungen aus dem Onshore-Bereich uebertragen werden. Dies fuehrt teilweise zu Auswirkungen auf die Oel- und Gasindustrie, die im Rahmen dieses Vortrages diskutiert werden.

  11. Decommissioning of offshore oil and gas installations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Day, M.D.; Marks, M.H.

    1997-01-01

    A task facing the offshore oil and gas industry is the removal of about 7000 platforms. In this chapter, the legal framework for offshore platform decommissioning is first discussed. The various phases of abandonment are then described. The first and most critical of these is the planning phase which should be initiated years in advance when depletion plans for a field are recommended. Seven discrete activities are identified in the abandonment process itself and briefly discussed. These are: the permanent plugging and abandonment of non-productive well bores; pre-abandonment surveys and data gathering to gain knowledge about the platform and its condition; decommissioning; structure removal; disposal, recycle or reuse of platform components on or off shore; site clearance. (13 figures; 13 references) (UK)

  12. Abundance of Corals on Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms in the Gulf of Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolian, Stephan R.; Sammarco, Paul W.; Porter, Scott A.

    2017-08-01

    Scleractinian, octocoral, and antipatharian corals have colonized many of the offshore oil and gas platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico. We surveyed 25 offshore oil and gas platforms for these cnidarians. Few to no corals were detected on inshore, shallow-water structures at data suggest that the offshore platforms located in waters of >25-30 m in the study area are often colonized by these corals. We recommend that structures located in deeper waters should be surveyed for coral and, if the populations are substantial, consider alternate uses for the retired platforms, and leaving them in place, when feasible.

  13. Global climate change implications for coastal and offshore oil and gas development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burkett, Virginia

    2011-01-01

    The discussion and debate about climate change and oil and gas resource development has generally focused on how fossil fuel use affects the Earth's climate. This paper explores how the changing climate is likely to affect oil and gas operations in low-lying coastal areas and the outer continental shelf. Oil and gas production in these regions comprises a large sector of the economies of many energy producing nations. Six key climate change drivers in coastal and marine regions are characterized with respect to oil and gas development: changes in carbon dioxide levels and ocean acidity, air and water temperature, precipitation patterns, the rate of sea level rise, storm intensity, and wave regime. These key drivers have the potential to independently and cumulatively affect coastal and offshore oil and gas exploration, production, and transportation, and several impacts of climate change have already been observed in North America. - Highlights: ► Climate change effects on coastal and offshore energy development have been observed in some regions. ► Key drivers include changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level rise, storm intensity and wave regime. ► These can independently and cumulatively affect coastal and offshore exploration, production, and transportation. ► A methodical vulnerability and impact assessment is needed to support adaptation in this sector of the global economy.

  14. An Innovative Oil Pollution Containment Method for Ship Wrecks Proposed for Offshore Well Blow-outs

    OpenAIRE

    ANDRITSOS Fivos; COJINS Hans

    2011-01-01

    In the aftermath of the PRESTIGE disaster, an innovative system for the prompt intervention on oil pollution sources (primarily ship wrecks) at great depths was conceived at the Joint Research Center of the European Commission. This system, with some re-engineering, could also serve for collecting oil and gas leaking after an offshore well blow-out and could constitute a reference method for prompt intervention on deep water oil pollution sources like ship wrecks and blown-out offshore wells....

  15. Current trends in offshore technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Korsgaard, J.

    1994-01-01

    Although this is a technical symposium concerning advances in the technology of producing oil and gas offshore, a keynote address would not be complete without mentioning non-technical factors which are extremely important for the business of producing oil and gas offshore. These are political factors and economic factors. Offshore operations are an easy target for political forces that are opposed to marine operations involving the production and transfer of hydrocarbons. For example, the oil pollution act of 1990 was a reaction to the Exxon Valdez grounding in Alaska and this act has added significantly to the risk and cost of operating offshore. Another example of this is that it is becoming more and more difficult to dispose of produced water offshore. Producing oil and gas offshore is a business that competes with other energy sources such as coal and oil and gas from wells on land. The offshore oil can only compete with these other resources by providing the same product at a competitive price. Since offshore operations are inherently more costly than land operations, the offshore oil field or gas field must be significantly larger than a land field in order to be produced. Also the offshore oil field or gas field is more susceptible to environmental risks from weather. On a more positive note, there are technical developments which are taking place and have continuously taken place to make offshore oil and gas both more economic and safer to produce. These developments are briefly discussed

  16. Review of technology for Arctic offshore oil and gas recovery. Appendices

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sackinger, W. M.

    1980-06-06

    This volume contains appendices of the following: US Geological Survey Arctic operating orders, 1979; Det Noske Vertas', rules for the design, construction and inspection of offshore technology, 1977; Alaska Oil and Gas Association, industry research projects, March 1980; Arctic Petroleum Operator's Association, industry research projects, January 1980; selected additional Arctic offshore bibliography on sea ice, icebreakers, Arctic seafloor conditions, ice-structures, frost heave and structure icing.

  17. International entrepreneurship within offshore renewable energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loevdal, Nicolai S.

    2011-01-01

    The climate is changing, the worlds known fossil energy reserves are limited, and most economies are struggling to get out of a financial crisis. The UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls for new technologies, rapid commercialization, and rapid international diffusion as important tools to mitigate the climate change (IPCC 2007). Nations all over the world have allocated large funds to facilitate the development of renewable energy technologies and markets to secure the future supply of energy and to sustain economic growth (REN21 2009). Use of fossil fuel is the main source of humans contribution to global warming. At the same time, fossil fuel is probably the most important resource for economic development on a global scale (IEA 2009). With this as a backdrop, the objective of this PhD thesis is to investigate how technology-based companies act to commercialize and internationally diffuse technologies that may produce abundant clean, renewable energy. More specifically, I have assessed the emerging offshore renewable energy industries (offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy) as case industries to make the International Entrepreneurship literature more relevant for the current situation. The findings reveal extensive international activities at both the company level and industry level, even in phases in which the firms have yet to commercialize and industries have yet to enter the growth phase. These findings demand significant updates to theoretical models and convey several recommendations to mangers, investors, and policy makers. Managers should be aware of and master the new opportunities/threats identified. For investors, the findings provide implications for their valuation of new ventures. For policy makers, the findings open up a new landscape of political threats and opportunities as the battle to attract promising industries has begun earlier than previously prescribed. Four research questions have resulted in four papers that constitute

  18. International entrepreneurship within offshore renewable energy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Loevdal, Nicolai S.

    2011-07-01

    The climate is changing, the worlds known fossil energy reserves are limited, and most economies are struggling to get out of a financial crisis. The UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calls for new technologies, rapid commercialization, and rapid international diffusion as important tools to mitigate the climate change (IPCC 2007). Nations all over the world have allocated large funds to facilitate the development of renewable energy technologies and markets to secure the future supply of energy and to sustain economic growth (REN21 2009). Use of fossil fuel is the main source of humans contribution to global warming. At the same time, fossil fuel is probably the most important resource for economic development on a global scale (IEA 2009). With this as a backdrop, the objective of this PhD thesis is to investigate how technology-based companies act to commercialize and internationally diffuse technologies that may produce abundant clean, renewable energy. More specifically, I have assessed the emerging offshore renewable energy industries (offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy) as case industries to make the International Entrepreneurship literature more relevant for the current situation. The findings reveal extensive international activities at both the company level and industry level, even in phases in which the firms have yet to commercialize and industries have yet to enter the growth phase. These findings demand significant updates to theoretical models and convey several recommendations to mangers, investors, and policy makers. Managers should be aware of and master the new opportunities/threats identified. For investors, the findings provide implications for their valuation of new ventures. For policy makers, the findings open up a new landscape of political threats and opportunities as the battle to attract promising industries has begun earlier than previously prescribed. Four research questions have resulted in four papers that constitute

  19. Environmental perspectives on the East Coast offshore oil and gas industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Taylor, D.G.

    2001-01-01

    In this presentation, the author examined the environmental aspects affecting the offshore oil and gas development on the East Coast of Canada. Selected topics were covered to highlight what has been accomplished and the goals for the future in terms of the environment. The development of the oil and gas industry in the region has really taken off in the past twenty years, suffering from growing pains and enduring myths. An oil and gas project begins with seismic surveys, followed by exploratory wells being drilled, then proceeding to the construction and installation of the drilling production facilities, the production phase and the decommissioning of the facilities at the end of the useful life. Each phase of a project was reviewed and environmental concerns identified. Specific topics were addressed, such as drill cuttings, produced water, flaring, and decommissioning and abandonment. Selected problems were examined, notably fish and oil, spills, cumulative effects, the Oceans Act, and the regulatory evolution in the East Coast offshore. 9 refs., 1 tab., 1 fig

  20. Influence of occupational stress on mental health among Chinese off-shore oil workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Wei-Qing; Wong, Tze-Wai; Yu, Tak-Sun

    2009-09-01

    To explore the influence of occupational stress on mental health in off-shore oil production. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 561 Chinese off-shore oil workers. The workers were invited to fill in a self-administered questionnaire exploring their socio-demographic characteristics, occupational stress levels, and 12-item general health questionnaire. A hierarchical multiple regression procedure was used to assess the effects of occupational stress on mental health. After controlling for age, educational level, marital status and years of off-shore work, poor mental health was found to have a significant positive association with seven of the nine identified sources of occupational stress. They were: conflict between job and family/social life, poor development of career and achievement at work, safety problems at work, management problems and poor relationship with others at work, poor physical environment of the work place, uncomfortable ergonomic factors at work, and poor organizational structure at work. All of these occupational stress sources together explained 19.9% of the total variance. The results confirmed that occupational stress was a major risk factor for poor mental health among Chinese off-shore oil workers. Reducing or eliminating occupational stressors at work would benefit workers' mental health.

  1. Combatting operational pollution from offshore petroleum activities: international legal regime

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vinogradov, S.V.; Wagner, J.P.

    1997-01-01

    Existing global and regional rules and regulations, and regulatory trends, aimed at curbing pollution associated with the normal operation of offshore oil and gas installations are assessed. The designation 'operational pollution' is used to cover a variety of discharges including: oil produced in water; contaminated drill cuttings and muds; sewage; garbage; deck drainage; naturally occurring materials such as radionuclides, heavy metals and aromatics; atmospheric emissions, principally CO 2 , SO x , NO x , CH 4 and volatile organic compounds. The main focus of regulatory attention at present is platform drainage, offshore processing drainage, production water discharge, and displacement discharge. The legal framework considered extends to the appropriate global and regional treaties, ''soft law'' instruments and recommendations. (UK)

  2. An air quality emission inventory of offshore operations for the exploration and production of petroleum by the Mexican oil industry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villasenor, R.; Magdaleno, M.; Quintanar, A.; Gallardo, J. C.; López, M. T.; Jurado, R.; Miranda, A.; Aguilar, M.; Melgarejo, L. A.; Palmerín, E.; Vallejo, C. J.; Barchet, W. R.

    An air quality screening study was performed to assess the impacts of emissions from the offshore operations of the oil and gas exploration and production by Mexican industry in the Campeche Sound, which includes the states of Tabasco and Campeche in southeast Mexico. The major goal of this study was the compilation of an emission inventory (EI) for elevated, boom and ground level flares, processes, internal combustion engines and fugitive emissions. This inventory is so far the most comprehensive emission register that has ever been developed for the Mexican petroleum industry in this area. The EI considered 174 offshore platforms, the compression station at Atasta, and the Maritime Ports at Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas. The offshore facilities identified as potential emitters in the area were the following: (1) trans-shipment stations, (2) a maritime floating port terminal, (3) drilling platforms, (4) crude oil recovering platforms, (5) crude oil production platforms, (6) linking platforms, (7) water injection platforms, (8) pumping platforms, (9) shelter platforms, (10) telecommunication platforms, (11) crude oil measurement platforms, and (12) flaring platforms. Crude oil storage tanks, helicopters and marine ship tankers were also considered to have an EI accurate enough for air quality regulations and mesoscale modeling of atmospheric pollutants. Historical ambient data measure at two onshore petroleum facilities were analyzed to measure air quality impacts on nearby inhabited coastal areas, and a source-receptor relationship for flares at the Ixtoc marine complex was performed to investigate health-based standards for offshore workers. A preliminary air quality model simulation was performed to observe the transport and dispersion patterns of SO 2, which is the main pollutant emitted from the offshore platforms. The meteorological wind and temperature fields were generated with CALMET, a diagnostic meteorological model that used surface observations and upper

  3. Oil spill contingency planning for offshore oil fields - a new concept established for the Norwegian continental shelf

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Singsaas, I.; Reed, M.; Nygaard, T.; Sundnes, G.Jr.

    1998-01-01

    The development of a new concept for oil spill contingency planning to be used for offshore oil fields on the Norwegian continental shelf was discussed. The factors which are important in developing a good oil spill contingency plan include a good understanding of: (1) the fate, behaviour and weathering of the specific oil, (2) relevant oil spill scenarios, (3) drift and spreading of the oil, and (4) specific requirements for the effectiveness of the chosen response options. The oil spill contingency and response (OSCAR) model was used for quantitative comparison of alternative response options. 21 refs., 2 tabs., 7 figs

  4. Demonstrating multi-layered MAS in control of offshore oil and gas production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lindegaard Mikkelsen, Lars; Næumann, J. R.; Demazeau, Y.

    2013-01-01

    From a control perspective, offshore oil and gas production is very challenging due to the many and potentially conflicting production objectives that arise from the intrinsic complexity of the oil and gas domain. In this paper, we demonstrate how a multi-layered multi-agent system can be used in...

  5. Washing ashore: The politics of offshore oil in northern Angola

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reed, Kristin Michelle

    This dissertation examines the political ecology of Angolan oil, by exploring state and corporate political economies; historical convergences of violence and capital; and struggles over the costs and benefits of oil production from the perspective of artisanal fishing and farming communities in the extractive zones. Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second-largest oil producer but revenues from the enclave sector in oil rarely trickle down to the impoverished populace. The Angolan government strategically invests petrodollars in patronage networks to bolster their power; and watchdog agencies claim top officials divert the balance to offshore accounts. While the enclaved nature of production facilitates the restricted distribution of oil monies by concentrating services and revenue streams, the distortions and externalities that bleed out from these enclaves increase the misery of Angolans---especially those living in the extractive zones. By focusing on the lived experience of extraction, I explore the politics of oil through the forms of violence and degradation threatening the lives and livelihoods of local people. Most of Angola's oil is produced from offshore fields, so oil spills present a considerable risk to the health of local communities and ecosystems. The fishers and fish traders suffering from oil spills demand compensation from the liable oil corporations, yet the skewed system of disbursements only reaches the most powerful claimants. Moreover, faced with a repressive and unresponsive government, communities in extractive zones have come to rely on the same corporations for schools and health posts in a system I refer to as oil-backed development. I demonstrate that local histories of violence, national political exigencies, and transnational corporate interests govern the distribution of oil-backed development projects. Furthermore, I argue that the Angolan government leverages corporate donations for development to suit its own exclusionary interests

  6. Development of Offshore Wind Recommended Practice for U.S. Waters: Preprint

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Musial, W. D.; Sheppard, R. E.; Dolan, D.; Naughton, B.

    2013-04-01

    This paper discusses how the American Petroleum Institute oil and gas standards were interfaced with International Electrotechnical Commission and other wind turbine and offshore industry standards to provide guidance for reliable engineering design practices for offshore wind energy systems.

  7. Paying for the Piper. Capital and labour in Britain's offshore oil industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Woolfson, C.; Foster, J.; Beck, M.

    1996-01-01

    This book makes the first serious appraisal of the current offshore safety regulatory regime instituted after Piper Alpha, and of the oil industry's attempts to contain subsequent unwelcome regulatory interference. It concludes that, as yet, offshore safety is little or not at all improved. The fraught history of trade unionism in the offshore industry and the largely successful strategies of employers to sustain a virtually union-free environment is also examined. The conflict over health and safety offshore has been inextricably bound up with the sometimes brutal struggle over union rights as the workforce has attempted to achieve a collective voice in the reform of safety and production standards. Paying for the Piper shows how the offshore unions have attempted to alter the unfavourable balance of class forces shaped by some of the world's most powerful concerns. (author)

  8. Plant-wide Control for Better De-oiling of Produced Water in Offshore Oil & Gas Production

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Zhenyu; Stigkær, Jens Peter; Løhndorf, Bo

    2013-01-01

    This paper discusses the application of plant-wide control philosophy to enhance the performance and capacity of the Produced Water Treatment (PWT) in offshore oil & gas production processes. Different from most existing facility- or material-based PWT innovation methods, the objective of this work...

  9. Brazil: New Developmentalism and the Management of Offshore Oil Wealth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giorgio Romano Schutte

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available Since the 1930s development strategies in Brazil have made reducing its dependence on imported energy one of their priorities. Efforts focused on hydro-electric power, ethanol and oil. Offshore oil exploration by the state oil company Petrobras began in the 1970s and resulted in energy independence by 2006. In the same year, however, unexpectedly large oil reserves were discovered in the so-called Pre-Salt levels, transforming the country into a potential major oil exporter. This new reality creates major challenges for Brazil. New legislation and new policies have been set up to use this opportunity to accelerate development. The discussion on how to make the best use of offshore oil resources is guided by a so-called neo-developmentalism approach, introduced during President Lula’s second term. In practice this means a modest increase in state control with new regulations focused on local content. Special attention should be given to expanding research and development activities. Foreign capital and technology are welcome as long as they are willing to operate in the framework of a national development strategy. This paper will examine the main features and challenges of these new policies within the broader framework of the present discussion on neo-developmentalism in Brazil.Resumen: Brasil: Nuevo desarrollismo y la gestión de la riqueza petrolífera offshoreDesde los años treinta del siglo pasado, las estrategias de desarrollo en Brasil se han propuesto como una de sus prioridades reducir su dependencia de la energía importada. Los esfuerzos se enfocaron en la energía hidroeléctrica, en el etanol y en el petróleo. Las prospecciones petrolíferas offshore llevadas a cabo por la petrolera estatal Petrobras empezaron en los años setenta y tuvieron como resultado la independencia energética en 2006. Sin embargo, ese mismo año, se descubrieron inesperadamente grandes reservas de petróleo en los niveles llamados pre-sal, que

  10. Environmental implications of offshore oil and gas development in Australia. Part 6; Oil spills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Volkman, J.K.; Revill, A.T.; Miller, G.J.; Connell, D.W.

    1994-01-01

    The total amount of oil spilled in Commonwealth offshore waters from offshore oil exploration and production has been estimated by the Commonwealth Department of Primary Industry and Energy to be 440 barrels (70 000 litres) to the end of 1991. When more recent spills are added, plus spills from coastal waters under State jurisdiction, it is estimated that the total of oil spilled is about 600 barrels (95 000 litres). This estimate does not include hydrocarbon inputs from discharge of formation waters or drill cuttings. Most of these spills have been very small (less than 20 barrels) and in only a very few instances has any of the oil reached the shore. In most cases, it has been possible to allow the oil to degrade and disperse naturally. Given the small quantities spilled it is highly unlikely that these oil spills have caused significant environmental damage although it must be added that few follow up studies to assess this have been carried out. This review concludes that oil spills affect marine ecosystems generally in the same way as many other forms of marine pollutants even though the degree of persistence is less than with heavy metals for example. That is, the system is modified and destabilized and in severe cases it can shift to a reduced biological diversity characteristic of early successional or pioneer stages. Adverse effects range from the short term (days to months), to decades. Two phases and/or effects are usually observed: (i) the short-term mortality phase particularly affects biota at or near the air/sea interface and is attributed to physical coating, ingestion and inhalation of high concentrations of low-boiling aromatic hydrocarbons; and (ii) the longer term effects of the weathered oil being incorporated into the sediment where it inhibits the growth of seedlings and larger plants as well as affecting infauna and epifauna. 584 refs., 49 tabs., 43 figs

  11. INORE: The International Network on Offshore Renewable Energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martini, Michele; De Andrén, Andrés

    2015-01-01

    The International Network on Offshore Renewable Energy (INORE) is a non-profit organization run by volunteers. INORE was born to support early stage researchers in the offshore renewable energy field. Today, INORE has more than 1200 members from more than 70 different countries. The aim of this organization is to facilitate networking and information exchange between young researchers and professionals. This is achieved by arranging symposia, workshops, networking events and issuing scholarships. Three main knowledge areas are currently within INORE’s dedication: sea wave energy, tidal current energy and offshore wind energy.

  12. Mauritania and its sea: could offshore oil exploitation help better manage ecological insecurity?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Magrin, G.; Van Vliet, G.; Van Dessel, B.; Chabason, L.

    2011-01-01

    Over centuries Mauritania societies have turned their backs to the sea until independence and, later, drought created incentives for the State and national actors to take an interest in sea resources. Whether at sea or on the mainland the relationship to the territory's resources appeared to be entrusted to the same State who was more interested in exercising control on flows rather than in management, production or transformation. However, regarding the fisheries industry and the issue of its preservation the Mauritania state has progressively increased its intervention capacities. The extraordinary ecological and economic value of Mauritania waters - with the 'banc d'Arguin' as their most famous ecosystem - certainly played a role in this evolution. The recent exploitation of offshore oil resources has reinforced the need to increase the overall capacity to regulate all aspects of the maritime area (conservation, fisheries, transport and oil and gas). The emergence of oil and gas activities re-emphasises the difficulties faced by a dependent State when trying to appropriate and manage a territory whose resources attract the attention of powerful international shareholders. (authors)

  13. Using decommissioned offshore oil/gas platforms for nuclear/RO desalination: the ONDP (Offshore Nuclear Desalination Platform)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagar, Ankesh

    2010-01-01

    Oil platforms are manmade concrete and steel giant structures standing high on ocean floor weighing anywhere between 10,000 tonnes and 150,000 tonnes or more and designed to withstand cruel forces of nature, having an average life of 70 years. With the declining petrol reserves within next 30 years, hundreds of platforms will be scheduled for decommissioning. This issue is a hot topic as oil companies tussle with environmentalists and state lawmakers over the future. The cash strapped oil companies have a legal obligation to remove each rig entirely, returning the ocean floor to its original condition. Lean times in oil industry mean a tight cash flow. Safely removing massive structures from deep waters and shipping the pile to the shores for reuse and recycling presents a technological challenge for operators. Some conceptual applications investigated to reuse them are the conversion of offshore structures into fish farms, prisons, military outposts, hotels, for Search and Rescue operations or Centers for Waste Processing and Disposal. Decommissioning oil and gas installation is exorbitantly expensive. On an average, removing a complete platform with or without pipeline in sea waters with 'clean sea approach' costs $15 million to $ 6 billion depending on location. Global warming has adversely affected world climate. Water levels in ground and reservoirs have shown drastic decrement. In future there will be need for more and more water all over the world. Fossil fuel energy based desalination is expensive and not eco-friendly so is dismantling of oil platform with its pipeline. The oil platforms are far located from population, have sufficient tank capacity and pipeline structure to store and pump water to shore. When found economically unviable these mammoth structures with modifications can be installed with 02 or more small or medium sized nuclear reactors such as KLT 40S with required module to desalinate water and co generate electricity which can be sent to

  14. 75 FR 37783 - National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-06-30

    ... Drilling AGENCY: Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY... and Offshore Drilling (the Commission). The Commission was organized pursuant to the Federal Advisory..., any oil spills associated with offshore drilling in the future. The Commission is composed of seven...

  15. 75 FR 56526 - National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-16

    ... Drilling AGENCY: Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY... and Offshore Drilling (the Commission). The Commission was organized pursuant to the Federal Advisory..., any oil spills associated with offshore drilling in the future. The Commission is composed of seven...

  16. 75 FR 60097 - National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-29

    ... Drilling AGENCY: Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY... and Offshore Drilling (the Commission). The Commission was organized pursuant to the Federal Advisory..., and mitigate the impact of, any oil spills associated with offshore drilling in the future. The...

  17. 75 FR 69652 - National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-11-15

    ... Drilling AGENCY: Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY... and Offshore Drilling (the Commission). The Commission was organized pursuant to the Federal Advisory..., and mitigate the impact of, any oil spills associated with offshore drilling in the future. The...

  18. Risk assessment and safety regulations in offshore oil and gas ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Risk management of which risk assessment is part, and safety regulations are common in the offshore oil and gas industry management system. The process of conducting risk assessment is mostly a challenge for operational personnel assigned to perform this function. The most significant problem is the decision to use ...

  19. 75 FR 65309 - National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-22

    ... Drilling AGENCY: Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting. SUMMARY... and Offshore Drilling (the Commission). The Commission was organized pursuant to the Federal Advisory... to guard against, and mitigate the impact of, any oil spills associated with offshore drilling in the...

  20. A Chronology of Attacks on and Unlawful Interferences with, Offshore Oil and Gas Installations, 1975 – 2010

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mikhail Kashubsky

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Throughout its history, the oil and gas industry has been a subject of environmental protests, labour disputes, tensions with local communities, and it has also been a target of various violent activities ranging from vandalism to political violence, which have impinged on the security of oil industry workers and interfered with operational activities of oil companies on numerous occasions. Although a considerable number of attacks on oil and gas infrastructure occurred over the course of the industry’s existence, most of those attacks were directed against onshore petroleum targets. Compared to onshore petroleum infrastructure, attacks on offshore oil and gas installations are relatively rare. The following chronology provides details of attacks, unlawful interferences, and security incidents involving offshore oil and gas installations that happened between 1975 and 2010. 

  1. Globalization of environmental regulations for offshore E & P operations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shannon, B.E.

    1995-12-31

    One of the enduring legacies of the Rio Environmental Summit of 1992 (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, UNCED) is Agenda 21 (Chapter 17 - Protection of the Oceans), which among other things called for the assessment of the need for a global authority to regulate offshore Exploration & Production (E&P) discharges, emissions and safety. Despite advice to the contrary from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), interest is building within the European community for the standardization of regulations for offshore E&P activities. Several international of regulations for offshore E&P activities. Several international frameworks or forums have been mentioned as possible candidates. These include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS); London Convention 1972 (LC 1972) and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL) 73/78. International offshore oil and gas operators operate within requirements of regional conventions under the United Nations Environmental Program`s (UNEP) - Regional Seas Program. Domestic offshore operations are undertaken under the auspices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Minerals Management Service.

  2. 75 FR 39518 - National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling; Correction

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-09

    ... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling; Correction AGENCY: Office of Fossil Energy, Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice of open meeting... Spill and Offshore Drilling, (75 FR 37783). This document makes several corrections to that notice. FOR...

  3. Challenges in Slug Modeling and Control for Offshore Oil and Gas Productions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Simon; Løhndorf, Petar Durdevic; Yang, Zhenyu

    2017-01-01

    The upstream offshore multi-phase well-pipeline-riser installations are facing huge challenges related to slugging flow: An unstable flow regime where the flow rates, pressures and temperatures oscillate in the multi-phase pipelines. One typical severe slug is induced by vertical wells or risers...... most models require specific facility and operating data which, unfortunately, often is not available from most offshore installations. Anti-slug control have been investigated for several decades in oil & gas industry, but many of these existing methods suffer the consequent risk of simultaneously...... reducing the oil & gas production. This paper concludes that slug is a well defined phenomenon, but even though it has been investigated for several decades the current anti-slug control methods still have problems related to robustness. It is predicted that slug-induced challenges will be even more severe...

  4. International participation in Russia's oil sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vowinckel, G.

    1997-01-01

    The active role of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the oil and gas sector of the former Soviet Union was discussed. The EBRD was formed in 1991 with a mandate to help Central and Eastern European countries, particularly countries of the former Soviet Union, to make a transition from the command economy to a market economy. To date, the EBRD has made 15 investments in oil and gas projects with total project costs of nearly $2 billion US. The first projects were joint venture projects with western oil companies. Some of these were the Chernogorskoye project in the Nizhnevortovsk oil region, the Polar Lights project in the Russian Timan-Pechora region, the KomiArctic Oil project in the Komi region of the Russian Federation, two Fracmaster projects and the Geoilbent project. The first years of the projects were difficult, due to the strains of trying to adapt to new challenges and changes. The fiscal regime has changed with time and new taxes have been added and others changed. Many of the legal issues with past projects have been solved. One area of concern with the joint ventures is the export of the produced oil to western markets to achieve international market prices. At present, the joint ventures export between 30 to 50 per cent of their production, but the the Russian Federation would like to increase its export capacity. Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) have been found to be particularly suitable for the development of large oil fields such as the offshore Sakhalin Island project in the far east of the Russian Federation. Western companies such as Shell, Marathon, Mitsui and Mitsubishi are involved in the first of these developments. Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea area are other regions outside the Russian Federation which have important potential for international participation in the development of oil fields. Efforts are being made to rehabilitate the fields and to partially rebuild existing pipelines and to construct new

  5. Review of technology for Arctic offshore oil and gas recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sackinger, W. M.

    1980-08-01

    The technical background briefing report is the first step in the preparation of a plan for engineering research oriented toward Arctic offshore oil and gas recovery. A five-year leasing schedule for the ice-prone waters of the Arctic offshore is presented, which also shows the projected dates of the lease sale for each area. The estimated peak production rates for these areas are given. There is considerable uncertainty for all these production estimates, since no exploratory drilling has yet taken place. A flow chart is presented which relates the special Arctic factors, such as ice and permafrost, to the normal petroleum production sequence. Some highlights from the chart and from the technical review are: (1) in many Arctic offshore locations the movement of sea ice causes major lateral forces on offshore structures, which are much greater than wave forces; (2) spray ice buildup on structures, ships and aircraft will be considerable, and must be prevented or accommodated with special designs; (3) the time available for summer exploratory drilling, and for deployment of permanent production structures, is limited by the return of the pack ice. This time may be extended by ice-breaking vessels in some cases; (4) during production, icebreaking workboats will service the offshore platforms in most areas throughout the year; (5) transportation of petroleum by icebreaking tankers from offshore tanker loading points is a highly probable situation, except in the Alaskan Beaufort; and (6) Arctic pipelines must contend with permafrost, making instrumentation necessary to detect subtle changes of the pipe before rupture occurs.

  6. Opening of Offshore Oil Business in Mexico and Associated Framework to Cope with Potential Maritime Security Threats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriana Ávila-Zúáiga-Nordfjeld

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available After 75 years of State oil monopoly, Mexico performed the first business oil round in 2015 involving the private sector. This auction-round offered 14 oil exploration fields located on the continental shelf to private companies. The development and exploitation of these hydrocarbon fields faces significant challenges regarding security. The economic loss for theft of hydrocarbons through illegal connections to pipelines is estimated to 973 million, 125 thousand U.S. dollar, only for the year of 2014. While productive research has been made, it has mainly focused on transportation systems and basically, pipelines. The development and establishment of policies prioritizing maritime security and protection of critical offshore infrastructure against theft of hydrocarbons, drugs organizations and terror attacks needs to be included in the national agenda to improve maritime security and mitigate potential security threats at sea, including damage to the marine environment. This could increase the trust of investors and stakeholders and would contribute to the faster development of new exploration and production fields. While the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code is the cornerstone for the construction of the port?s security program and establishes the requirements of the Port Facility Security Plan (PFSP, including oil port facilities, it has not been fully implemented in several important Mexican ports. It is concluded that some important ports lack many of the core security processes, procedures and controls that should be included in any PFSP. This article briefly reviews the situation of the oil industry from a security perspective and discusses key elements of maritime security; addressing the necessity of the inclusion of maritime security and protection of critical oil infrastructure offshore in the national agenda that would provide for future research directions in the maritime security domain and contribute to

  7. Offshore disposal of oil-based drilling fluid waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malachosky, E.; Shannon, B.E.; Jackson, J.E.

    1991-01-01

    Offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico may use oil-based drilling fluids to mitigate drilling problems. The result is the generation of a significant quantity of oily cuttings and mud. The transportation of this waste for onshore disposal is a concern from a standpoint of both personnel safety and potential environmental impact. A process for preparing a slurry of this waste and the subsequent disposal of the slurry through annular pumping has been put into use by ARCO Oil and Gas Company. The disposal technique has been approved by the Minerals Management Service (MMS). The slurried waste is displaced down a casing annulus into a permeable zone at a depth below the surface casing setting depth. The annular disposal includes all cuttings and waste oil mud generated during drilling with oil-based fluids. This disposal technique negates the need for cuttings storage on the platform, transportation to shore, and the environmental effects of onshore surface disposal. The paper describes the environmental and safety concerns with onshore disposal, the benefits of annular disposal, and the equipment and process used for the preparation and pumping of the slurry

  8. Canadian offshore standards become world model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reid, W.

    2000-01-01

    Newfoundland's emerging offshore industry is becoming known not only for its frontier petroleum exploration and development expertise, but it is also gaining international recognition for making good use of its experience to provide advice to future developers on how to deal with multiple levels of governments and community groups, infrastructure development, adverse effects on the local environment, society and the economy. The companies active offshore-Newfoundland have acquired world-class expertise from working their offshore oil fields on the Grand Banks. There is a steady demand for that expertise for application in other regions, mostly from oil-industry personnel. Requests for sharing that experience have come from the United States, Norway and Australia, but also from within Canada, particularly from British Columbia. In British Columbia, coastal exploration has been going on since the early 1900s, with increasing concern for the impact of petroleum activity on the coastal environment, culminating with the imposition of a moratorium in 1959. Now, the British Columbia government is interested in learning about the procedures it should follow to reach a decision on whether to lift the moratorium in effect (on and off) since 1959. The interest in possible resumption of exploration and development activity is motivated by recent studies by the Geological Survey of Canada, which suggest a hydrocarbon potential five times greater than the Hibernia oil field off Newfoundland. An indication of this interest in opening up the west coast to offshore exploration is the recent seminar at Memorial University in St. John's. Speakers at the seminar presented an overview of the lessons learned from the east coast, the social and economic impacts of offshore oil and gas development and how such development might co-exist with British Columbia's marine ecosystem and fishery resources

  9. Oil and gas prospects offshore Newfoundland: the Hibernia Project and opportunities for the Scottish industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    The oil industry has been interested in prospects offshore Eastern Canada for well over a decade. In fact, the lack of substantial development activity has disappointed many in the industry. The offshore Canadian development of the Hibernia field could be the catalyst to spark world-wide interest and involvement in this newest of offshore petroleum provinces. The extent of the exploration of the field to date is reviewed, the prospects for development are assessed and the opportunities for Scottish industry in construction and development are examined. (author)

  10. Panorama 2012 - Offshore hydrocarbons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Serbutoviez, Sylvain

    2011-12-01

    Technological progress is enabling production from offshore oil and gas fields at increasingly ambitious depths (3, 000 metres). Investment in offshore production is running at around $100 billion per year, accounting for one-fifth of all investment in oil exploration and development worldwide. However, the global economic crisis that broke at the end of 2008 and the accident involving the Macondo well temporarily disrupted the race to deep offshore technology. (author)

  11. California State Waters Map Series: offshore of Coal Oil Point, California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Samuel Y.; Dartnell, Peter; Cochrane, Guy R.; Golden, Nadine E.; Phillips, Eleyne L.; Ritchie, Andrew C.; Kvitek, Rikk G.; Dieter, Bryan E.; Conrad, James E.; Lorenson, T.D.; Krigsman, Lisa M.; Greene, H. Gary; Endris, Charles A.; Seitz, Gordon G.; Finlayson, David P.; Sliter, Ray W.; Wong, Florence L.; Erdey, Mercedes D.; Gutierrez, Carlos I.; Leifer, Ira; Yoklavich, Mary M.; Draut, Amy E.; Hart, Patrick E.; Hostettler, Frances D.; Peters, Kenneth E.; Kvenvolden, Keith A.; Rosenbauer, Robert J.; Fong, Grace; Johnson, Samuel Y.; Cochran, Susan A.

    2014-01-01

    In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, and visualization of swath sonar data, acoustic backscatter, seafloor video, seafloor photography, high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles, and bottom-sediment sampling data. The map products display seafloor morphology and character, identify potential marine benthic habitats, and illustrate both the surficial seafloor geology and shallow (to about 100 m) subsurface geology. The Offshore of Coal Oil Point map area lies within the central Santa Barbara Channel region of the Southern California Bight. This geologically complex region forms a major biogeographic transition zone, separating the cold-temperate Oregonian province north of Point Conception from the warm-temperate California province to the south. The map area is in the southern part of the Western Transverse Ranges geologic province, which is north of the California Continental Borderland. Significant clockwise rotation—at least 90°—since the early Miocene has been proposed for the Western Transverse Ranges province, and geodetic studies indicate that the region is presently undergoing north-south shortening. Uplift rates (as much as 2.0 mm/yr) that are based on studies of onland marine terraces provide further evidence of significant shortening. The cities of Goleta and Isla Vista, the main population centers in the map area, are in the western part of a contiguous urban area that extends eastward through Santa Barbara to Carpinteria. This urban area is on the south flank of the east-west-trending Santa Ynez Mountains, on coalescing alluvial fans and uplifted marine terraces underlain by folded and

  12. UV disinfection of injection and drinking water - an accepted method on offshore oil platforms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brunner, H.; Klein, H.P.

    1985-01-01

    Ultraviolet disinfection packages have been developed for the treatment of drinking water and injection water on offshore oil platforms. Large-scale tests with sulphate reducing bacteria out outlined. (Auth.)

  13. Dutch offshore skills assessed

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schaap, P

    1988-11-01

    The position is described of the different Dutch industries involved in the oil and gas exploitation business in the North Sea. Mentioned are, in the first place, the activities of towing services Smit Tak, and Wijsmuller. A well known drilling contractor is Neddrill. Drilling rigs are often designed in cooperation with consulting engineers firms Protech International, Heerema Engineering, Global Engineering, KTI, Fluor, and Tebodin. Drilling rigs constructors Grootint, Mercon Steel Structures, Heerema Havenbedrijf, HCG, Boele, and IHC have a sound name in the offshore construction scene. Offshore contractors like Heerema, Smit Tak, Volker Stevin and Allseas Engineering should be mentioned too. Special attention is given to the operation of saving drilling rigs in the Ekofisk field. Years of exploitation of oil and gas from this field resulted in subsidence of the sea floor, which endangered the drilling rigs. Hydraudyne designed the hydraulic lifter necessary for this saving operation. Dutch firms in this field have an estimated yearly turnover of Dfl 3 x 10/sup 9/. 6 figs.

  14. Offshore oil and gas activities in the PERD program

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Billette, N. [Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada). Office of Energy Research and Development

    2001-07-01

    Natural Resources Canada manages the Program of Energy Research and Development (PERD), which covers all but a few of non-nuclear energy areas. The aim of the Program is to focus on research and technology developments that support a dynamic and diversified energy supply, while encouraging industries to consume the energy efficiently. Twelve federal departments and agencies are stakeholders in energy research and development and the 57 million dollar annual budget is allocated amongst the stakeholders according to the priorities established. Each year, one-quarter of the program is evaluated externally and potential reallocation examined, a recent initiative implemented as part of a results-based management (RBM) system. Five federal departments and one agency carry out offshore research and development activities, touching the fields of basin assessment and geotechnics in the Canadian North and offshore East Coast, winds-wave-current modelling, the management of sea ice, iceberg and ice-structure interactions, ship design and navigation issues. In this last category, activities related to offshore safety, management of offshore drilling and production wastes, oil spills remediation, and assessment of cumulative effects of wastes and produced waters are included. These activities are detailed in the presentation, and the author discussed the future shifts likely to occur in PERD so that the needs of the regulatory agencies in terms of science and technology are met. There is also the aspect of the protection of the interests of the Canadian public to consider. 1 tab.

  15. Offshoring and International Competitiveness

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ørberg Jensen, Peter D.; Pedersen, Torben

    2012-01-01

    During the past decade, offshoring has become an established business practice. Yet it is still more common to offshore less advanced tasks compared with offshoring more advanced tasks, i.e., tasks closer to the core activities of the firm. The latter is a new phenomenon which raises many new iss...

  16. [Relationship of job stress with job burnout and quality of work life in workers for offshore oil platforms].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Y; Liu, X L; Wei, T D; Lan, Y J

    2017-03-20

    Objective: To evaluate the current status of job burnout and qual ity of work life (QWL) in workers for offshore oil platforms, and to analyze the relationship of job stress with job burnout and QWL and the direct and indirect effects of job stress on QWL. Methods: Cluster random sampling was used to select 382 work-ers for 8 oil platforms of China National Offshore Oil Corporation in October 2015. A self - designed questionnaire was used to collect the individual characteristics of subjects. The Quality of Work Life Scale (QWL7 - 32) , Occupa-tional Stress Inventory - Revised Edition (OSI - R) , and Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI - GS) were used to investigate the QWL, job stress, and job burnout of subjects. Results: Among all the workers for offshore oil platforms, 87.2% had mild job burnout. The total QWL score was 116.01 ± 16.73; 8.3% of the workers had poor QWL, and 68.5% had moderate QWL. QWL was reduced with heavier task, vaguer task, and increasing mental stress and physical stress ( P stress had di-rect and indirect effects on QWL; stress reaction had the most effect on QWL (total effect size - 0.509) , followed by social support (total effect size 0.444) . Conclusion: Most workers for offshore oil platforms have mild job burn-out and moderate QWL. Job stress is associated with job burnout and QWL, and stress reaction and social support have relatively high influence on QWL.

  17. Protective equipment against explosions for offshore oil and gas production; Explosionsgeschuetzte Ausruestung fuer den maritimen Oel- und Gassektor

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Popp, Tobias [R. STAHL AG, Waldenburg (Germany)

    2011-05-15

    Offshore oil and gas production requires a multitude of explosion-proof components, systems and solutions both offshore and onshore. They serve different functions, from extraction and separation of fossil fuels to the production and storage of transportable products, sometimes on floating offshore platforms. There are also offshore cranes and pipelines to the onshore terminals. All this requires explostion-proof control cabinets, power distribution units and other equipment. The many different requirements are illustrated by the example of the world's biggest offshore production platform FPSO in the China Sea.

  18. Global offshore pipeline markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knight, R.; Parsons, B.

    2001-01-01

    In this article, two experts forecast a recovery in the offshore pipeline market followed by accelerating growth. A number of clearly definable macro trends are affecting the world offshore oil and gas industry and will be of considerable significance to the offshore pipelines industry. The authors' view is of markets that show every chance of enjoying long-term growth prospects driven by the fundamentals of a continuing increase in demand for offshore oil and gas. The offshore industry however has a highly cyclical nature, due to the impact of variations in oil and gas prices and the differing state of maturity of individual regions. Therefore those companies that are able to offer the widest range of pipe types and diameters and methods of installation across the greatest range of geographic markets are likely to prosper most. Thus, this continues to be a market best suited to those able to operate on a global scale and make a corporate commitment measured in decades

  19. Development of heavy oil fields onshore and offshore: resemblances and challenges; Desenvolvimento de campos de oleos pesados em terra e em mar: semelhancas e desafios

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Branco, Celso Cesar Moreira; Moczydlower, Priscila [PETROBRAS S.A., Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Centro de Pesquisas (CENPES)

    2008-07-01

    The so called offshore heavy oils (API gravity lower than 19) and extra heavy oils (API lower than 10) are receiving increasing importance due to the light oil production decline and also to exploration difficulties. In countries like Canada, Venezuela, China and the US (California) there are immense onshore heavy oil resources sometimes classified as non conventional. Differently in Brazil, onshore heavy oil volumes are modest being important those located in offshore fields (although non comparable to the Canadian and Venezuelan ones). The issue raised in this paper is: the field location, whether onshore or offshore, is always the main constraint in the development process? Well, the question has both a 'yes' and 'no' as an answer. There are important differences but some similarities in the technologies that can be applied. In this text the authors intend to explore this point while at the same time depicting some of the main related aspects under research for proper exploitation of heavy and extra heavy oil assets. The most relevant difference between onshore and offshore heavy oil fields is the application of thermal methods for improved recovery: while worldwide spread and commercially applied to onshore fields, steam injection is not yet viable for offshore operations. The only option for improving recovery in offshore fields is water injection, which has the drawback of producing large volumes of water during the field life. Another aspect is the cost of the production wells: much cheaper onshore they allow well spacing in the order of 100 m or even 50 m whereas in offshore well spacing are in the 1000 m range. From the flow assurance point of view, inland installations can take use of solvents for heavy oil dilution, such as diesel or naphtha. Offshore this option is complicated by the long distances from the wellheads to the producing facilities in the platform, in the case of wet completions. There are also differences regarding the

  20. Biomarkers in natural fish populations indicate adverse biological effects of offshore oil production.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lennart Balk

    Full Text Available Despite the growing awareness of the necessity of a sustainable development, the global economy continues to depend largely on the consumption of non-renewable energy resources. One such energy resource is fossil oil extracted from the seabed at offshore oil platforms. This type of oil production causes continuous environmental pollution from drilling waste, discharge of large amounts of produced water, and accidental spills.Samples from natural populations of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus and Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua in two North Sea areas with extensive oil production were investigated. Exposure to and uptake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs were demonstrated, and biomarker analyses revealed adverse biological effects, including induction of biotransformation enzymes, oxidative stress, altered fatty acid composition, and genotoxicity. Genotoxicity was reflected by a hepatic DNA adduct pattern typical for exposure to a mixture of PAHs. Control material was collected from a North Sea area without oil production and from remote Icelandic waters. The difference between the two control areas indicates significant background pollution in the North Sea.It is most remarkable to obtain biomarker responses in natural fish populations in the open sea that are similar to the biomarker responses in fish from highly polluted areas close to a point source. Risk assessment of various threats to the marine fish populations in the North Sea, such as overfishing, global warming, and eutrophication, should also take into account the ecologically relevant impact of offshore oil production.

  1. Federal offshore statistics: 1995 - leasing, exploration, production, and revenue as of December 31, 1995

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaechter, R.A.

    1997-01-01

    This report provides data on federal offshore operations for 1995. Information is included for leasing activities, development, petroleum and natural gas production, sales and royalties, revenue from federal offshore leasing, disbursement of federal revenues, reserves and resource estimates, and oil pollution in U.S. and international waters

  2. Cetacean occurrence near an offshore oil platform in southern Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta Jussara Cremer

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Information about cetaceans in offshore Brazilian waters is scarce, and oil-rigs could provide an important opportunity to obtain new data. The present work was conducted on the P-XIV oil-rig (Petrobrás (26o46’02.2”S; 46o47’02.15”W, located on the border of the continental slope, in an area of 200m depth. In the period between July 2000 and August 2002, 75 sightings of cetaceans were recorded during 38 days of effort. Among the species identified, Tursiops truncatus was the most common, corresponding to 53.3% of the records. Among the misticets, only Balaenoptera acutorostrata was identified with accuracy, with 4 records (5.3%. These were the only species that approached and stayed close to the oil-rig. Many records were made at night, when the gas burner illuminated the area around the oil-rig. We recorded an aggressive interaction involving T. truncatus and B. acutorostrata.

  3. Regulatory capture by default: Offshore exploratory drilling for oil and gas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Portman, Michelle E.

    2014-01-01

    This article examines a form of regulatory capture that occurs when significant ambiguity exists regarding the environmental protection standards for new types of activities in the marine environment. To begin with, there is little research that categorizes the typologies of regulatory capture despite the ubiquity of the phenomenon. After a discussion of theoretical approaches to regulatory capture, I describe the operative definition and theory appropriate to the situation related to authorization of oil and natural gas production in Israel following the discovery of large offshore reserves in 2010. This approach, embodying several facets of existing typologies, is applied to decisions made authorizing construction of the Gabriella offshore exploratory drilling platform. The analysis highlights the nature of capture in the absence of clear agency jurisdiction over new activities located in offshore environs organized as temporal and spatial “vacuums”. I conclude that comprehensive marine spatial planning would result in less capture and the development of more capture-resistant regulations. - Highlights: • Regulatory capture occurs when ambiguity exists about environmental protection standards for new types of activities in the marine environment. • A typology is developed from theories of regulatory capture (RC) and applied to cases of offshore exploratory drilling. • The typology is applied to offshore natural gas reserves discovered in 2010 offshore of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. • Temporal aspects (anachronistic laws and regulations) and spatial aspects (jurisdictional ambiguity) have created regulatory vacuums leading to RC. • Comprehensive marine spatial planning would result in less capture and the development of more capture-resistant regulations

  4. Offshore Newfoundland: from a project to an industry. Conference '95 proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keough, S.

    1995-01-01

    The Proceedings of the 11. International Offshore Petroleum Conference consists of 18 papers, organized into four sessions, dealing, respectively, with (1) Hibernia today, (2) downstream operations, (3) future developments, and (4) international marketing and competitiveness. The majority of the papers dealt with the Hibernia project off the coast of Newfoundland. An update of the project to date, planning for the start-up of production, lifting and transportation problems, plans for the Come By Chance refinery, future developments, marketing Newfoundland's offshore expertise internationally, and perspectives on the international oil and gas industry were the principal issues discussed. A list of conference participants was also included. Figs., tabs

  5. The contribution of human factors to accidents in the offshore oil industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gordon, Rachael P.E.

    1998-01-01

    Accidents such as the Piper Alpha disaster illustrate that the performance of a highly complex socio-technical system, is dependent upon the interaction of technical, human, social, organisational, managerial and environmental factors and that these factors can be important co-contributors that could potentially lead to a catastrophic event. The purpose of this article is to give readers an overview of how human factors contribute to accidents in the offshore oil industry. An introduction to human errors and how they relate to human factors in general terms is given. From here the article discusses some of the human factors which were found to influence safety in other industries and describes the human factors codes used in accident reporting forms in the aviation, nuclear and marine industries. Analysis of 25 accident reporting forms from offshore oil companies in the UK sector of the North Sea was undertaken in relation to the human factors. Suggestions on how these accident reporting forms could be improved are given. Finally, this article describes the methods by which accidents can be reduced by focusing on the human factors, such as feedback from accident reporting in the oil industry, auditing of unsafe acts and auditing of latent failures

  6. Oil pollution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mankabady, Samir.

    1994-08-01

    Oil enters the marine environment when it is discharged, or has escaped, during transport, drilling, shipping, accidents, dumping and offshore operations. This book serves as a reference both on the various complex international operational and legal matters of oil pollution using examples such as the Exxon Valdez, the Braer and Lord Donaldson's report. The chapters include the development of international rules on the marine environment, the prevention of marine pollution from shipping activities, liability for oil pollution damage, the conflict of the 1990 Oil Pollution Act and the 1992 protocols and finally the cooperation and response to pollution incidents. (UK)

  7. The impact of water depth on safety and environmental performance in offshore oil and gas production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muehlenbachs, Lucija; Cohen, Mark A.; Gerarden, Todd

    2013-01-01

    This paper reports on an empirical analysis of company-reported incidents on oil and gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico between 1996 and 2010. During these years, there was a dramatic increase in the water depths at which offshore oil and gas is extracted. Controlling for platform characteristics such as age, quantity of oil and gas produced, and number of producing wells, we find that incidents (such as blowouts, injuries, and oil spills) are positively correlated with deeper water. Controlling for these and other characteristics, for an average platform, each 100 feet of added depth increases the probability of a company-reported incident by 8.5%. While further research into the causal connections between water depth and platform risks is warranted, this study highlights the potential value of increased monitoring of deeper water platforms. - Highlights: ► Analysis of performance indicators for oil production platforms in Gulf of Mexico. ► In recent years there have been dramatic increases in the water depths at which offshore oil and gas is extracted. ► Self-reported incidents (e.g. blowouts, injuries, spills) increase with water depth

  8. A review of shape memory material’s applications in the offshore oil and gas industry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patil, Devendra; Song, Gangbing

    2017-09-01

    The continuously increasing demand for oil and gas and the depleting number of new large reservoir discoveries have made it necessary for the oil and gas industry to investigate and design new, improved technologies that unlock new sources of energy and squeeze more from existing resources. Shape memory materials (SMM), with their remarkable properties such as the shape memory effect (SME), corrosion resistance, and superelasticity have shown great potential to meet these demands by significantly improving the functionality and durability of offshore systems. Shape memory alloy (SMA) and shape memory polymer (SMP) are two types of most commonly used SMM’s and are ideally suited for use over a range of robust engineering applications found within the oil and gas industry, such as deepwater actuators, valves, underwater connectors, seals, self-torqueing fasteners and sand management. The potential high strain and high force output of the SME of SMA can be harnessed to create a lightweight, solid state alternative to conventional hydraulic, pneumatic or motor based actuator systems. The phase transformation property enables the SMA to withstand erosive stresses, which is useful for minimizing the effect of erosion often experienced by downhole devices. The superelasticity of the SMA provides good energy dissipation, and can overcome the various defects and limitations suffered by conventional passive damping methods. The higher strain recovery during SME makes SMP ideal for developments of packers and sand management in downhole. The increasing number of SMM related research papers and patents from oil and gas industry indicate the growing research interest of the industry to implement SMM in offshore applications. This paper reviews the recent developments and applications of SMM in the offshore oil and gas industry.

  9. Developing and testing an internal audit tool of the psychosocial work environment in the oil and gas industry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vestly Bergh, L.I.; Hinna, S.; Leka, S.; Zwetsloot, G.I.J.M.

    2016-01-01

    The objective of this paper is to present and discuss a pilot study for conducting internal psychosocial risk auditing in the oil and gas industry, focusing on offshore units. Psychosocial risk auditing is a proactive method for monitoring the status of psychosocial factors influencing the risk of

  10. Specific radiological monitoring experiences and the challenges at offshore

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mod Omar Hassan

    2005-01-01

    Lately, EASELAB / PROJEK KHAS has performed Specific Radiological Monitoring job at offshore rigs off Terengganu for Syarikat Petronas Carigali [M] Sdn Bhd. In order to perform the job, every worker must attend a Basic Offshore Safety and Emergency Training Course and pass the theory and practical test. Before a license or safety passport is issued, the worker must undergo Medical Checkup and certified physically and mentally fit. The passport is recognized by most of international oil companies. During performing the jobs, MINT staff has faced some difficulties such as weather conditions, to suit with the working environment and life at the oil platform. There were a few staff has withdrew (resigned) from performing the jobs. (Author)

  11. Bird interactions with offshore oil and gas platforms: review of impacts and monitoring techniques.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ronconi, Robert A; Allard, Karel A; Taylor, Philip D

    2015-01-01

    Thousands of oil and gas platforms are currently operating in offshore waters globally, and this industry is expected to expand in coming decades. Although the potential environmental impacts of offshore oil and gas activities are widely recognized, there is limited understanding of their impacts on migratory and resident birds. A literature review identified 24 studies and reports of bird-platform interactions, most being qualitative and half having been peer-reviewed. The most frequently observed effect, for seabirds and landbirds, is attraction and sometimes collisions associated with lights and flares; episodic events have caused the deaths of hundreds or even thousands of birds. Though typically unpredictable, anecdotally, it is known that poor weather, such as fog, precipitation and low cloud cover, can exacerbate the effect of nocturnal attraction to lights, especially when coincidental with bird migrations. Other effects include provision of foraging and roosting opportunities, increased exposure to oil and hazardous environments, increased exposure to predators, or repulsion from feeding sites. Current approaches to monitoring birds at offshore platforms have focused on observer-based methods which can offer species-level bird identification, quantify seasonal patterns of relative abundance and distribution, and document avian mortality events and underlying factors. Observer-based monitoring is time-intensive, limited in spatial and temporal coverage, and suffers without clear protocols and when not conducted by trained, independent observers. These difficulties are exacerbated because deleterious bird-platform interaction is episodic and likely requires the coincidence of multiple factors (e.g., darkness, cloud, fog, rain conditions, occurrence of birds in vicinity). Collectively, these considerations suggest a need to implement supplemental systems for monitoring bird activities around offshore platforms. Instrument-based approaches, such as radar

  12. What can wave energy learn from offshore oil and gas?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jefferys, E R

    2012-01-28

    This title may appear rather presumptuous in the light of the progress made by the leading wave energy devices. However, there may still be some useful lessons to be learnt from current 'offshore' practice, and there are certainly some awful warnings from the past. Wave energy devices and the marine structures used in oil and gas exploration as well as production share a common environment and both are subject to wave, wind and current loads, which may be evaluated with well-validated, albeit imperfect, tools. Both types of structure can be designed, analysed and fabricated using similar tools and technologies. They fulfil very different missions and are subject to different economic and performance requirements; hence 'offshore' design tools must be used appropriately in wave energy project and system design, and 'offshore' cost data should be adapted for 'wave' applications. This article reviews the similarities and differences between the fields and highlights the differing economic environments; offshore structures are typically a small to moderate component of field development cost, while wave power devices will dominate overall system cost. The typical 'offshore' design process is summarized and issues such as reliability-based design and design of not normally manned structures are addressed. Lessons learned from poor design in the past are discussed to highlight areas where care is needed, and wave energy-specific design areas are reviewed. Opportunities for innovation and optimization in wave energy project and device design are discussed; wave energy projects must ultimately compete on a level playing field with other routes to low CO₂ energy and/or energy efficiency. This article is a personal viewpoint and not an expression of a ConocoPhillips position.

  13. First evaluation of foraminiferal metabarcoding for monitoring environmental impact from an offshore oil drilling site

    KAUST Repository

    Laroche, Olivier

    2016-08-29

    At present, environmental impacts from offshore oil and gas activities are partly determined by measuring changes in macrofauna diversity. Morphological identification of macrofauna is time-consuming, expensive and dependent on taxonomic expertise. In this study, we evaluated the applicability of using foraminiferal-specific metabarcoding for routine monitoring. Sediment samples were collected along distance gradients from two oil platforms off Taranaki (New Zealand) and their physicochemical properties, foraminiferal environmental DNA/RNA, and macrofaunal composition analyzed. Macrofaunal and foraminiferal assemblages showed similar shifts along impact gradients, but responded differently to environmental perturbations. Macrofauna were affected by hypoxia, whereas sediment grain size appeared to drive shifts in foraminifera. We identified eight foraminiferal molecular operational taxonomic units that have potential to be used as bioindicator taxa. Our results show that metabarcoding represents an effective tool for assessing foraminiferal communities near offshore oil and gas platforms, and that it can be used to complement current monitoring techniques. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. First evaluation of foraminiferal metabarcoding for monitoring environmental impact from an offshore oil drilling site

    KAUST Repository

    Laroche, Olivier; Wood, Susanna A.; Tremblay, Louis A.; Ellis, Joanne; Lejzerowicz, Franck; Pawlowski, Jan; Lear, Gavin; Atalah, Javier; Pochon, Xavier

    2016-01-01

    At present, environmental impacts from offshore oil and gas activities are partly determined by measuring changes in macrofauna diversity. Morphological identification of macrofauna is time-consuming, expensive and dependent on taxonomic expertise. In this study, we evaluated the applicability of using foraminiferal-specific metabarcoding for routine monitoring. Sediment samples were collected along distance gradients from two oil platforms off Taranaki (New Zealand) and their physicochemical properties, foraminiferal environmental DNA/RNA, and macrofaunal composition analyzed. Macrofaunal and foraminiferal assemblages showed similar shifts along impact gradients, but responded differently to environmental perturbations. Macrofauna were affected by hypoxia, whereas sediment grain size appeared to drive shifts in foraminifera. We identified eight foraminiferal molecular operational taxonomic units that have potential to be used as bioindicator taxa. Our results show that metabarcoding represents an effective tool for assessing foraminiferal communities near offshore oil and gas platforms, and that it can be used to complement current monitoring techniques. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. A crude solution: should the moratorium on offshore oil and gas development in BC be lifted

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parfitt, B.; Venton, M.; Bartoszewski, D.

    1999-04-01

    A discussion on the pros and cons of lifting the moratorium on offshore oil development is presented. The Federal Fisheries Minister is not convinced that technological advances have reached a point where the moratorium can be lifted and guarantee that major accidents would not occur. The Fisheries Act states that any degradation of fish habitat is illegal. Coastal communities are also opposed to lifting the moratorium, yet it is widely rumored that the provincial government is planning to set up an environmental review to investigate the possibility of developing the offshore resource. The Sierra Legal Defence Fund supports the federal government's position that lifting the moratorium on offshore oil development would seriously jeopardize many sectors of the coastal economy, and urges both levels of government to work together and instead of engaging in such potentially hazardous and costly endeavour, encourage growth and development in the domestic renewable energy sector. 37 refs., figs

  16. Oil exploration and production offshore Sakhalin Island

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Reed, I.C. [Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russian Federation)

    2006-11-15

    The offshore oil and gas exploration that is currently taking place on Sakhalin Island was discussed, with particular reference to the status of Sakhalin Energy and the challenges facing oil and exportation from the ice covered waters of Russia's Sea of Okhotsk. Sakhalin Energy, an incorporated joint venture of a consortium of companies, completed a feasibility study for oil production off the east coast of Sakhalin Island in December 1992. Sakhalin Energy has two fields, namely the Piltun Astokhskoye and Lunskoye fields. The Piltun Astokhskoye field is currently under production via the Molikpaq platform and the Lunskoye field and northern part of Piltun Astokhskoye field are currently being developed under the Phase 2 project. Since 1999, Sakhalin Energy has been producing oil from a caisson structure drilling rig which was fitted with ice protection shielding around the waterline in order to comply with Russian requirements. Production is via an undersea pipeline to a Single Anchor Leg Mooring (SALM) unit and then to a Floating Storage and Offloading unit (FSO). A brief outline of the structure was presented along with current ice management procedures and arrangements. In order to maximize the length of the production season, ice management is used to enable an early start and a late end to production. It was noted that great care is taken to ensure that the operations in ice are carried out with consideration of the environmentally sensitive area that is home to the endangered Western Gray Whale and Stellar Sea Eagle. 3 refs., 1 tab., 7 figs.

  17. Review of Slug Detection, Modeling and Control Techniques for Offshore Oil & Gas Production Processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Simon; Løhndorf, Petar Durdevic; Yang, Zhenyu

    2015-01-01

    The current offshore oil & gas multi-phase production and transportation installations have big challenges related with the slugging flow: An unstable multi-phase flow regime where the flow rates, pressures and temperatures oscillate in the considered processes. Slug can be caused by different...... operating conditions and installation structures. The most severe slugs are often induced in long vertical risers or production wells, where liquid blocks gas at the riser/well base and correspondingly it causes the pressure to accumulate and hence originates the oscillating performance. There are many...... of these methods can simultaneously reduce the oil & gas production, which is a very big concern as the production rate is the key evaluation parameter for offshore production. We conclude that the slugging flow is a well-defined phenomenon, even though this subject has been extensively investigated in the past...

  18. Cetacean occurrence near an offshore oil platform in southern Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta Jussara Cremer

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7925.2009v22n3p247 Information about cetaceans in offshore Brazilian waters is scarce, and oil-rigs could provide an important opportunity to obtain new data. The present work was conducted on the P-XIV oil-rig (Petrobrás (26o46’02.2”S; 46o47’02.15”W, located on the border of the continental slope, in an area of 200m depth. In the period between July 2000 and August 2002, 75 sightings of cetaceans were recorded during 38 days of effort. Among the species identified, Tursiops truncatus was the most common, corresponding to 53.3% of the records. Among the misticets, only Balaenoptera acutorostrata was identified with accuracy, with 4 records (5.3%. These were the only species that approached and stayed close to the oil-rig. Many records were made at night, when the gas burner illuminated the area around the oil-rig. We recorded an aggressive interaction involving T. truncatus and B. acutorostrata.

  19. International oil law

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Torkzad, B.

    1997-01-01

    The 1973 energy crisis demonstrated that the international petroleum industry is not totally free. Very often it has been the object of an organization, even during the domination of international oil companies which have established a petroleum international system with a system of concession rights. This system is based on an oligopolistic structure which had the characteristics of a monopoly. This vertically integrated structure of the world petroleum industry during the 1920-1950 era was more or less locked up by the system of concessions. The incompatibility of this system of excessively long concession contracts with the economical development needs of oil exporting countries has led to their abolishment. They have been replaced by new agreements. As soon as the creation of stable and permanent international oil organizations (OPEC, OAPEC, IEA), an institutional right has been established which has generated international rights and principles governing the contractual relations between oil exporting and oil importing countries. This international petroleum right is both original and specific, it is evolutive, contractual and normative. (J.S.)

  20. III: Use of biomarkers as Risk Indicators in Environmental Risk Assessment of oil based discharges offshore.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanni, Steinar; Lyng, Emily; Pampanin, Daniela M

    2017-06-01

    Offshore oil and gas activities are required not to cause adverse environmental effects, and risk based management has been established to meet environmental standards. In some risk assessment schemes, Risk Indicators (RIs) are parameters to monitor the development of risk affecting factors. RIs have not yet been established in the Environmental Risk Assessment procedures for management of oil based discharges offshore. This paper evaluates the usefulness of biomarkers as RIs, based on their properties, existing laboratory biomarker data and assessment methods. Data shows several correlations between oil concentrations and biomarker responses, and assessment principles exist that qualify biomarkers for integration into risk procedures. Different ways that these existing biomarkers and methods can be applied as RIs in a probabilistic risk assessment system when linked with whole organism responses are discussed. This can be a useful approach to integrate biomarkers into probabilistic risk assessment related to oil based discharges, representing a potential supplement to information that biomarkers already provide about environmental impact and risk related to these kind of discharges. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Air emissions assessment from offshore oil activities in Sonda de Campeche, Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schifter, I; González-Macías, C; Miranda, A; López-Salinas, E

    2005-10-01

    Air emission data from offshore oil platforms, gas and oil processing installations and contribution of marine activities at the Sonda de Campeche, located at the Gulf of Mexico, were compiled and integrated to facilitate the study of long range transport of pollutants into the region. From this important region, roughly 76% of the total Mexican oil and gas production is obtained. It was estimated that the total air emissions of all contaminants are approximately 821,000 tons per year. Hydrocarbons are the largest pollutant emissions with 277,590 tons per year, generated during flaring activities, and SOx in second place with 185,907 tons per year. Marine and aviation activities contribute with less than 2% of total emissions. Mass of pollutants emitted per barrel of petroleum produced calculated in this work, are in the range reported by similar oil companies.

  2. Reforming Brazil's offshore oil and gas safety regulatory framework: Lessons from Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mendes, Pietro A.S.; Hall, Jeremy; Matos, Stelvia; Silvestre, Bruno

    2014-01-01

    We propose reforming the Brazilian regulatory safety framework (BRSF) for offshore oil and gas production and drilling operations. Brazil has emerged as a leading offshore producer with extensive proven reserves yet to be exploited. However, the BRSF has not been updated since 2007, and there are now major concerns about the industry's safety, particularly after the BP Deepwater Horizon accident, along with the technical challenges due to extreme conditions under which Brazil's resources are located. Drawing on experiences from three leading offshore oil and gas producers (Norway, the UK, and the US), we recommend the adoption of three best practices: the UK's ‘safety case’ approach (where operators are expected to provide convincing and valid arguments that a system is sufficiently safe for a given application in a specific environment), Norway's ‘barrier management’ (evidence that there are at least two tested and independent barriers to avoid accidents) and greater investment in safety research and development, as suggested by the US's National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. We discuss implications for policy reform and how best practices can be applied within the Brazilian context. - Highlights: • Description of the Brazilian regulatory safety framework (BRSF). • Comparison between BRSF and regulatory frameworks of leading offshore oil and gas jurisdictions (Norway, UK and US). • Recommendations for BRSF to include the safety case, barrier management and increased investment in safety technology

  3. Design features of offshore oil production platforms influence their susceptibility to biocorrosion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Kathleen E; Davidova, Irene A; Nunn, Heather S; Stamps, Blake W; Stevenson, Bradley S; Souquet, Pierre J; Suflita, Joseph M

    2017-08-01

    Offshore oil-producing platforms are designed for efficient and cost-effective separation of oil from water. However, design features and operating practices may create conditions that promote the proliferation and spread of biocorrosive microorganisms. The microbial communities and their potential for metal corrosion were characterized for three oil production platforms that varied in their oil-water separation processes, fluid recycling practices, and history of microbially influenced corrosion (MIC). Microbial diversity was evaluated by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and numbers of total bacteria, archaea, and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) were estimated by qPCR. The rates of 35 S sulfate reduction assay (SRA) were measured as a proxy for metal biocorrosion potential. A variety of microorganisms common to oil production facilities were found, but distinct communities were associated with the design of the platform and varied with different locations in the processing stream. Stagnant, lower temperature (production platforms can be used to identify operational practices that inadvertently promote the proliferation, distribution, and activity of biocorrosive microorganisms.

  4. Onshore and offshore geologic map of the Coal Oil Point area, southern California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dartnell, Pete; Conrad, James E.; Stanley, Richard G.; Guy R. Cochrane, Guy R.

    2011-01-01

    Geologic maps that span the shoreline and include both onshore and offshore areas are potentially valuable tools that can lead to a more in depth understanding of coastal environments. Such maps can contribute to the understanding of shoreline change, geologic hazards, both offshore and along-shore sediment and pollutant transport. They are also useful in assessing geologic and biologic resources. Several intermediate-scale (1:100,000) geologic maps that include both onshore and offshore areas (herein called onshore-offshore geologic maps) have been produced of areas along the California coast (see Saucedo and others, 2003; Kennedy and others, 2007; Kennedy and Tan, 2008), but few large-scale (1:24,000) maps have been produced that can address local coastal issues. A cooperative project between Federal and State agencies and universities has produced an onshore-offshore geologic map at 1:24,000 scale of the Coal Oil Point area and part of the Santa Barbara Channel, southern California (fig. 1). As part of the project, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Geological Survey (CGS) hosted a workshop (May 2nd and 3rd, 2007) for producers and users of coastal map products (see list of participants) to develop a consensus on the content and format of onshore-offshore geologic maps (and accompanying GIS files) so that they have relevance for coastal-zone management. The USGS and CGS are working to develop coastal maps that combine geospatial information from offshore and onshore and serve as an important tool for addressing a broad range of coastal-zone management issues. The workshop was divided into sessions for presentations and discussion of bathymetry and topography, geology, and habitat products and needs of end users. During the workshop, participants reviewed existing maps and discussed their merits and shortcomings. This report addresses a number of items discussed in the workshop and details the onshore and offshore geologic map of the Coal Oil

  5. Thermodynamic Performance Indicators for Offshore Oil and Gas Processing: Application to Four North Sea Facilities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Voldsund, Mari; Nguyen, Tuong-Van; Elmegaard, Brian

    2014-01-01

    Well-defined performance indicators can motivate optimal operation of offshore oil and gas platforms. We evaluate several thermodynamic performance indicators presented in the literature according to three criteria: Thermodynamic performance indicators should evaluate the use of technically...

  6. L'exploitation pétrolière offshore : production et sécurité Offshore Oil Production and Safety

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Champlon D.

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available Depuis la première découverte pétrolière réalisée en 1859, l'industrie pétrolière a connu une expansion considérable. Pour faire face à l'accroissement des besoins du monde en hydrocarbures, l'exploration des bassins sédimentaires susceptibles de contenir du pétrole ou du gaz naturel s'est progressivement développée. Compte tenu du potentiel prometteur en hydrocarbures des fonds marins, la recherche de nouveaux gisements s'est étendue aux bassins sédimentaires situés sous les océans, d'abord tout près des côtes, puis sur les plateaux continentaux (par moins de 200 m d'eau et maintenant, au-delà, par des profondeurs d'eau de plusieurs milliers de mètres. Cette expansion de l'offshore repose depuis 1960 sur la mise au point de techniques originales et multiples, à la mesure de la nouveauté et de la complexité des problèmes à résoudre. Parallèlement, le développement des activités offshore et maintenant la conquête des mers difficiles ou profondes ont suscité la mise en place de normes de sécurité et de réglementations très sévères afin de garantir une protection efficace des installations, des personnes et des autres usagers de la mer, et de prévenir tout danger de pollution éventuelle. Enfin, si l'on replace aujourd'hui l'ensemble des activités offshore dans le contexte énergétique mondial, on peut se poser deux questions - Le coût des opérations marines en mer ne devient-il pas prohibitif ? - La situation énergétique justifie-t-elle la conquête des mers de plus en plus profondes ? II serait vain de prétendre apporter dès aujourd'hui une réponse précise et catégorique à toutes ces interrogations. Néanmoins, l'analyse économique des activités offshore, la prise en compte de l'expérience du passé et l'extrapolation des tendances observées apportent déjà des éléments d'appréciation fort utiles. Since oil was first discovered in 1859, the petroleum industry has expanded considerably

  7. A critique of the performance of EIA within the offshore oil and gas sector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barker, Adam, E-mail: adam.barker@manchester.ac.uk; Jones, Carys, E-mail: carys.jones@manchester.ac.uk

    2013-11-15

    The oil and gas sector is a key driver of the offshore economy. Yet, it is also associated with a number of unwanted environmental impacts which potentially threaten the long term economic and environmental viability of marine ecosystems. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) can potentially make a significant contribution to the identification and management of adverse impacts through the promotion of evidence based decision making. However, the extent to which EIA has been embraced by key stakeholders is poorly understood. On this basis, this paper provides an initial evaluation of EIA performance within the oil and gas sector. The methodology adopted for the paper consisted of the structured review of 35 Environmental Statements (ESs) along with interviews with regulators, operators, consultants and advisory bodies. The findings reveal a mixed picture of EIA performance with a significant number of ESs falling short of satisfactory quality and a tendency for the process to be driven by compliance rather than best practice. -- Highlights: • Concerns identified relating to impacts of offshore oil and gas industry. • Research assesses performance of EIA in addressing impacts. • Findings highlight weak quality standards and procedural deficiencies. • Institutional reforms identified in order to improve practice.

  8. Stochastic simulation of off-shore oil terminal systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frankel, E.G.; Oberle, J.

    1991-01-01

    To cope with the problem of uncertainty and conditionality in the planning, design, and operation of offshore oil transshipment terminal systems, a conditional stochastic simulation approach is presented. Examples are shown, using SLAM II, a computer simulation language based on GERT, a conditional stochastic network analysis methodology in which use of resources such as time and money are expressed by the moment generating function of the statistics of the resource requirements. Similarly each activity has an associated conditional probability of being performed and/or of requiring some of the resources. The terminal system is realistically represented by modelling the statistics of arrivals, loading and unloading times, uncertainties in costs and availabilities, etc

  9. Environmental risk in the offshore industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Woods, I.T.; Shirley, D.; Bottelberghs, P.H.

    1991-01-01

    The subject of oil pollution of the sea by the offshore industry is topical as a result of recent incidents both in the U.K. and overseas. While these incidents have primarily involved crude carriers, it has led to pressure to quantify the risk to the environment from the offshore industry in general. In this paper a method for the assessment of the frequency and size of oil spills from offshore installations is presented. It relies on previously reported spills to determine spill size/frequency information for a range of offshore activities, such as transport by pipeline, drilling and processing. Modification factors are used so local conditions, such as the number of wells drilled, throughput and well depth, can be considered in the assessment of the oil spill risk from a particular installation

  10. Offshore oil and gas and coastal British Columbia : Aboriginal rights, title and interests

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Porter, D. [First Nations Summit, West Vancouver, BC (Canada)

    2006-07-01

    This presentation discussed the legal duty of offshore proponents in the oil and gas industry to consult with Aboriginal nations. The Crown court's support for Aboriginal title to ocean areas within proposed offshore regions was also discussed, and Aboriginal rights to manage ocean resources were outlined. Haida and Taku River Tlingit legal decisions have confirmed both a constitutional and fiduciary duty for the Crown to consult with Aboriginal nations who assert their rights or title to lands subject to development. Resource rights granted without meaningful consultation with Aboriginal nations can be challenged, which may result in legal and financial liability for resource companies. A consultative process that addresses ownership, capacity and benefit sharing must be developed so that Aboriginal governments can participate in the design and development of appropriate fiscal and regulatory regimes. The developed regime must consider benefit and revenue sharing, as well as the integration of traditional knowledge within western science for the lifetime of any project. All decision-making bodies must include participation from Aboriginal groups. Mechanisms must also be developed to mitigate the environmental and socio-economic consequences of resource development. Impact and benefit agreements must be negotiated with coastal nations. Dissatisfaction with the concept of consultation processes has led first nations to reconsider the role that they must play in ensuring that oil and gas developments in the coastal regions of British Columbia do not negatively impact on their communities. It was noted that Inuit land claims reserve special rights for the Inuit over 18,800 miles of tidal waters. Earlier attempts by Aboriginal societies to assert their right to control their own ocean resources free from governmental interference were also discussed. It was concluded that litigation of Aboriginal rights and title poses serious challenges to offshore oil and gas

  11. Task Force on oil spill preparedness: Offshore implementation progress

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Devenis, P.K.

    1992-01-01

    Industry members of the Canadian Petroleum Association (CPA) and the Independent Petroleum Association of Canada (IPAC) undertook a review of oil spill preparedness and response capabilities in 1989. The resulting report summarized the current state of readiness, focusing on oil spills resulting from exploration and production activities in Canada. The report recommended expenditures in research and development, equipment acquisition, and training to prevent and control offshore and onshore oil spills more effectively. The release of an implementation plan for the Task Force on Oil Spill Preparedness (TFOSP) in 1990 provided the impetus for a 5-year plan to improve this state of preparedness. The plan outlined the mechanisms for implementing the 45 recommendations developed by TFOSP. It also recommended how to incorporate them into the daily business activities of the CPA member companies. It identified the appropriate groups within industry to carry out the implementation of each recommendation. It also indicated the government interfaces, the implementation schedule, and cost estimates for putting each recommendation into place. It also recommended a vigorous monitoring program to follow and report on the status of implementation. Based on the TFOSP implementation plan recommendations, work plans were developed, specific work projects identified, and a budget approved for 1991 programs. The first year of implementation of recommendations is now complete and work plans have been developed for continuation in 1992. 2 refs

  12. Iranian-Oil-Free Zone and international oil prices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farzanegan, Mohammad Reza; Raeisian Parvari, Mozhgan

    2014-01-01

    One of the main elements of economic sanctions against Iran due to its nuclear and military programs is crude oil exportation restrictions in addition to investment in Iranian energy related projects. Senders of such sanction are interested in understanding the impacts of such embargos on international oil prices. We apply unrestricted vector autoregressive (VAR) model, using impulse response functions (IRF) and variance decomposition analysis (VDA) tools with annual data from 1965 to 2012 to analyze the dynamic response of international oil prices to Iranian oil export sanction. Controlling for the supply of non-Iranian oil, the world GDP per capita, and post-Islamic revolution exogenous dummy variables, we show that international oil prices respond negatively and statistically significant to increasing shock in absolute negative changes of the Iranian oil exports – our proxy of Iran oil sanctions – following the first 2 years after shock. The main reason is the positive response of the non-Iranian oil supply to negative shocks in Iranian oil exports, filling the missing supply of Iranian oil in international markets. - Highlights: • We analyze the interconnections between Iranian oil supply and global oil prices. • We use VAR modeling and annual data from 1965 to 2012 for the case of Iran. • There are no inflationary effects of Iranian oil sanction on world oil prices. • Non-Iranian oil supply offsets the missing Iranian oil in the market

  13. The economic impact of proposed regulations on the discharge of drilling muds and cuttings from the offshore facilities on US undiscovered crude oil reserves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    This paper presents the results of an assessment of the potential economic impact of proposed regulations. on the discharge of drilling fluids (muds) and cuttings on US offshore undiscovered crude oil resources. These regulations include proposed Best Available Technology economically achievable (BAT) and New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) effluent limitations under the Clean Water Act governing the discharge of drilling fluids and drill cuttings from offshore oil and gas drilling operations. The impact of the proposed RAT/NSPS regulations for the drilling fluids and drill cuttings disposal on the cost of funding, developing, and producing Lower-48 offshore undiscovered crude oil resources will depend significantly on operators perceptions on the chances of failing toxicity or static sheen tests. If operators, in economically justifying their projects, assume that the fluids fail one of these tests, thereby prohibiting them from being discharged, up to 11% of the economically recoverable offshore resource would be considered uneconomic to produce. This would amount to 845 million barrels of oil at an oil price around $25 per barrel. On the other hand, if operators are willing co take their chances and see if their fluids fail one of these tests, then, based on EPA's assumptions concerning forecast fluid use and static sheen and toxicity test failure rates, up to 4% of the offshore undiscovered resource would be impacted, amounting to lost reserves of up to 270 million barrels

  14. Energy Efficient Pump Control for an Offshore Oil Processing System

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Zhenyu; Soleiman, Kian; Løhndorf, Bo

    2012-01-01

    The energy efficient control of a pump system for an offshore oil processing system is investigated. The seawater is lifted up by a pump system which consists of three identical centrifugal pumps in parallel, and the lifted seawater is used to cool down the crude oil flowing out of a threephase...... separator on one of the Danish north-sea platform. A hierarchical pump-speed control strategy is developed for the considered system by minimizing the pump power consumption subject to keeping a satisfactory system performance. The proposed control strategy consists of online estimation of some system...... operating parameters, optimization of pump configurations, and a real-time feedback control. Comparing with the current control strategy at the considered system, where the pump system is on/off controlled, and the seawater flows are controlled by a number of control valves, the proposed control strategy...

  15. Review of offshore oil-spill prevention and remediation requirements and practices in Newfoundland and Labrador

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turner, M.; Skinner, J.; Roberts, J.; Harvey, R.; Ross, S.L

    2010-12-01

    The report studies aspects of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador's requirements for oil-spill prevention, response and remediation. The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) is responsible and accountable for the industry's meeting its commitments in terms of monitoring, auditing and management. Comparisons with requirements in different regions, such as Norway, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States demonstrate C-NLOPB practices are sound and comprehensive and meet international standards. Even though the standard established by the Board is high, further improvement is nevertheless needed and the report makes detailed recommendations for bringing this about. The four-tiered industry response system of safe practices:, safety culture, designs, standards and training and competency assurance programs is also augmented and enhanced by the C-NLOPB approval process.

  16. Radioisotope techniques for process optimisation and control in the offshore oil and gas industries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Charlton, J.S.

    2002-01-01

    For over fifty years, radioisotope technology has been used by the oil industry to solve problems and to help optimise process operations. The widespread development of offshore oil and gas fields has brought, and continues to bring, new challenges and, in response, new or modified applications of radioisotope technology have been introduced. This paper presents case studies, which illustrate the use of radioisotopes, both in the sub-sea environment and on the offshore production platforms. On the platform, radioisotope techniques applied singly or in combination, have been applied to the performance assessment of oil/gas separation and gas dehydration units. Novel nucleonic instrumentation has been developed for the control of three-phase separators. Sub-sea, radioactive tracers and/or sealed sources have been used to investigate the integrity of submerged structures and to troubleshoot pipeline problems. The continuing expansion in the use of this technology stems from industry increasing awareness of its versatility and from the fact that the benefits it confers can be obtained at a relatively modest cost. Examples of economic benefit described in the paper are associated with production enhancements derived from the ability of radioisotope technology to measure performance and diagnose problems on line, without disrupting process operations in any way. (Author)

  17. Sediment porewater toxicity assessment studies in the vicinity of offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carr, R. S.; Chapman, D. C.; Presley, B. J.; Biedenbach, J. M.; Robertson, L.

    1996-01-01

    Sediment chemical analyses and porewater toxicity tests were conducted in the vicinity of five offshore oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to determine the potential long-term environmental impacts of offshore oil and gas exploration and production. Evidence of toxicity was obtained from four of the five platforms from data on sea urchin fertilization and embryonic development. The majority of toxic samples were collected within 150 m of the platform. Sediment concentrations of several metals were well in excess of sediment quality assessment guidelines at a number of stations. Porewater metal concentrations were found to be high enough to account for the observed toxicity. The general conclusion reached from these toxicity tests was that the contaminant-induced impacts from the offshore platforms were confined to a limited area in the immediate vicinity of the platform. 23 refs., 8 tabs., 2 figs

  18. Viet Nam, once isolated, poised for significant role in oil and gas

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports that Viet Nam is on its way up in the petroleum world. After years of international isolation, the country is poised for a flurry of exploration by international oil companies in the early 1990s. Viet Nam has joined the Soviet Union as the only members of the now dissolved, formerly Moscow dominated, 10 nation Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) that are self-sufficient in oil production. Moreover, Viet Nam has far outstripped neighboring China, which was not a CMEA member, in offshore oil flow even though China has a much larger Outer Continental Shelf. Prospects are that Viet Nam will continue to lead China in offshore oil production until 1995 at least

  19. Reliability-Based Planning of Inspection, Operation and Maintenance for Offshore Oil & Gas Structures and Wind Turbines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2011-01-01

    Reliability-based cost-optimal planning of inspection, maintenance and operation has many applications. In this paper applications for planning of inspections for oil & gas jacket structures and of operation and maintenance of offshore wind turbines are described and illustrated by examples....

  20. Cleaning the Produced Water in Offshore Oil Production by Using Plant-wide Optimal Control Strategy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Zhenyu; Pedersen, Simon; Løhndorf, Petar Durdevic

    2014-01-01

    To clean the produced water is always a challenging critical issue in the offshore oil & gas industry. By employing the plant-wide control technology, this paper discussed the opportunity to optimize the most popular hydrocyclone-based Produced Water Treatment (PWT) system. The optimizations of t...... of this research is to promote a technical breakthrough in the PWT control design, which can lead to the best environmental protection in the oil & gas production, without sacrificing the production capability and production costs....

  1. Plant-Wide Anti-Slug Control for Offshore Oil and Gas Processes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Simon

    In offshore Oil & Gas production processes the undesired severe slug flow regime can be present. The negative impact of severe slug is crucial to the production rate and process safety. In this work, the severe slugs which occur in the well-pipeline-riser system are experimentally and theoretically...... better than the ones developed for Pt . Furthermore, an alternative transmitter is experimentally investigated for online slug detection and monitoring. The transmitter is an Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) sensor measuring the electrical resistance over the cross-area section...

  2. Personal, place, and time characteristics of offshore accidents in five oil companies operating in Indonesia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rahardjo; Sudjoko; Sebayang

    1991-01-01

    This study is to determine personal, place and time characteristics of offshore accidents during the year of 1987, 1988 and 1989 of five oil companies operating in Indonesia. Age, length of service, employment status, job characteristics, work cycles, work schedules, marital status, citizenship, disability, anatomy and nature of accident

  3. Operational Performance of Offshore De-oiling Hydrocyclone Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Løhndorf, Petar Durdevic; Pedersen, Simon; Yang, Zhenyu

    2017-01-01

    Maturing Oil & Gas reservoirs in the North Sea result in constant increases of water-cut, which correspondingly poses an increasing strain on the current offshore Produced Water Treatment (PWT) facilities. As one of the key elements of the PWT facilities, the hydrocyclone systems, are responsible...... for removing the remaining hydrocarbon content in the produced water before the treated water can be discharged, disposed, or reused as injection water. The hydrocyclone's performance heavily correlates with a number of system's and operational parameters, as well as dedicated control strategies. However......, these correlations haven't yet been clearly explored from a control oriented point of view, due to the complex separation dynamics inside the cyclone systems. This work investigates and evaluates the hydrocyclone system's operational performance with respect to the most commonly used control paradigm, Pressure Drop...

  4. Who greens the waves? Changing authority in the environmental governance of shipping and offshore oil and gas production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Leeuwen, J.

    2010-01-01

    The marine environment is under serious pressure from human activities. The transboundary and large-scale nature of these threats require cooperation between states, and between states, industries and NGOs. Marine governance therefore becomes a breeding ground for innovation: multi-level and multi-actor governance and changing spheres of authority. This book applies the concept 'spheres of authority' to investigate the nature of these innovations in governing shipping and offshore oil and gas production. In the environmental governance of shipping, authority is shifting from states that own ships to states that own ports. The environmental governance of offshore oil and gas production shows a shared authority for developing and implementing policies between state and industry, but not a diminishing authority of the state.

  5. Offshore industry executives meet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burns, R.F.

    1993-01-01

    The future of the Gulf of Mexico is tied to the overall future of oil/gas on the international market as it relates to the US. Conquering this last frontier, possibly only through development of technology, was one of the themes covered in the 21st Annual Meeting of the National Ocean Industries Association held in early April, 1993 in Washington, D.C. Oil is the major source for foreign exchange but there are major uncertainties in predicting the future. The swing (imports vs. exports) is two million barrels per day. The big oil users (heavy industry) have reduced consumption. The last big uncertainty is the environmental policies of the West. Development of resources in the Gulf was the third record year in a row in 1992. The potential for hydrocarbon discoveries is significant, a substantial number of new fields have been made and significant discoveries are likely to continue. More than 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lies undiscovered offshore - 35% of undiscovered domestic resources. The oil potential exceeds nine billion barrels, more than any other basin except Alaska

  6. Oil spill response in the marine environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Doerffer, J.W.

    1992-01-01

    The rapid economic development of many countries since World War II has caused a considerable increase in marine transportation of raw materials, especially of crude oils and in offshore activities. However, a significant amount of oil comes into the sea from operational discharges of ships (ballast and bilge water) as well as from incidents such as collisions, groundings and contacts, and offshore exploration and exploitation of oil and gas. These incidents have been the pivotal points in the approach of maritime nations to the protection of the marine environment through international legislation and implementation of rigorous requirements concerning the construction and exploitation of ships and offshore platforms, limiting the possibility and extent of oil spills. A new danger for marine environments has ensued recently though the increasing maritime transport of chemicals. The aim of this book is to introduce these problems, and reflect the level and trends of development in this field. (Author)

  7. Environmental implications of offshore oil and gas development in Australia. The finding of an independent scientific review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Swan, J.M.; Neff, J.M.; Young, P.C.

    1994-01-01

    It is widely recognised that uncontrolled discharge of petroleum products or other materials from offshore oil and gas exploration and production wells, and from associated industrial operations including treatment and service facilities that are required to be on or near the coast, can have direct and sometimes deleterious impacts on the marine environment. In mid-1992, the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association (APEA) commissioned five scientific reviews to examine the environmental implications of offshore petroleum developments in Australia. The reviews, carried out by an Independent Scientific Review Committee on behalf of the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association (APEA) and the Energy Research and Development Corporation (ERDC) deal with: (1) the preliminary geophysical exploration of the sea bed and underlying strata using seismic surveys, and especially the effects of bursts of underwater sound energy on biological communities; (2) the drilling of offshore wells, especially the disposal of drilling fluids and drill cuttings; (3) the production of oil and gas from proven wells, especially the disposal of large quantities of produced formation water (fossil water); (4) the construction and operation of coastal support facilities and associated activities which might have consequences for marine habitats; (5) oil spills associated with any of the above operations and especially the likely short- and long-term effects of an accidental oil spill on marine biota and on the aesthetic and commercial values of an impacted coastline. Comments on the findings are preceded by a brief summary of background information, relevant technologies and the main implications for the marine environment. Some suggestions are provided for possible future research, monitoring and environmental management. refs., figs., tabs

  8. Decommissioning and abandonment of offshore installations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Side, J.C.

    1992-01-01

    To the onlooker surprising little thought was given at the project planning stage to the fate of offshore facilities once their production lifetimes had come to an end. Throughout the 1970s at least, international law required the complete removal of all structures and installations one disused or abandoned. Fishermen's organisations were led to believe that such installations would be entirely removed yet many of the designs of these show that removal was not much in the minds of the engineers or project management during the design stages. Changes in the text of the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea and (by their widespread legal adoption) in customary international law may now permit partial removal of installations subject to important safeguards for navigation, the environment and other users of the sea. Of the North Sea states at least one has adopted policies that will minimise the cost associated with offshore decommissioning and abandonment and both the UK and Norway are adopting legislation which will provide for a case by case approach to the decommissioning and abandonment of offshore facilities and allow partial removal options. There has thus been a recent and significant change in approach to the abandonment of offshore oil and gas installations. This chapter reviews the development of abandonment laws and policies, outlines the available removal options, and provides a consideration of the environmental and fishery implications of these for the North Sea. (Author)

  9. Offshore Wind Energy Market Overview (Presentation)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baring-Gould, I.

    2013-07-01

    This presentation describes the current international market conditions regarding offshore wind, including the breakdown of installation costs, how to reduce costs, and the physical siting considerations considered when planning offshore wind construction. The presentation offers several examples of international existing and planned offshore wind farm sites and compares existing international offshore resources with U.S. resources. The presentation covers future offshore wind trends and cites some challenges that the United States must overcome before it will be able to fully develop offshore wind sites.

  10. The role of offshore tax havens in the international tax system

    OpenAIRE

    Jules Hendriksen

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear and critical overview of the function and role of offshore tax havens in the current tax system. The paper uses a deductive approach and starts from a basic level to gradually work up to deeper insights on the topic. These have been formed by the examination of literature written on tax havens and through research on tax data. On the basis of this research it is argued that offshore tax havens play a contradictory role in the international tax s...

  11. Labour market assessment of the offshore oil and gas industry supply and service sector in Newfoundland and Labrador

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-09-01

    The Petroleum Industry Human Resource Committee (PIHRC) commissioned this study in December 2002 to develop a profile of the labour demand and supply for the upstream production phase of the offshore oil and gas industry. Interviews with representatives from more than 45 countries in the offshore oil and gas sector in Newfoundland and Labrador were conducted. In addition, the results of a mail survey forwarded to an additional 42 companies were included along with a review of secondary labour market research. More than 340 positions were identified in the production phase in the study. Of these, approximately 80 were identified as difficult to recruit for a variety of reasons including: insufficient experience in the oil industry; occupational shortages; short-term or project employment opportunities; very limited employment opportunities and limited occupational supply; lack of specific occupational training programs; and additional projects possibly leading to occupational shortages. The study provided valuable input concerning future labour market and human resource planning and career counselling on the 340 positions previously identified. 10 tabs

  12. Labour market assessment of the offshore oil and gas industry supply and service sector in Newfoundland and Labrador

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2003-09-01

    The Petroleum Industry Human Resource Committee (PIHRC) commissioned this study in December 2002 to develop a profile of the labour demand and supply for the upstream production phase of the offshore oil and gas industry. Interviews with representatives from more than 45 countries in the offshore oil and gas sector in Newfoundland and Labrador were conducted. In addition, the results of a mail survey forwarded to an additional 42 companies were included along with a review of secondary labour market research. More than 340 positions were identified in the production phase in the study. Of these, approximately 80 were identified as difficult to recruit for a variety of reasons including: insufficient experience in the oil industry; occupational shortages; short-term or project employment opportunities; very limited employment opportunities and limited occupational supply; lack of specific occupational training programs; and additional projects possibly leading to occupational shortages. The study provided valuable input concerning future labour market and human resource planning and career counselling on the 340 positions previously identified. 10 tabs.

  13. Ecological and political issues surrounding decommissioning of offshore oil facilities in the Southern California Bight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroeder, Donna M.; Love, Milton S.

    2004-01-01

    To aid legislators, resource managers, and the general public, this paper summarizes and clarifies some of the issues and options that the federal government and the state of California face in decommissioning offshore oil and gas production platforms, particularly as these relate to platform ecology. Both local marine ecology and political climate play a role in decommissioning offshore oil production platforms. Compared to the relatively supportive political climate in the Gulf of Mexico for “rigs-to-reefs” programs, conflicting social values among stakeholders in Southern California increases the need for understanding ecological impacts of various decommissioning alternatives (which range from total removal to allowing some or all of platform structure to remain in the ocean). Additional scientific needs in the decommissioning process include further assessment of platform habitat quality, estimation of regional impacts of decommissioning alternatives to marine populations, and determination of biological effects of any residual contaminants. The principal management need is a ranking of environmental priorities (e.g. species-of-interest and marine habitats). Because considerable numbers of economically important species reside near oil platforms, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries should consider the consequences of decommissioning alternatives in their overall management plans. Management strategies could include designating reefed platforms as marine protected areas. The overarching conclusion from both ecological and political perspectives is that decommissioning decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis.

  14. Climate change, future Arctic Sea ice, and the competitiveness of European Arctic offshore oil and gas production on world markets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petrick, Sebastian; Riemann-Campe, Kathrin; Hoog, Sven; Growitsch, Christian; Schwind, Hannah; Gerdes, Rüdiger; Rehdanz, Katrin

    2017-12-01

    A significant share of the world's undiscovered oil and natural gas resources are assumed to lie under the seabed of the Arctic Ocean. Up until now, the exploitation of the resources especially under the European Arctic has largely been prevented by the challenges posed by sea ice coverage, harsh weather conditions, darkness, remoteness of the fields, and lack of infrastructure. Gradual warming has, however, improved the accessibility of the Arctic Ocean. We show for the most resource-abundant European Arctic Seas whether and how a climate induced reduction in sea ice might impact future accessibility of offshore natural gas and crude oil resources. Based on this analysis we show for a number of illustrative but representative locations which technology options exist based on a cost-minimization assessment. We find that under current hydrocarbon prices, oil and gas from the European offshore Arctic is not competitive on world markets.

  15. Exploring Vietnam's oil potential

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1993-01-01

    A brief review is given of the oil production potential in Vietnam. Since Since 1987, the country has been open to foreign investment in offshore exploration but has suffered from a US embargo on trade and economic ties. Nevertheless some exploration has occurred and twenty production sharing contracts with international oil companies has been signed. To date most of the finds have been non-commercial but optimism remains high. (U.K.)

  16. Energy efficiency measures for offshore oil and gas platforms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen, Tuong-Van; Voldsund, Mari; Breuhaus, Peter; Elmegaard, Brian

    2016-01-01

    Oil and gas platforms are energy-intensive systems – each facility uses from a few to several hundreds MW of energy, depending on the petroleum properties, export specifications and field lifetime. Several technologies for increasing the energy efficiency of these plants are investigated in this work. They include: (i) the installation of multiple pressure levels in production manifolds, (ii) the implementation of multiphase expanders, (iii) the promotion of energy and process integration, (iv) the limitation of gas recirculation around the compressors, (v) the exploitation of low-temperature heat from the gas cooling steps, (vi) the downsizing or replacement of the existing gas turbines, and (vii) the use of the waste heat from the power plant. The present study builds on four actual cases located in the North and Norwegian Seas, which differ by the type of oil processed, operating conditions and strategies. The benefits and practical limitations of each measure are discussed based on thermodynamic, economic and environmental factors. Significant energy savings and reductions in CO_2-emissions are depicted, reaching up to 15–20%. However, they strongly differ from one facility to another, which suggests that generic improvements can hardly be proposed, and that thorough techno-economic analyses should be conducted for each plant. - Highlights: • Energy efficiency measures for offshore platforms are assessed. • Energy savings and reductions in CO_2-emissions can reach up to 15-20%. • They differ strongly depending on the oil type, operating conditions and strategies.

  17. Dynamic performance of power generation systems for off-shore oil and gas platforms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pierobon, Leonardo; Breuhaus, Peter; Haglind, Fredrik

    2014-01-01

    %) arises on the prediction of the rotational speed of the high pressure shaft, while the largest deviation (average relative error ~20%) occurs in the evaluation of the pressure at the outlet of the low pressure turbine. As waste heat recovery units (e.g. organic Rankine cycles) are likely...... to be implemented in future off-shore platforms, the proposed model may serve in the design phase for a preliminary assessment of the dynamic response of the power generation system and to evaluate if requirements such as minimum and maximum frequency during transient operation and the recovery time are satisfied......On off-shore oil and gas platforms two or more gas turbines typically support the electrical demand on site by operating as a stand-alone (island) power system. As reliability and availability are major concerns during operation, the dynamic performance of the power generation system becomes...

  18. Field development planning for an offshore extra heavy oil in the Gulf of Mexico

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hernandez-Garcia, G.; Anguiano-Rojas, J. [PEMEX Exploration and Production, Mexico City (Mexico)

    2009-07-01

    This paper presented a phased development strategy for an offshore extra-heavy oil development located in the Gulf of Mexico. The Ayatsil-1 oil field is located in an upper Cretaceous brecciated formation. One of the primary concerns of the project is the infrastructure that is needed to handle low reservoir temperatures and high viscosity, low gravity API oil. A delineation well was drilled in order to confirm the areal extension of the reservoir. The field contains an estimated 3.1 billion barrels of oil-in-place. The project will involve the installation of fixed platforms and production platforms. Electric submersible pumps (ESPs) and multiphase pumps will be used to transport the oil from between 17 to 25 wells. Analyses were conducted to determine transport mechanisms as well as gathering networks in both stationary and transitory regimes. The viscosity of live and dead oil in the reservoirs must be accurately measured in relation to temperature in order to define the artificial systems that will be used to reduce viscosity. Results from several studies will be used to determine the feasibility of various chemical, thermal, and diluent applications. 6 refs., 3 figs.

  19. Dynamic international oil markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    van der Linde, C.

    1992-01-01

    Dynamic International Oil Market Developments and Structure 1860-1990 discusses the logic of changing market structures of the international oil industry. The market structures have, in the course of time, oscillated between competition and oligopoly, as the oil market expanded, matured, stagnated, and expanded again. This book provides a dynamic interpretation of the intensifying struggle among producer, and consumer governments, and oil companies, over the distribution of economic rents and profits. In particular, it shows the shifting fortunes of the governments and companies as they try to control the recurring capacity constraints between the upstream and downstream sectors, generated by the instability of the oil market. The first part of the book examines market conditions and developments between 1860 and 1990; the second part analyzes market structures after 1945

  20. Operational management of offshore energy assets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolios, A. J.; Martinez Luengo, M.

    2016-02-01

    Energy assets and especially those deployed offshore are subject to a variety of harsh operational and environmental conditions which lead to deterioration of their performance and structural capacity over time. The aim of reduction of CAPEX in new installations shifts focus to operational management to monitor and assess performance of critical assets ensuring their fitness for service throughout their service life and also to provide appropriate and effective information towards requalification or other end of life scenarios, optimizing the OPEX. Over the last decades, the offshore oil & gas industry has developed and applied various approaches in operational management of assets through Structural Health and Condition Monitoring (SHM/CM) systems which can be, at a certain level, transferable to offshore renewable installations. This paper aims to highlight the key differences between offshore oil & gas and renewable energy assets from a structural integrity and reliability perspective, provide a comprehensive overview of different approaches that are available and applicable, and distinguish the benefits of such systems in the efficient operation of offshore energy assets.

  1. Dynamic Analysis of Offshore Oil Pipe Installation Using the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Jimmy D; Madsen, Søren B; Hyldahl, Per Christian

    2013-01-01

    The Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation (ANCF) has shown promising results in dynamic analysis of structures that undergo large deformation. The method relaxes the assumption of infinitesimal rotations. Being based in a fixed inertial reference frame leads to a constant mass matrix and zero......, are included to mimic the external forces acting on the pipe during installation. The scope of this investigation is to demonstrate the ability using the ANCF to analyze the dynamic behavior of an offshore oil pipe during installation...

  2. The role of offshore tax havens in the international tax system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jules Hendriksen

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear and critical overview of the function and role of offshore tax havens in the current tax system. The paper uses a deductive approach and starts from a basic level to gradually work up to deeper insights on the topic. These have been formed by the examination of literature written on tax havens and through research on tax data. On the basis of this research it is argued that offshore tax havens play a contradictory role in the international tax system. The offshore industry is a product of the current tax system and makes up an integrated component of the economy. Yet simultaneously tax havens counteract against the basic principles and aims of the tax system. | "O papel dos paraísos fiscais offshore no sistema fiscal internacional". O objetivo deste artigo é fornecer uma visão clara e crítica da função e do papel dos paraísos fiscais offshore no sistema fiscal atual. O artigo usa uma abordagem dedutiva e começa a partir de um nível básico para, gradualmente, desenvolver visões aprofundadas sobre o tema. Estas foram formadas pela análise da literatura sobre os paraísos fiscais e através da investigação sobre dados fiscais. Com base nessa pesquisa, argumenta-se que os paraísos fiscais offshore desempenham um papel contraditório no sistema fiscal internacional. A indústria offshore é um produto do sistema fiscal atual e constitui um componente integrado da economia. Contudo, os paraísos fiscais contrapõem, simultaneamente, os princípios e objetivos básicos do sistema fiscal.

  3. Offshore risk assessment

    CERN Document Server

    Vinnem, Jan-Erik

    2014-01-01

      Offshore Risk Assessment was the first book to deal with quantified risk assessment (QRA) as applied specifically to offshore installations and operations. Risk assessment techniques have been used for more than three decades in the offshore oil and gas industry, and their use is set to expand increasingly as the industry moves into new areas and faces new challenges in older regions.   This updated and expanded third edition has been informed by a major R&D program on offshore risk assessment in Norway and summarizes research from 2006 to the present day. Rooted with a thorough discussion of risk metrics and risk analysis methodology,  subsequent chapters are devoted to analytical approaches to escalation, escape, evacuation and rescue analysis of safety and emergency systems.   Separate chapters analyze the main hazards of offshore structures: fire, explosion, collision, and falling objects as well as structural and marine hazards. Risk mitigation and control are discussed, as well as an illustrat...

  4. Environmental Regulation of Offshore (E&P Waste Management in Nigeria: How Effective?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anwuli Irene Ofuani

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available The advancement of technology has led to the rapid development of the offshore oil and gas industry and a corresponding increase in the amount of wastes generated from the industry. These wastes must be properly managed so as to curtail their potential to negatively affect human health and the environment. As a result, environmental regulation of offshore oil and gas operations is becoming more stringent worldwide. The Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria (EGASPIN were issued to ensure that oil and gas industry operators do not degrade the environment in the course of their operations in Nigeria. Nonetheless, more attention has been focused on the economic aspects of offshore oil and gas industry rather than environmental aspects such as waste management. This article examines the legal aspects of offshore oil and gas waste management in Nigeria. It assesses the effectiveness of the mechanisms for the management of offshore E&P wastes in Nigeria as provided under EGASPIN in relation to other jurisdictions.

  5. Including impacts of particulate emissions on marine ecosystems in life cycle assessment: the case of offshore oil and gas production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veltman, Karin; Huijbregts, Mark A J; Rye, Henrik; Hertwich, Edgar G

    2011-10-01

    Life cycle assessment is increasingly used to assess the environmental performance of fossil energy systems. Two of the dominant emissions of offshore oil and gas production to the marine environment are the discharge of produced water and drilling waste. Although environmental impacts of produced water are predominantly due to chemical stressors, a major concern regarding drilling waste discharge is the potential physical impact due to particles. At present, impact indicators for particulate emissions are not yet available in life cycle assessment. Here, we develop characterization factors for 2 distinct impacts of particulate emissions: an increased turbidity zone in the water column and physical burial of benthic communities. The characterization factor for turbidity is developed analogous to characterization factors for toxic impacts, and ranges from 1.4 PAF (potentially affected fraction) · m(3) /d/kg(p) (kilogram particulate) to 7.0 x 10³ [corrected] for drilling mud particles discharged from the rig. The characterization factor for burial describes the volume of sediment that is impacted by particle deposition on the seafloor and equals 2.0 × 10(-1) PAF · m(3) /d/kg(p) for cutting particles. This characterization factor is quantified on the basis of initial deposition layer characteristics, such as height and surface area, the initial benthic response, and the recovery rate. We assessed the relevance of including particulate emissions in an impact assessment of offshore oil and gas production. Accordingly, the total impact on the water column and on the sediment was quantified based on emission data of produced water and drilling waste for all oil and gas fields on the Norwegian continental shelf in 2008. Our results show that cutting particles contribute substantially to the total impact of offshore oil and gas production on marine sediments, with a relative contribution of 55% and 31% on the regional and global scale, respectively. In contrast, the

  6. The offshore petroleum industry: The formative years, 1945-1962

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kreidler, Tai Deckner

    1997-12-01

    This dissertation is the first to examine the offshore oil industry that was born in the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It describes the industry's origins and tracks its development as a consequence of a search for new oil frontiers. In addition, it elaborates how the oil industry moved into the marine province using available technology, and was driven by the economic urgency to compete and develop new territories. Enterprising drilling contractors and operators seized the offshore gamble, finding it possible to lower the economic and technological threshold by drawing directly from wartime research and surplus equipment. Though large oil companies had placed its indelible stamp upon the industry, the smaller, independent oil operators set the pace of early offshore development. As a technological frontier, offshore development depended upon creative and unconventional engineering. Unfamiliar marine conditions tested the imagination of oil industry engineering. The unorthodox methods of John Hayward of Barnsdall Oil and R. G. LeTourneau of LeTourneau, Inc. among others transformed the industry by blending petroleum and marine engineering. Grappling with alien marine conditions and lacking formal training, Hayward and LeTourneau merged a century of practical oil field knowledge and petroleum engineering with 2,000 years of shipbuilding experience. The Gulf of Mexico served as a fertile and protective environment for the development of a fledgling industry. With calm waters, lacking the tempestuous and stormy character of the Atlantic Ocean, with a gradual sea-floor slope and saturated with the highly productive salt dome reservoirs, the Gulf became the birth place of the modern offshore oil industry. Within its protective sphere, companies experimented and developed various technical and business adaptations. Operators used technology and business strategies that increased the opportunity for success. In addition, regional academic research institutes arose as

  7. Rarefaction Shock Wave Cutter for Offshore Oil-Gas Platform Removal Final Report CRADA No. TC02009.0

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Glenn, L. A. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Barker, J. [Halliburton Energy Services, Alvarado, TX (United States)

    2017-09-06

    This was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) (formerly the University of California) and Jet Research Center, a wholly owned division of Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. to design and prototype an improved explosive cutter for cutting the support legs of offshore oil and gas platforms.

  8. Risk-based Reliability Assessment of Subsea Control module for Offshore Oil and Gas production

    OpenAIRE

    Umofia, Anietie Nnana

    2014-01-01

    Offshore oil and gas exploitation is principally conducted using dry or wet tree systems, otherwise called the subsea Xmas tree system. Due to the shift to deeper waters, subsea production system (SPS) has come to be a preferred technology with attendant economic benefits. At the centre of the SPS is the subsea control module (SCM), responsible for the proper functioning and monitoring of the entire system. With increasing search for hydrocarbons in deep and ultra-deepwaters...

  9. Identification of microorganisms associated with corrosion of offshore oil production systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sørensen, Ketil; Grigoryan, Aleksandr; Holmkvist, Lars; Skovhus, Torben; Thomsen, Uffe; Lundgaard, Thomas

    2010-05-01

    Microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) poses a major challenge to oil producers and distributors. The annual cost associated with MIC-related pipeline failures and general maintenance and surveillance of installations amounts to several billion dollar in the oil production sector alone. Hence, large efforts are undertaken by some producers to control and monitor microbial growth in pipelines and other installations, and extensive surveillance programs are carried out in order to detect and quantify potential MIC-promoting microorganisms. Traditionally, efforts to mitigate and survey microbial growth in oil production systems have focused on sulfate-reducing Bacteria (SRB), and microorganisms have usually been enumerated by the culture-dependent MPN (most probable number) -technique. Culture-independent molecular tools yielding much more detailed information about the microbial communities have now been implemented as a reliable tool for routine surveillance of oil production systems in the North Sea. This has resulted in new and hitherto unattainable information regarding the distribution of different microorganisms in hot reservoirs and associated oil production systems. This presentation will provide a review of recent insights regarding thermophilic microbial communities and their implication for steel corrosion in offshore oil production systems. Data collected from solids and biofilms in different corroded pipelines and tubes indicate that in addition to SRB, other groups such as methanogens and sulfate-reducing Archaea (SRA) are also involved in MIC. In the hot parts of the system where the temperature approaches 80 ⁰C, SRA closely related to Archaeoglobus fulgidus outnumber SRB by several orders of magnitude. Methanogens affiliated with the genus Methanothermococcus were shown to completely dominate the microbial community at the metal surface in a sample of highly corroded piping. Thus, the microbial communities associated with MIC appear to be more

  10. Inadequate environmental monitoring around offshore oil and gas platforms on the Grand Bank of Eastern Canada: are risks to marine birds known?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burke, C M; Montevecchi, W A; Wiese, F K

    2012-08-15

    Petroleum exploration and production on the Grand Bank of eastern Canada overlaps with productive marine habitat that supports over 40 million marine birds annually. Environmental assessments for oil and gas projects in the region predict insignificant adverse effects on marine birds from oil spills, incineration in platform flares and collisions. Limited baseline data on seasonal occupancies and a failure to quantify the nature and extent of marine bird attraction to platforms and related mortality undermines these assessments. We conducted 22 surveys to offshore platforms on the Grand Bank during 1999-2003 to measure avian associations with platforms and to determine the level of monitoring needed to assess the risks to marine birds. We document seasonal shifts in marine bird occurrences and higher densities of auks (fall) and shearwaters (summer) around platforms relative to surrounding areas. The limited temporal and spatial coverage of our surveys is more robust than existing industry monitoring efforts, yet it is still inadequate to quantify the scale of marine bird associations with platforms or their associated mortality risks. Systematic observations by independent biologists on vessels and platforms are needed to generate reliable assessments of risks to marine birds. Instead, the regulatory body for offshore oil and gas in eastern Canada (Canada - Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board; C-NLOPB) supports industry self-reporting as the accepted form of environmental monitoring. Conflicting responsibilities of oil and gas regulatory agencies for both energy development and environmental monitoring are major barriers to transparency, unbiased scientific inquiry and adequate environmental protection. Similar conflicts with the oil and gas regulatory body in the United States, the former Minerals and Management Service (MMS) were identified by the U.S. President as a major contributor to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The

  11. The value of flexibility in offshore oil field development projects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lund, Morten Wattengaard

    1997-12-31

    Offshore oil field development projects often face substantial uncertainties and the operator`s ability to take corrective actions is very important. The main objective of this thesis was to identify the value of flexibility in such projects. Estimates obtained from exploratory wells can be dependent through common information. The effect of stochastic dependence was illustrated by an analytical model, where the dependence was expressed in terms of correlation between estimate errors. It was found that a high degree of correlation might distort the benefit of additional exploration. A prototype that covered the major phases of the project was developed to study the value of flexibility. The prototype was a Markov decision process, solved by stochastic dynamic programming. Based on discussions with Norwegian oil companies, three uncertain variables were addressed: the reservoir volume, the well rate, and the oil price. Simple descriptions were used to mimic the uncertainty. The reservoir was thus depicted as a tank model, and the well rate and oil prices were assumed to follow Markov processes. Flexibility was restricted to managerial as opposed to financial flexibility. Application of the prototype to a case study, based on an ongoing field development, showed that flexibility might be of considerable value to the project. In particular, capacity flexibility and initiation flexibility were identified as important aspects of the development. The results also emphasized the importance of a joint assessment, as the values of different flexibility types are not additive. In conclusion, the proposed model motivates further development of the decision support system presently available. Future decision making should therefore be made within a framework that gives consideration to flexibility. 129 refs., 46 figs., 23 tabs.

  12. Technology keeps ice away from offshore oil and gas installations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anon

    2003-05-01

    Ice management services provided to oil and natural gas operators off Canada's North Atlantic coast by Provincial Airlines is described. Provincial Airlines performs iceberg reconnaissance for both the offshore oil and natural gas operators as well as for the Canadian Ice Centre, using its specially equipped B-200 aircraft. The special equipment includes a complete electronic sensor package with 360-degree anti-submarine warfare radar, a thermal imaging system, high powered gyro-stabilized TV camera system, and a computerized data collection and management system. The Ice Data Network System (IDNS) is a fifth generation computer software package designed to monitor ice, provide drift analysis and forecast future trajectories, assess potential threats or risks associated with each piece of ice, and monitor and evaluate towing operations if required. The IDNS is backed up by a fully staffed ice operations centre from which Provincial Airline ice specialists can access satellite data and reports on ice conditions from around the world. Using a process of data fusion and careful analysis, staff of the Ice Centre can produce near-real time reports that depict ice conditions specific to individual operational requirements. Since drilling platforms cannot move, or require a great deal of time to move, to avoid any risk of an iceberg colliding with an oil platform it is important to know where exactly an iceberg is at any given time, hence the enormous importance of iceberg location information.

  13. Impact of the oil price and fiscal facilities on offshore mining at the Dutch Continental Shelf

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cate, Arie ten; Mulder, Machiel

    2007-01-01

    The surge in the oil price has raised questions about the magnitude of global reserves of oil. According to some analysts, the current high oil prices indicate a looming decline in the global production of oil. Others believe, however, that the increased level of the oil price encourages exploration and production activities, bringing the oil price to a lower equilibrium level in the near future. In this paper, we assess the impact of the unit profit (depending on the oil price) as well as fiscal facilities on the level of exploration and development drillings in the Dutch Continental Shelf. We conducted an econometric analysis of exploration and development drillings in the Dutch Continental Shelf over the period 1981-2003. Except a few fiscal changes, the regulatory framework for offshore activities in the Netherlands, the so-called 'small fields policy' was unchanged in this period. We find that the expected unit profit based on a moving average of the oil price significantly explains the level of both exploration and development drillings. In addition, the analysis suggests that fiscal facilities have only a temporary effect on exploration activities but are more important for development activities. We conclude that the oil price is a major economic incentive for activities of the mining industry

  14. Impacts of offshore oil industry on the marine biota and mitigating measures; Impactos das atividades offshore da industria do petroleo sobre a comunidade biologica marinha e as medidas mitigadoras

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cotta, Patricia S. [PETROBRAS, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Unidade de Negocio SMS

    2004-07-01

    The growth of industrialization is generating an increase in environmental change, mainly in the marine environment.The petroleum industry is performing a great search for petroleum fields resulting in a transference from land activity to the sea and to deeper water layers (offshore). The offshore exploration in Brazil corresponds to 80% of the national petroleum production. This increasing production is raising questions about the impacts caused by its activities on aquatic biological communities. The potentially impactant activities of the petroleum industry are oil exploration, drilling and production. To mitigate and to accompany the potential environment impacts of its activities, the petroleum industry is implementing environmental monitoring projects whose guidelines directives are established by the responsible environmental agency. These projects aim at accompanying the effects of the continuos discharge of effluents on the local oceanic ecosystem through environmental characterization before, during and after the production activities, physical and chemical characterizations of sea water, qualitative and quantitative analyses of the biological monitoring, accompaniment of the environmental conditions during all oil rig activity and characterization of produced water, through physical, chemical and eco toxicological assays. (author)

  15. Development of a product screening protocol to minimize marine environmental impacts of oil production chemicals used offshore

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vik, E.A.; Berg, J.D.; Bakke, S.; Oefjord, G.D.; Reinhard, M.

    1992-01-01

    This paper presents the initial results of a research project initiated by Conoco Norway, Inc. (CNI) late in 1989. The objective of the project is to develop a screening protocol for determining the potential environmental impacts of five types of chemicals typically used in offshore oil and gas production operations in the North Sea. The protocol includes tests for determination of bioaccumulation potential, oil-water distribution factor, biodegradation potential, and toxicity. When fully developed, the protocol represents one possible approach to implementing the proposed PARCOM standard testing program. Only the results for the bioaccumulation potential and oil-water distribution factor are presented here. For determination of bioaccumulation potential, the High Performance Liquid Chromotography (HPLC) is recommended. The oil-water distribution factor can be determined by surrogate parameters as total organic carbon (TOC), UV-absorption or gas chromatography (GC). (Author)

  16. Potential impacts of offshore oil spills on polar bears in the Chukchi Sea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Ryan R; Perham, Craig; French-McCay, Deborah P; Balouskus, Richard

    2018-04-01

    Sea ice decline is anticipated to increase human access to the Arctic Ocean allowing for offshore oil and gas development in once inaccessible areas. Given the potential negative consequences of an oil spill on marine wildlife populations in the Arctic, it is important to understand the magnitude of impact a large spill could have on wildlife to inform response planning efforts. In this study we simulated oil spills that released 25,000 barrels of oil for 30 days in autumn originating from two sites in the Chukchi Sea (one in Russia and one in the U.S.) and tracked the distribution of oil for 76 days. We then determined the potential impact such a spill might have on polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and their habitat by overlapping spills with maps of polar bear habitat and movement trajectories. Only a small proportion (1-10%) of high-value polar bear sea ice habitat was directly affected by oil sufficient to impact bears. However, 27-38% of polar bears in the region were potentially exposed to oil. Oil consistently had the highest probability of reaching Wrangel and Herald islands, important areas of denning and summer terrestrial habitat. Oil did not reach polar bears until approximately 3 weeks after the spills. Our study found the potential for significant impacts to polar bears under a worst case discharge scenario, but suggests that there is a window of time where effective containment efforts could minimize exposure to bears. Our study provides a framework for wildlife managers and planners to assess the level of response that would be required to treat exposed wildlife and where spill response equipment might be best stationed. While the size of spill we simulated has a low probability of occurring, it provides an upper limit for planners to consider when crafting response plans. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  17. Device for retaining oil gushing out in an uncontrolled fashion from offshore platforms. [German patent

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hambrock, H J

    1978-11-23

    The spread of oil which emerges on a water surface in case of a fault is to be prevented and its removal is to be made possible by a sort of floating fence. This type of oil barrier is formed by a blown up, floating hose on the water surface which may be filled with plastic foam. It surrounds the centrally placed possible place of emergence of the oil in a circle, this may be an offshore platform or a stationary tanker. The concentric position is ensured by radially tensioned ropes. The protective ring can normally be pulled in (above all during bad weather) and need only be expanded for a short time in case of a fault. In order to prevent oil collected inside the protective ring being washed under or over it by the wind or waves, a circular attachment in the form of a collar can be blown up in the upward direction, and a similar apron hanging downwards loaded with weights may be provided.

  18. International Production and Global Logistics Operations : Management Issues in Global Logistics with Offshored Production Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Korrmann, Franziska

    2011-01-01

    This paper is directed at discussing some of the management issues, problems and solutions of logistics in the context of offshored productive activities The introduction includes a discussion of the logistics topics and an introduction of the economic logic of offshoring. The main part analyses the logistics topics with regard to the internationally fragmented production. The topics of logistics include: Information flow and integration, transportation, inventory management, warehousing and ...

  19. Offshoring Process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Slepniov, Dmitrij; Sørensen, Brian Vejrum; Katayama, Hiroshi

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to the knowledge on how production offshoring and international operations management vary across cultural contexts. The chapter attempts to shed light on how companies approach the process of offshoring in different cultural contexts. In order...... of globalisation. Yet there are clear differences in how offshoring is conducted in Denmark and Japan. The main differences are outlined in a framework and explained employing cultural variables. The findings lead to a number of propositions suggesting that the process of offshoring is not simply a uniform...... technical-rational calculation of the most efficient organisation of activities across national borders, but it is rather specific to the parent companies’ national contexts....

  20. Introduction of a compressed air breathing apparatus for the offshore oil and gas industry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brooks, Chris J; MacDonald, Conor V; Carroll, Joel; Gibbs, Peter N G

    2010-07-01

    When a helicopter ditches the majority of crew and passengers have to make an underwater escape. Some may not be able to hold their breath and will drown. For at least 15 yr, military aircrew have been trained to use a scuba system. In the offshore oil and gas industry, there has been more caution about introducing a compressed air system and a rebreather system has been introduced as an alternative. Recently, Canadian industry and authorities approved the introduction of Helicopter Underwater Emergency Breathing Apparatus (HUEBA) training using compressed air. This communication reports the training of the first 1000 personnel. Training was introduced in both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland concurrently by the same group of instructors. Trainees filled out a questionnaire concerning their perceived ratings of the ease or difficulty of classroom training and the practical use of the HUEBA. Ninety-eight percent of trainees found the classroom and in-water training to be "good/very good". Trainees found it to be "easy/very easy" to clear the HUEBA and breathe underwater in 84% and 64% of cases, respectively. Divers reported a greater ease in learning all the practical uses of the HUEBA except application of the nose clip. There were problems with the nose clip fitting incorrectly, and interference of the survival suit hood with the regulator, which subsequently have been resolved. When carefully applied, the introduction of the HUEBA into training for offshore oil and gas industry helicopter crew and passengers can be safely conducted.

  1. Subsea prizes : companies pushing the envelope offshore

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Macedo, R.

    2009-06-15

    In order to make projects economic, companies are going farther offshore and deeper to find oil and gas or to use existing offshore platforms and longer horizontals. Companies such as StatoilHydro are reworking strategies on how to approach future oil finds. This article discussed examples of ultra deep and long horizontal oil finds such as Statoil's complicated but highly successful Gulltopp project. Although drilling ultra-deep wells or long horizontal wells is risky, they can also be very lucrative. The article also discussed McMoRan Exploration Company of New Orleans' high-risk deeper targets in the Gulf of Mexico and its exploration strategy. The longest well in the world, drilled by Maersk Oil Qatar AS was also described. The article noted that the Danish company reported that the entire horizontal section of the well was placed within a reservoir target which was only 20 feet thick. Schlumberger helped Maersk Oil Qatar break several records with extended reach drilling (ERD) offshore well. This well set 10 records, including the longest well ever drilled; longest along-hole departure; longest 8 and a half inch section; highest ERD ratio; highest directional drilling difficulty index; deepest directional control; deepest downlink, MWD transmission and LWD geosteering; deepest battery-less operation; longest reservoir contact; and longest open hole. Last, the article discussed an unsuccessful well drilled by Murphy Oil Corporation known as the Manhattan well. 8 figs.

  2. Thermal performance analysis of Brayton cycle with waste heat recovery boiler for diesel engines of offshore oil production facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Xianglong; Gong, Guangcai; Wu, Yi; Li, Hangxin

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Comparison of Brayton cycle with WHRB adopted in diesel engines with and without fans by thermal performance. • Waste heat recovery technology for FPSO. • The thermoeconomic analysis for the heat recovery for FPSO. - Abstract: This paper presents the theoretical analysis and on-site testing on the thermal performance of the waste heat recovery system for offshore oil production facilities, including the components of diesel engines, thermal boilers and waste heat boilers. We use the ideal air standard Brayton cycle to analyse the thermal performance. In comparison with the traditional design, the fans at the engine outlet of the waste heat recovery boiler is removed due to the limited space of the offshore platform. The cases with fan and without fan are compared in terms of thermal dynamics performance, energy efficiency and thermo-economic index of the system. The results show that the application of the WHRB increases the energy efficiency of the whole system, but increases the flow resistance in the duct. It is proved that as the waste heat recovery boiler takes the place of the thermal boiler, the energy efficiency of whole system without fan is slightly reduced but heat recovery efficiency is improved. This research provides an important guidance to improve the waste heat recovery for offshore oil production facilities.

  3. Gela offshore field

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pagliughi, G

    1965-06-01

    The field of Gela, off the southern shore of Sicily, is the only producing offshore field in the Mediterranean. It produces from Triassic dolimite limestones of 434-m thickness, water level at -3517 m. It is a water-drive reservoir producing 10/sup 0/F API oil and has 79 wells, some of them on shore. Most offshore wells are directional wells from shore; there are also 2 fixed platforms and a special mobile platform. The wells are on pump (stroke, 72 in.; capacity 200 tons per day). The crude goes directly to a combination refinery-petrochemical complex at Gela.

  4. CO_2-mitigation options for the offshore oil and gas sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen, Tuong-Van; Tock, Laurence; Breuhaus, Peter; Maréchal, François; Elmegaard, Brian

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • The possibilities for reducing offshore CO_2-emissions, by CO_2-capture, waste heat recovery and electrification are assessed. • Multi-objective optimisation, process modelling, economic and environmental analyses are used for evaluating system designs. • A reduction of more than 15% of the total CO_2-emissions can be achieved for the present case study. • High sensitivity of the avoidance costs to the natural gas price and CO_2-tax. - Abstract: The offshore extraction of oil and gas is an energy-intensive process leading to the production of CO_2 and methane, discharged into the atmosphere, and of chemicals, rejected into the sea. The taxation of these emissions, in Norway, has encouraged the development of more energy-efficient and environmental-friendly solutions, of which three are assessed in this paper: (i) the implementation of waste heat recovery, (ii) the installation of a CO_2-capture unit and (iii) the platform electrification. A North Sea platform is taken as case study, and these three options are modelled, analysed and compared, using thermodynamic, economic and environmental indicators. The results indicate the benefits of all these options, as the total CO_2-emissions can be reduced by more than 15% in all cases, while the avoidance costs vary widely and are highly sensitive to the natural gas price and CO_2-tax.

  5. Construction of VLCC marine oil storage cost index system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yuan; Li, Yule; Lu, Jinshu; Wu, Wenfeng; Zhu, Faxin; Chen, Tian; Qin, Beichen

    2018-04-01

    VLCC as the research object, the basic knowledge of VLCC is summarized. According to the phenomenon that VLCC is applied to offshore oil storage gradually, this paper applies the theoretical analysis method to analyze the excess capacity from VLCC, the drop of oil price, the aging VLCC is more suitable for offshore storage The paper analyzes the reason of VLCC offshore oil storage from three aspects, analyzes the cost of VLCC offshore storage from the aspects of manpower cost and shipping cost, and constructs the cost index system of VLCC offshore oil storage.

  6. Archer Fire and Safety - reducing risk in the offshore

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Todd, K

    2000-06-01

    Protecting the lives and safety of offshore oil and gas workers is the business of Newfoundland-based Archer Fire and Safety. Originally established as a supplier of industrial materials focusing on the oil and gas industry, the company narrowed its focus in 1996 to fire and safety protection, introduced more specialized fire and safety equipment, and began to explore service opportunities to the industry in addition to the usual consumables. After some anxious few years, the company now operates two SCBA service centres in Newfoundland, in addition to sales and servicing a wide range of fire and safety equipment such as gas, flame and heat detection.The company is constantly on the lookout for new opportunities and has developed a computer-based pricing system which enables them to provide quick response to pricing inquiries, a big advantage in an industry with relatively unsophisticated business practices. The company's emphasis on research and quick response capability enabled the company to anticipate future requirements and to land major contracts first at Bull Arm, and later on the Terra Nova Project. Its reputation for best-in-class products, high quality service and a business-like approach helped to attract other clients such as Terra Nova Alliance, Canship and Schlumberger, and offshore drilling companies like Glomar International and TransOcean Sedco-Forex, with further opportunities in the offing with upcoming projects such as the White Rose and Hebron.Today about 60 per cent of the business is offshore related.

  7. Archer Fire and Safety - reducing risk in the offshore

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Todd, K.

    2000-06-01

    Protecting the lives and safety of offshore oil and gas workers is the business of Newfoundland-based Archer Fire and Safety. Originally established as a supplier of industrial materials focusing on the oil and gas industry, the company narrowed its focus in 1996 to fire and safety protection, introduced more specialized fire and safety equipment, and began to explore service opportunities to the industry in addition to the usual consumables. After some anxious few years, the company now operates two SCBA service centres in Newfoundland, in addition to sales and servicing a wide range of fire and safety equipment such as gas, flame and heat detection.The company is constantly on the lookout for new opportunities and has developed a computer-based pricing system which enables them to provide quick response to pricing inquiries, a big advantage in an industry with relatively unsophisticated business practices. The company's emphasis on research and quick response capability enabled the company to anticipate future requirements and to land major contracts first at Bull Arm, and later on the Terra Nova Project. Its reputation for best-in-class products, high quality service and a business-like approach helped to attract other clients such as Terra Nova Alliance, Canship and Schlumberger, and offshore drilling companies like Glomar International and TransOcean Sedco-Forex, with further opportunities in the offing with upcoming projects such as the White Rose and Hebron.Today about 60 per cent of the business is offshore related.

  8. Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board annual report, 1992-1993

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-06-01

    The Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board was established as the agency responsible for the regulation of the hydrocarbon resources in the Nova Scotia offshore. The Board evaluates resource potential, administers petroleum exploration and production rights, approves offshore activities, and approves benefits and development plans. The main activities of the Board in 1992-1993 are summarized and financial statements are presented. Highlights include production of 572,300 m 3 of oil during the first production season of LASMO Nova Scotia Ltd.'s Cohasset development, the first commercial offshore oil production for Canada; four major resource evaluation projects in the Glenelg Field, the Laurentian sub-basin, the Fundy Rift Basin, and the Panuke Field; holding of discussions between Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Canada on the maritime boundary lines between respective offshore petroleum board jurisdictions, in the wake of a June 1992 determination of the disputed maritime boundary around St. Pierre et Miquelon; and amendments of certain safety-related legislation applicable to offshore operations. Employment benefits of the Cohasset project during 1992 totalled ca 470 Nova Scotians and 120 other Canadians. 3 tabs

  9. Seabird data collected by the Grand Banks offshore hydrocarbon industry 1999-2002 : results, limitations and suggestions for improvement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baillie, S.M.; Robertson, G.J.; Wiese, F.K.

    2005-01-01

    Offshore oil operations attract and concentrate migratory seabirds through an artificially enhanced food supply and lights. In order to understand the vulnerability of seabirds near offshore oil facilities, the degree of association of seabirds with these sites must be determined. Offshore oil and gas exploration on Newfoundland's Grand Banks began in the early 1980s, with first oil produced in 1997 at the Hibernia fixed platform. Additional production followed in 2002 from the Terra Nova Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessel. As the Grand Banks oil industry grows, seismic surveys continue to be conducted and an estimated 30,000 litres of crude oil and synthetic based drilling fluids have been spilled from exploration drilling, development drilling and production oil operations between 1997 and 2002. Most of the spills occurred in winter when the number of seabirds on the Grand Banks are highest and most vulnerable to oil pollution. This report presents an evaluation of the current Grand Banks offshore oil and gas development seabird monitoring programs. It focuses mostly on seabird monitoring on fixed platforms. The objective was to assess the scientific quality of seabird-related industry programs by compiling and summarizing all available spatial and temporal seabird abundance data and deck stranded birds associated with Grand Banks offshore oil platforms from 1997 to 2002. Data on seabird distributions at sea and stranded bird encounters was collected from 8 offshore hydrocarbon sites on the northeastern Grand Banks. It was recommended that a standardized seabird monitoring and observer training program for the offshore operations in the Grand Banks region be implemented. 43 refs., 5 tabs., 16 figs., 3 appendices

  10. Electrical Power Supply to Offshore Oil Installations by High Voltage Direct Current Transmission

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Myhre, Joergen Chr.

    2001-07-01

    This study was initiated to investigate if it could be feasible to supply offshore oil installations in the North Sea with electrical power from land. A prestudy of alternative converter topologies indicated that the most promising solution would be to investigate a conventional system with reduced synchronous compensator rating. The study starts with a summary of the state of power supply to offshore installations today, and a short review of classical HVDC transmission. It goes on to analyse how a passive network without sources influences the inverter. The transmission, with its current controlled rectifier and large inductance, is simulated as a current source. Under these circumstances the analysis shows that the network frequency has to adapt in order to keep the active and reactive power balance until the controllers are able to react. The concept of firing angle for a thyristor is limited in a system with variable frequency, the actual control parameter is the firing delay time. Sensitivity analysis showed some astonishing consequences. The frequency rises both by an increase in the active and in the reactive load. The voltage falls by an increase in the active load, but rises by an increase in the inductive load. Two different control principles for the system of inverter, synchronous compensator and load are defined. The first takes the reference for the firing delay time from the fundamental voltage at the point of common coupling. The second takes the reference for the firing delay time from the simulated EMF of the synchronous compensator. Of these, the second is the more stable and should be chosen as the basis for a possible control system. Two simulation tools are applied. The first is a quasi-phasor model running on Matlab with Simulink. The other is a time domain model in KREAN. The time domain model is primarily used for the verification of the quasi-phasor model, and shows that quasi-phasors is still a valuable tool for making a quick analysis

  11. Review of environmental research and policy with regard to oil and gas extraction on the Dutch continental shelf

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    de Krieger, M.

    1991-01-01

    During the past 25 years huge investments have enabled the development of a very busy offshore industry in the North Sea area. International environmental policy regulations for this type of activity are given by the Paris Commission and by International Conferences on the Protection of the North Sea. The North Sea Directorate of Rijkswaterstaat in the Netherlands is responsible for the management of the Dutch sector of the North Sea, i.e. responsible for the quality of the watersystem and the management of several human activities which have an impact on the sea. The activities which result directly from this are: detection and removal of oil spills and other marine pollutants; contingency planning; issuing of dumping and discharging licenses; coordination of research, and development of policy; sounding and dredging of water routes; international consultation related with these activities. Further attention is paid to the target group consultations (formal cooperation and consultation between the Dutch authorities and the offshore industry), effects of discharged oil containing cutting, recent and future legislation and policy for oil containing discharges. Finally, the paper takes stock of the use and discharge of chemicals offshore

  12. Reverse logistics applied to offshore exploration drilling; A logistica reversa aplicada as operacoes de perfuracao exploratoria 'offshore'

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carvalho, Paulo Roberto dos Santos; Silva, Douglas Resende Teixeira da [Repsol YPF Brasil S.A. - Unidade de Negocios. Exploracao e Producao(Brazil); Moyano, Ignacio Sanchez [Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain); Ferreira Filho, Virgilio Jose Martins; Valle, Rogerio [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia (COPPE)

    2008-07-01

    Reverse Logistic manages the return of resources and related information to production unities, after their use. Nowadays, it includes a special focus on environmental implications of used products, such as waste recycling or disposal. This paper considers the feasibility of reverse logistics for offshore exploration drilling activities, involving environmental aspects such as recycling, reuse of products after utilization and reduction of raw materials requirements. Although in Brazil the environmental licensing demands oil companies to have an organized management of their waste (requiring a total control over the final destination of the waste), costs and possible returns for waste management are considered negligible, in face of high oil prices and limited availability of offshore drilling rigs. Consequently, any potential benefit from its efficient management, or even reuse or trade, is not taken into account during the operation planning stage. The paper proposes Life Cycle Management as a continuous improvement management system aimed to minimize the environmental and socio-economic burdens associated with oil offshore production throughout its entire life cycle and value chain, that could provide cost-cuts such as a reduction in raw materials needs through reuse of waste, or even as a real income if selling the waste and/or recycled materials. (author)

  13. Deciphering biodegradation effects on light hydrocarbons in crude oils using their stable carbon isotopic composition: a case study from the Gullfaks oil field, offshore Norway

    OpenAIRE

    Andrea Vieth-Hillebrand [Vieth; Heinz Wilkes

    2006-01-01

    Compound-specific isotope analysis has become an important tool in environmental studies and is an especially powerful way to evaluate biodegradation of hydrocarbons. Here, carbon isotope ratios of light hydrocarbons were used to characterise in-reservoir biodegradation in the Gullfaks oil field, offshore Norway. Increasing biodegradation, as characterised, for example, by increasing concentration ratios of Pr/n-C17 and Ph/n-C18, and decreasing concentrations of individual light hydrocarbons ...

  14. AFSC/NMML/CCEP: Characterizing and quantifying California sea lion and Pacific harbor seal use of offshore oil and gas platforms in California, 2013-2015

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) and Pacific harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) use offshore oil and gas platforms as resting and foraging areas. Both...

  15. Indian offshore wind energy policy - lessons from Europe

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mani, S.; Dhingra, T. [Univ. of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun (India)

    2012-07-01

    Indian Economy is growing at 8% for the past few years and is expected to continue this momentum into the foreseeable future. To sustain this growth, power sector needs to build additional generation capacity at an unprecedented pace. However, continued dependence on fossil fuels (especially Coal and Oil) to power the growth of electricity generation capacity, is hardly sustainable in the long run. The reasons are well known - Environmental concerns, depleting fossil fuel resources, excessive dependency on Oil imports - that it hardly merits repetition. Renewable Energy source forms a miniscule portion (25 GW, {approx} 12%) of India's overall Energy consumption today (202 GW). The share of wind energy (17 GW) is 67% of the total renewable energy basket. But the contribution from offshore wind farms is non-existent, as all the wind energy generated in India is only through onshore Wind farms. India needs a policy framework to encourage the development of offshore wind farms. Several European countries, most notably the UK, Germany and Denmark, have effective offshore wind energy policies that have helped them to accelerate the growth of their offshore wind energy sector. This paper does an exhaustive study to identify the building blocks of a successful offshore wind energy policy initiative adopted by selected European countries, which can be leveraged by India to articulate its own offshore wind energy policy. This paper also suggests a model to predict the log-odds of growth of offshore wind energy sector in India. (Author)

  16. Bacterial diversity in water injection systems of Brazilian offshore oil platforms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korenblum, Elisa; Valoni, Erika; Penna, Mônica; Seldin, Lucy

    2010-01-01

    Biogenic souring and microbial-influenced corrosion is a common scenario in water-flooded petroleum reservoirs. Water injection systems are continuously treated to control bacterial contamination, but some bacteria that cause souring and corrosion can persist even after different treatments have been applied. Our aim was to increase our knowledge of the bacterial communities that persist in the water injection systems of three offshore oil platforms in Brazil. To achieve this goal, we used a culture-independent molecular approach (16S ribosomal RNA gene clone libraries) to analyze seawater samples that had been subjected to different treatments. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the bacterial communities from the different platforms were taxonomically different. A predominance of bacterial clones affiliated with Gammaproteobacteria, mostly belonging to the genus Marinobacter (60.7%), were observed in the platform A samples. Clones from platform B were mainly related to the genera Colwellia (37.9%) and Achromobacter (24.6%), whereas clones obtained from platform C were all related to unclassified bacteria. Canonical correspondence analyses showed that different treatments such as chlorination, deoxygenation, and biocide addition did not significantly influence the bacterial diversity in the platforms studied. Our results demonstrated that the injection water used in secondary oil recovery procedures contained potentially hazardous bacteria, which may ultimately cause souring and corrosion.

  17. The changing Arctic and its effects on the development of Norway and Russia's offshore oil-spill prevention policies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouffard, T. J.

    2015-12-01

    Two very different nations are joined with a northern border and have worked together for decades to manage shared Arctic affairs, yet have very disparate approaches to policy development. Increased access to the Arctic and the push to develop its resources has also created a requirement for developing national policies to address the possibilities of oil spill response and remediation. Norway and Russia are the significant regional powers, with a shared arctic boundary, yet substantially differing approaches to policy development and implementation. We are exploring the variations in their approaches to Arctic offshore oil-spill policy development, in the context of policy informed by economic, social, and physical sciences.

  18. Offshore Supply Industry Dynamics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Roslyng Olesen, Thomas

    The value chains for offshore oil and gas and offshore wind are both basically driven by the demand for energy. This is heavily dependent on a number of factors including the price of various energy sources and the policy making of the states which influence legislation, indirect subsidies...... of services including includes legal advice, financing, insurance etc. The two value chains have a number of activities in common. Both include (1) a tender and concession phase where the energy company obtains the right to explore and produce energy from the authorities. (2) An exploration phase where...

  19. Component for articulated offshore loading towers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Backhaus, H.

    1980-09-01

    The construction of offshore natural gas liquefaction plants must be regarded as technically feasible and the marketing prospects for LNG - a source of clean burning energy - appear excellent. Nevertheless, the optimum loading procedure for LNG tankers in the - sometimes adverse - offshore environment is still a matter under discussion by the experts - with a tendency to adopt and adapt well-proven components from the offshore crude oil sector. Here, articulated towers are in use for tankerloading and the crude oil is pumped at ambient temperature through the cardan joint of the tower itself. In the case of the cryogenic liquid LNG, this method would entail intolerable risks. Leaks and subsequent LNG spills within the tower joint will cause low temperature-embrittlement and most likely damage the cardan connection at the tower's base plate on the sea bed. The described submarine joint for ultra-cold liquids, which has the same cardanic properties as the cardan joint of the tower is completely separated from the latter. Thus a cryogenic leakage in this submarine joint will under no circumstance reach and affect the tower cardan.

  20. Program and abstracts of the offshore oil and gas environmental effects monitoring workshop : approaches and technologies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-01-01

    The offshore petroleum industry in eastern Canada has expanded rapidly, with exploration and production activities taking place over a wide range of oceanographic conditions. This workshop, hosted by Canada's largest marine research institute, was held to advance the understanding of environmental impacts from offshore oil and gas activity. In particular, it examined how information derived from environmental effects monitoring (EEM) programs contribute to improved drilling and production operations, mitigation measures, and the revision of regulations for waste treatment. The workshop examined if EEM programs are providing valuable information, and how they can be improved. The themes of the 3 sessions which focused on ways to carry out EEM were: (1) EEM and environmental management, (2) EEM methodologies and lessons learned, and (3) EEM methodologies and technologies. Participants form around the world identified priority research needs and coordinated collaborative research efforts. Approximately 70 papers and posters were presented at the workshop, of which 19 have been indexed separately for inclusion in this database (Author)

  1. Bioremediation of offshore oil spills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goldman, E.; Tedaldi, D.J.

    1994-01-01

    This research program was directed towards the enhancement of insitu biorestoration of open sea oil spills. Bacteria possessing petroleum degrading enzymes are capable of splitting even thick, viscous oils and tars into lighter fractions. This process will occur at the oil/bacterial interface and depends upon viscosity of the oil, bacterial species, availability of ancillary nutrients, residence times and extent of mixing/oxygenation. Through the enzymatic metabolism of bacteria, a wide range of petroleum oils can be converted almost completely into CO 2 , water, cell mass and harmless biological waste products, usually within 60 to 90 days under favorable conditions. Specifically, this research work focused on the selection and examination of a floating medium which enhances the biodegradation process through improvement of conditions necessary for the process to occur. An additional effort was made to update previous citations of the order of magnitude of oil biodegradation rates and to compare laboratory measurements of biodegradation rates with field or mesocosm measurements

  2. General document environmental impact report (m.e.r.) oil and gas exploitation industry. Update and supplement of the general document; Generiek document m.e.r. offshore olie- en gaswinningsindustrie. Update en aanvulling van het generiek document environmental impact report (m.e.r.) offshore, 1999

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2008-04-15

    The generic environmental impact assessment (EIA or MER in Dutch) in 1999 is intended to serve as a template for specific environmental impact assessments for oil and gas exploitation projects at sea. Since 1999, a number of innovations and changes were implemented. Particularly in offshore technologies and regulations new insights and ideas came up in recent years. Therefore the existing generic document has to be updated with new information, relevant in the preparation of specific environmental impact assessments in the offshore oil and gas exploitation industry in the Dutch part of the Continental Shelf [Dutch] De generieke milieu effect rapportage (MER) uit 1999 is bedoeld om te dienen als een sjabloon voor specifieke Milieueffectrapportages bij olie- en gaswinningprojecten op zee. Sinds 1999 is een aantal vernieuwingen en veranderingen doorgevoerd. Met name in offshore technologieen en wet- en regelgeving zijn de afgelopen jaren nieuwe inzichten en ideeen ontstaan. Hierdoor is de wens ontstaan om het bestaande generieke document aan te vullen met nieuwe informatie die relevant is voor het opstellen van specifieke Milieueffectrapportages in de offshore olie- en gaswinningsindustrie op het Nederlands deel van het Continentaal Plat.

  3. The offshore accords and Hibernia's impact on the Newfoundland treasury

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Locke, W.

    1992-01-01

    The provincial governments of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have each signed an accord with the government of Canada to manage and share revenues from the development of their respective offshore oil and gas fields. Negotiated provisions for offsetting equalization payments were an important component of each of these accords. The potential effectiveness of these provisions in sheltering offshore oil revenues derived from the Hibernia project under various oil price scenarios is reviewed. Both mathematical and simulation analyses demonstrate that the provisions negotiated by Nova Scotia shelter significantly more revenue than those by Newfoundland. Recommendations for future negotiating positions are presented. 4 refs., 3 tabs

  4. Optimal Risk-Based Inspection Planning for Offshore Wind Turbines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rangel-Ramirez, Jose G.; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2008-01-01

    , inspection and maintenance activities are developed. This paper considers aspects of inspection and maintenance planning of fatigue prone details in jacket and tripod types of wind turbine support structures. Based oil risk-based inspection planning methods used for oil & gas installations, a framework......Wind turbines for electricity production have increased significantly the last years both in production capability and size. This development is expected to continue also in the coining years. The Support structure for offshore wind turbines is typically a steel structure consisting of a tower...... for optimal inspection and maintenance planning of offshore wind turbines is presented. Special aspects for offshore wind turbines are considered: usually the wind loading are dominating the wave loading, wake effects in wind farms are important and the reliability level is typically significantly lower than...

  5. Applications of Seasat to the offshore oil, gas and mining industries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mourad, A. G.; Robinson, A. C.

    1977-01-01

    The NASA satellite Seasat-A (to be launched in 1978) has applications to the offshore oil, gas, and mining industries including: (1) improvements in weather and wave forecasting, (2) studies of past wind and wave statistics for planning design requirements, and (3) monitoring ice formation, breakup, and movement in arctic regions. The primary geographic areas which will be monitored by Seasat-A include: the Beaufort Sea, the Labrador Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. east coast, West Africa, Equatorial East Pacific, the Gulf of Alaska, and the North Sea. Seasat-A instrumentation used in ocean monitoring consists of a radar altimeter, a radar scatterometer, a synthetic aperture radar, a microwave radiometer, and a visible and infrared radiometer. The future outlook of the Seasat program is planned in three phases: measurement feasibility demonstration (1978-1980), data accessibility/utility demonstration (1980-1983), and operational system demonstration (1983-1985).

  6. Reverse logistics applied to offshore exploration drilling; A logistica reversa aplicada as operacoes de perfuracao exploratoria 'offshore'

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carvalho, Paulo Roberto dos Santos; Silva, Douglas Resende Teixeira da [Repsol YPF Brasil S.A. - Unidade de Negocios. Exploracao e Producao(Brazil); Moyano, Ignacio Sanchez [Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain); Ferreira Filho, Virgilio Jose Martins; Valle, Rogerio [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia (COPPE)

    2008-07-01

    Reverse Logistic manages the return of resources and related information to production unities, after their use. Nowadays, it includes a special focus on environmental implications of used products, such as waste recycling or disposal. This paper considers the feasibility of reverse logistics for offshore exploration drilling activities, involving environmental aspects such as recycling, reuse of products after utilization and reduction of raw materials requirements. Although in Brazil the environmental licensing demands oil companies to have an organized management of their waste (requiring a total control over the final destination of the waste), costs and possible returns for waste management are considered negligible, in face of high oil prices and limited availability of offshore drilling rigs. Consequently, any potential benefit from its efficient management, or even reuse or trade, is not taken into account during the operation planning stage. The paper proposes Life Cycle Management as a continuous improvement management system aimed to minimize the environmental and socio-economic burdens associated with oil offshore production throughout its entire life cycle and value chain, that could provide cost-cuts such as a reduction in raw materials needs through reuse of waste, or even as a real income if selling the waste and/or recycled materials. (author)

  7. Economic impacts of oil spills: Spill unit costs for tankers, pipelines, refineries, and offshore facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-01-01

    The impacts of oil spills -- ranging from the large, widely publicized Exxon Valdez tanker incident to smaller pipeline and refinery spills -- have been costly to both the oil industry and the public. For example, the estimated costs to Exxon of the Valdez tanker spill are on the order of $4 billion, including $2.8 billion (in 1993 dollars) for direct cleanup costs and $1.125 billion (in 1992 dollars) for settlement of damages claims caused by the spill. Application of contingent valuation costs and civil lawsuits pending in the State of Alaska could raise these costs appreciably. Even the costs of the much smaller 1991 oil spill at Texaco's refinery near Anacortes, Washington led to costs of $8 to 9 million. As a result, inexpensive waming, response and remediation technologies could lower oil spin costs, helping both the oil industry, the associated marine industries, and the environment. One means for reducing the impact and costs of oil spills is to undertake research and development on key aspects of the oil spill prevention, warming, and response and remediation systems. To target these funds to their best use, it is important to have sound data on the nature and size of spills, their likely occurrence and their unit costs. This information could then allow scarce R ampersand D dollars to be spent on areas and activities having the largest impact. This report is intended to provide the ''unit cost'' portion of this crucial information. The report examines the three key components of the US oil supply system, namely, tankers and barges; pipelines and refineries; and offshore production facilities. The specific purpose of the study was to establish the unit costs of oil spills. By manipulating this key information into a larger matrix that includes the size and frequency of occurrence of oil spills, it will be possible' to estimate the likely future impacts, costs, and sources of oil spills

  8. Cost/benefit of programmes offshore

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Skoeld, V.

    1993-01-01

    The article deals with an offshore environmental research project in Norway. The three-year project study focused on the emissions to air and discharges to sea related to offshore oil and gas production on the Norwegian continental shelf, and evaluated the technology and associated costs for potential reductions. The progress being made by the petroleum industry show 75% reduction in oil discharged to sea since 1984 from 3900 to the present level of 1000 tonns, 50% improvement in average gas power generation efficiency since 1975, gas flaring maintained at constant level for the last 20 years, and CO 2 emissions from offshore field installations kept at the same level during the last three years. As part of its national commitment to reducing emissions, Norway has set the following future environmental guidelines: Stabilize CO 2 emissions at the 1989 level by the year 2000 (35m t/y), stabilize NO x emissions at the 1987 level and further reduce these by 30% from 1986 to 1998 (Sofia Convention 1989), reduce the annual VOC (Voilatile Organic Compounds) emissions south of the 62 parallel by 30% by 1999 based on the 1989 levels, and reduce the use of halon by 90% from 1986 to 1995. 3 figs

  9. Issues in offshore platform research - Part 1: Semi-submersibles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, R.; Kim, Tae-Wan; Sha, O. P.; Misra, S. C.

    2010-09-01

    Availability of economic and efficient energy resources is crucial to a nation's development. Because of their low cost and advancement in drilling and exploration technologies, oil and gas based energy systems are the most widely used energy source throughout the world. The inexpensive oil and gas based energy systems are used for everything, i.e., from transportation of goods and people to the harvesting of crops for food. As the energy demand continues to rise, there is strong need for inexpensive energy solutions. An offshore platform is a large structure that is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. Depending on the circumstances, the offshore platform can be fixed (to the ocean floor) or can consist of an artificial island or can float. Semi-submersibles are used for various purposes in offshore and marine engineering, e.g. crane vessels, drilling vessels, tourist vessels, production platforms and accommodation facilities, etc. The challenges of deepwater drilling have further motivated the researchers to design optimum choices for semi-submersibles for a chosen operating depth. In our series of eight papers, we discuss the design and production aspects of all the types of offshore platforms. In the present part I, we present an introduction and critical analysis of semi-submersibles.

  10. Oil spill modeling input to the offshore environmental cost model (OECM) for US-BOEMRE's spill risk and costs evaluations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    French McCay, Deborah; Reich, Danielle; Rowe, Jill; Schroeder, Melanie; Graham, Eileen

    2011-01-01

    This paper simulates the consequences of oil spills using a planning model known as the Offshore Environmental Cost Model (OECM). This study aims at creating various predictive models for possible oil spill scenarios in marine waters. A crucial part of this investigation was the SIMAP model. It analyzes the distance and the direction covered by the spill under certain test conditions, generating a regression equation that simulates the impact of the spill. Tests were run in two different regions; the Mid-Atlantic region and the Chukchi Sea. Results showed that the higher wind speeds and higher water temperature of the Mid-Atlantic region had greater impact on wildlife and the water column respectively. However, short-line impact was higher in the Chukchi area due to the multi-directional wind. It was also shown that, because of their higher diffusivity in water, lighter crude oils had more impact than heavier oils. It was suggested that this model could ultimately be applied to other oil spill scenarios happening under similar conditions.

  11. Impact of oil on the marine environment: policy of the Paris Commission on operational discharges from the offshore industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nihoul, C.; Ducrotoy, J.-P.

    1994-01-01

    The input of oil to the North Sea due to the offshore industry has been estimated at 29% of the total input of oil. The operational discharges consist of production water and drilling cuttings. An overview of statistics collected over the last 10 years shows that although the amount of oil discharged via production water is increasing as platforms are getting older, cuttings still account for 75% of the oil entering the sea as a result of normal operations. Spills represent a relatively small source of oil. The effects on the marine environment of discharges of production water and of discarded oily cuttings have been extensively studied, by national authorities as well as by the industry. Although it has not always been possible to reach consensus about the significance of the observed effects, a number of 'agreed facts' have led to the establishment of regulations in the framework of the Paris Commission. The 'decisions' and 'recommendations' adopted by the Commission are regularly reviewed in the light of new developments. (author)

  12. Risks and governance modes in offshoring decisions : Linking supply chain management and international business perspectives

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Patrucco, A.S.; Scalera, V.G.; Luzzini, D.

    2016-01-01

    Governing offshoring has become a major challenge for firms that run operations outside the home country. International business (IB) and supply chain management (SCM) literature offer different insights on the topic, focusing especially on possible governance modes and the drivers of this choice,

  13. International Oil Supplies and Demands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1991-09-01

    The eleventh Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) working group met four times over the 1989--90 period to compare alternative perspectives on international oil supplies and demands through 2010 and to discuss how alternative supply and demand trends influence the world's dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. Proprietors of eleven economic models of the world oil market used their respective models to simulate a dozen scenarios using standardized assumptions. From its inception, the study was not designed to focus on the short-run impacts of disruptions on oil markets. Nor did the working group attempt to provide a forecast or just a single view of the likely future path for oil prices. The model results guided the group's thinking about many important longer-run market relationships and helped to identify differences of opinion about future oil supplies, demands, and dependence

  14. International Oil Supplies and Demands

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-04-01

    The eleventh Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) working group met four times over the 1989--1990 period to compare alternative perspectives on international oil supplies and demands through 2010 and to discuss how alternative supply and demand trends influence the world's dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. Proprietors of eleven economic models of the world oil market used their respective models to simulate a dozen scenarios using standardized assumptions. From its inception, the study was not designed to focus on the short-run impacts of disruptions on oil markets. Nor did the working group attempt to provide a forecast or just a single view of the likely future path for oil prices. The model results guided the group's thinking about many important longer-run market relationships and helped to identify differences of opinion about future oil supplies, demands, and dependence

  15. International Oil Supplies and Demands

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1991-09-01

    The eleventh Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) working group met four times over the 1989--90 period to compare alternative perspectives on international oil supplies and demands through 2010 and to discuss how alternative supply and demand trends influence the world's dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. Proprietors of eleven economic models of the world oil market used their respective models to simulate a dozen scenarios using standardized assumptions. From its inception, the study was not designed to focus on the short-run impacts of disruptions on oil markets. Nor did the working group attempt to provide a forecast or just a single view of the likely future path for oil prices. The model results guided the group's thinking about many important longer-run market relationships and helped to identify differences of opinion about future oil supplies, demands, and dependence.

  16. International Oil Supplies and Demands

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1992-04-01

    The eleventh Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) working group met four times over the 1989--1990 period to compare alternative perspectives on international oil supplies and demands through 2010 and to discuss how alternative supply and demand trends influence the world's dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. Proprietors of eleven economic models of the world oil market used their respective models to simulate a dozen scenarios using standardized assumptions. From its inception, the study was not designed to focus on the short-run impacts of disruptions on oil markets. Nor did the working group attempt to provide a forecast or just a single view of the likely future path for oil prices. The model results guided the group's thinking about many important longer-run market relationships and helped to identify differences of opinion about future oil supplies, demands, and dependence.

  17. Natural Offshore Oil Seepage and Related Tarball Accumulation on the California Coastline - Santa Barbara Channel and the Southern Santa Maria Basin: Source Identification and Inventory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorenson, T.D.; Hostettler, Frances D.; Rosenbauer, Robert J.; Peters, Kenneth E.; Dougherty, Jennifer A.; Kvenvolden, Keith A.; Gutmacher, Christina E.; Wong, Florence L.; Normark, William R.

    2009-01-01

    Oil spillage from natural sources is very common in the waters of southern California. Active oil extraction and shipping is occurring concurrently within the region and it is of great interest to resource managers to be able to distinguish between natural seepage and anthropogenic oil spillage. The major goal of this study was to establish the geologic setting, sources, and ultimate dispersal of natural oil seeps in the offshore southern Santa Maria Basin and Santa Barbara Basins. Our surveys focused on likely areas of hydrocarbon seepage that are known to occur between Point Arguello and Ventura, California. Our approach was to 1) document the locations and geochemically fingerprint natural seep oils or tar; 2) geochemically fingerprint coastal tar residues and potential tar sources in this region, both onshore and offshore; 3) establish chemical correlations between offshore active seeps and coastal residues thus linking seep sources to oil residues; 4) measure the rate of natural seepage of individual seeps and attempt to assess regional natural oil and gas seepage rates; and 5) interpret the petroleum system history for the natural seeps. To document the location of sub-sea oil seeps, we first looked into previous studies within and near our survey area. We measured the concentration of methane gas in the water column in areas of reported seepage and found numerous gas plumes and measured high concentrations of methane in the water column. The result of this work showed that the seeps were widely distributed between Point Conception east to the vicinity of Coal Oil Point, and that they by in large occur within the 3-mile limit of California State waters. Subsequent cruises used sidescan and high resolution seismic to map the seafloor, from just south of Point Arguello, east to near Gaviota, California. The results of the methane survey guided the exploration of the area west of Point Conception east to Gaviota using a combination of seismic instruments. The

  18. Modelling, analysis and optimisation of energy systems on offshore platforms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nguyen, Tuong-Van

    of oil and gas facilities, (ii) the means to reduce their performance losses, and (iii) the systematic design of future plants. This work builds upon a combination of modelling tools, performance evaluation methods and multi-objective optimisation routines to reproduce the behaviour of five offshore......Nowadays, the offshore production of oil and gas requires on-site processing, which includes operations such as separation, compression and purification. The offshore system undergoes variations of the petroleum production rates over the field life – it is therefore operated far from its nominal...... with the combustion, pressure-change and cooling operations, but these processes are ranked differently depending on the plant layout and on the field production stage. The most promising improvements consist of introducing a multi-level production manifold, avoiding anti-surge gas recirculation, installing a waste...

  19. Wind energy in offshore grids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schröder, Sascha Thorsten

    special characteristics of offshore grids. With an operational real options approach, it is furthermore illustrated how different support schemes and connections to additional countries affect the investment case of an offshore wind farm and the income of the transmission system operator. The investment...... and investment implications under different regulatory frameworks are a hitherto underrepresented research field. They are addressed by this thesis. Offshore grids between several countries combine the absorption of wind energy with international power trading. However, the inclusion into an offshore grid......This cumulative PhD thesis deals with wind integration in offshore grids from an economic point of view. It is composed of a generic part and eight papers. As the topic has mostly been analysed with a focus on topology and technical issues until now, market-operational questions in offshore grids...

  20. On the use of risk acceptance criteria in the offshore oil and gas industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aven, Terje; Vinnem, Jan Erik

    2005-01-01

    Risk acceptance criteria, as upper limits of acceptable risks, have been used for offshore activities on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for more than 20 years. The common thinking has been that risk analyses and assessments cannot be conducted in a meaningful way without the use of such criteria. The ALARP principle also applies, but the risk acceptance criteria have played a more active role in the assessment processes than seen for example in the UK. Recently there has, however, been a discussion about the suitability of risk acceptance criteria to assess and control risks. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by presenting and discussing a risk analysis regime that is not based on the use of risk acceptance criteria at all. We believe that we can do better if cost-effectiveness (in a wide sense) is the ruling thinking rather than adoption of pre-defined risk acceptance limits. This means a closer resemblance with the ALARP principle as adopted in the UK and other countries, but is not a direct application of this practice. Also the building blocks of the common way of applying the ALARP principle are reviewed. The Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry is the starting point, but the discussion is to large extent general

  1. Rockets and Feathers: The Asymmetric Effect between China’s Refined Oil Prices and International Crude Oil Prices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yufeng Chen

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper employs an asymmetric error-correction model (AECM, and uses monthly data on wholesale prices of gasoline and diesel products in China and international crude oil prices from February 2006 to October 2013 to examine whether China’s gasoline and diesel prices adjust asymmetrically to international crude oil price changes. Our empirical results suggest that increases and decreases in international oil prices have asymmetric effects on both wholesale prices of gasoline and diesel fuel in China, and that both increases and decreases in international oil prices have a greater effect on diesel prices than on gasoline prices in China. If there is no change in the maximum retail price, the asymmetry results from the transmission of wholesale prices in China with international oil prices. However, if there is a change in maximum retail prices, both international oil prices and maximum retail prices cause the asymmetry.

  2. On the definition of exergy efficiencies for petroleum systems: Application to offshore oil and gas processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen, Tuong-Van; Voldsund, Mari; Elmegaard, Brian; Ertesvåg, Ivar Ståle; Kjelstrup, Signe

    2014-01-01

    Exergy-based efficiencies are measures of the thermodynamic perfection of systems and processes. A meaningful formulation of these performance criteria for petroleum systems is difficult because of (i) the high chemical exergy of hydrocarbons, (ii) the large variety of chemical components, and (iii) the differences in operating conditions between facilities. This work focuses on offshore processing plants, considering four oil platforms that differ by their working conditions and designs. Several approaches from the scientific literature for similar processes are presented and applied to the four cases. They showed a low sensitivity to performance improvements, gave inconsistent results, or favoured facilities operating under certain conditions. We suggest an alternative formulation, called the component-by-component exergy efficiency, which builds on the decomposition of the exergy flows at the level of the chemical compounds. It allows therefore for sound comparisons of separation systems, while it successfully evaluates their theoretical improvement potentials. The platform displaying the lowest efficiency (1.7%) is characterised by little pumping and compression works, at the opposite of the one displaying the highest performance (29.6%). A more realistic measure of the technical potential for improving these systems can be carried out by splitting further the exergy destruction into its avoidable and unavoidable parts. - Highlights: • Different exergy efficiency definitions for petroleum systems are reviewed. • These definitions are applied to four oil and gas platforms and are revealed to be inapplicable. • A new formulation, namely the component-by-component efficiency, is proposed. • The performance of the offshore platforms under study varies between 1.7% and 29.6%

  3. Offshore Outlook: the European Side Perspectives offshore : le point de vue européen

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Delacour J.

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available The offshore hydrocarbon potential of Europe was fully revealed during the 1970s by various major discoveries which, after the first oil shock in 1973 and in the light of the high energy consumption in this zone, were a major asset in the new equilibria that would be found between producing and consuming countries. The offshore potential of Europe is concentrated in two zones: the North Sea and the Mediterranean. The North Sea, with the particularly harsh operating conditions, has quickly given rise to what can today be qualified as a new engineering state-of-the-art. At the same time, developments in the Mediterranean have brought a demonstration of entirely original and profitable petroleum achievements. For the future and despite current economic uncertainties, the outlook for European offshore development remain particularly attractive, obviously with regard to oil, but also, and more and more so, from the standpoint of natural gas. Le potentiel offshore en hydrocarbures de l'Europe a été pleinement mis en évidence au cours des années 70 par un certain nombre de grandes découvertes qui constituaient, après le premier choc pétrolier de 1973, compte tenu des fortes consommations d'énergie dans cette zone, un atout majeur dans les nouveaux équilibres qui s'instauraient entre pays producteurs et pays consommateurs. Le potentiel offshore de l'Europe se concentre sur deux zones : la mer du Nord et la Méditerranée. La mer du Nord, avec des conditions d'exploitation particulièrement sévères, a donné rapidement naissance à ce que l'on peut, aujourd'hui, qualifier de nouvel art de l'ingénieur, tandis que les développements en Méditerranée apportaient la démonstration de réalisations pétrolières tout à fait originales et profitables. Pour le futur, et malgré les incertitudes économiques actuelles, les perspectives de développement de l'offshore européen restent particulièrement attractives, au niveau du pétrole

  4. The EU Offshore Safety Directive and its potential effects. Opportunity or handicap?; Die EU Offshore Safety Directive und ihre moeglichen Auswirkungen. Chance oder Handicap?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schwiederowski, Claudia [RWE Dea AG, Hamburg (Germany)

    2014-07-01

    The purpose of the EU Offshore Safety Directive, which took effect on 18 July 2013, is to define minimum requirements for the prevention of severe accidents in connection with offshore crude oil or natural gas activities of any kind and the containment of the follow-on effects of such accidents. This is without question a logical consequence of the offshore incidents seen around the globe over the past decades. An interesting question in this context is for whom the EU Offshore Safety Directive has become an opportunity and for whom a handicap. [German] Ziel der am 18. Juli 2013 in Kraft getretenen EU Offshore Safety Direktive ist die Festlegung von Mindestanforderungen fuer die Verhinderung schwerer Unfaelle bei Offshore-Erdoel- bzw. - Erdgasaktivitaeten und die Begrenzung etwaiger Unfallfolgen. Nach den weltweiten Offshore- Ereignissen der vergangenen Jahrzehnte ist dies ohne Zweifel eine logische Entwicklung. Nun stellt sich die Frage: Fuer wen entwickelt sich die EU Offshore Safety Directive zur Chance, fuer wen zum Handicap?.

  5. Satellite data lift the veil on offshore platforms in the South China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yongxue; Sun, Chao; Sun, Jiaqi; Li, Hongyi; Zhan, Wenfeng; Yang, Yuhao; Zhang, Siyu

    2016-01-01

    Oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea (SCS) has garnered global attention recently; however, uncertainty regarding the accurate number of offshore platforms in the SCS, let alone their detailed spatial distribution and dynamic change, may lead to significant misjudgment of the true status of offshore hydrocarbon production in the region. Using both fresh and archived space-borne images with multiple resolutions, we enumerated the number, distribution, and annual rate of increase of offshore platforms across the SCS. Our results show that: (1) a total of 1082 platforms are present in the SCS, mainly located in shallow-water; and (2) offshore oil/gas exploitation in the SCS is increasing in intensity and advancing from shallow to deep water, and even to ultra-deep-water. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that oil and gas exploration in the SCS may have been over-estimated by one-third in previous reports. However, this overestimation does not imply any amelioration of the potential for future maritime disputes, since the rate of increase of platforms in disputed waters is twice that in undisputed waters. PMID:27641542

  6. Satellite data lift the veil on offshore platforms in the South China Sea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yongxue; Sun, Chao; Sun, Jiaqi; Li, Hongyi; Zhan, Wenfeng; Yang, Yuhao; Zhang, Siyu

    2016-09-01

    Oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea (SCS) has garnered global attention recently; however, uncertainty regarding the accurate number of offshore platforms in the SCS, let alone their detailed spatial distribution and dynamic change, may lead to significant misjudgment of the true status of offshore hydrocarbon production in the region. Using both fresh and archived space-borne images with multiple resolutions, we enumerated the number, distribution, and annual rate of increase of offshore platforms across the SCS. Our results show that: (1) a total of 1082 platforms are present in the SCS, mainly located in shallow-water; and (2) offshore oil/gas exploitation in the SCS is increasing in intensity and advancing from shallow to deep water, and even to ultra-deep-water. Nevertheless, our findings suggest that oil and gas exploration in the SCS may have been over-estimated by one-third in previous reports. However, this overestimation does not imply any amelioration of the potential for future maritime disputes, since the rate of increase of platforms in disputed waters is twice that in undisputed waters.

  7. Oil and gas leasing/production program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heimberger, M.L.

    1992-01-01

    As the Congress declared in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act the natural gas and oil production from the Outer Continental Shelf constitutes an important part of the Nation's domestic energy supply. Federal offshore minerals are administered within the Department of the Interior by the Minerals Management Service (MMS), which provides access to potential new sources of natural gas and oil offshore by conducting lease sales. Each year, on or before March 31, the MMS presents to Congress a fiscal year annual report on the Federal offshore natural gas and oil leasing and production program. In FY 1991, this program was the third largest producer of non-tax revenue for the US Treasury, contributing more than $3 billion. This report presents Federal offshore leasing, sales, production, and exploration activities, and environmental monitoring activities

  8. Issues in offshore platform research - Part 1: Semi-submersibles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R. Sharma

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Availability of economic and efficient energy resources is crucial to a nation's development. Because of their low cost and advancement in drilling and exploration technologies, oil and gas based energy systems are the most widely used energy source throughout the world. The inexpensive oil and gas based energy systems are used for everything, i.e., from transportation of goods and people to the harvesting of crops for food. As the energy demand continues to rise, there is strong need for inexpensive energy solutions. An offshore platform is a large structure that is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. Depending on the circumstances, the offshore platform can be fixed (to the ocean floor or can consist of an artificial island or can float. Semi-submersibles are used for various purposes in offshore and marine engineering, e.g. crane vessels, drilling vessels, tourist vessels, production platforms and accommodation facilities, etc. The challenges of deepwater drilling have further motivated the researchers to design optimum choices for semi-submersibles for a chosen operating depth. In our series of eight papers, we discuss the design and production aspects of all the types of offshore platforms. In the present part I, we present an introduction and critical analysis of semi-submersibles.

  9. Chronology and backtracking of oil slick trajectory to source in offshore environments using ultraspectral to multispectral remotely sensed data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lammoglia, Talita; Souza Filho, Carlos Roberto de

    2015-07-01

    Offshore natural seepage confirms the occurrence of an active petroleum system with thermal maturation and migration, regardless its economic viability for petroleum production. Ocean dynamics, however, impose a challenge for correlation between oil seeps detected on the water surface and its source at the ocean floor. This hinders the potential use of seeps in petroleum exploration. The present study aims to estimate oil exposure time on the water surface via remote sensing in order to help locating ocean floor seepage sources. Spectral reflectance properties of a variety of fresh crude oils, oil films on water and oil-water emulsions were determined. Their spectral identity was used to estimate the duration of exposure of oil-water emulsions based on their temporal spectral responses. Laboratory models efficiently predicted oil status using ultraspectral (>2000 bands), hyperspectral (>300 bands), and multispectral (oil seepage recorded by the ASTER sensor on the Brazilian coast was used to test the designed predictive model. Results indicate that the model can successfully forecast the timeframe of crude oil exposure in the ocean (i.e., the relative "age" of the seepage). The limited spectral resolution of the ASTER sensor, though, implies less accurate estimates compared to higher resolution sensors. The spectral libraries and the method proposed here can be reproduced for other oceanic areas in order to approximate the duration of exposure of noticeable natural oil seepages. This type of information is optimal for seepage tracing and, therefore, for oceanic petroleum exploration and environmental monitoring.

  10. The offshoring challenge strategic design and innovation for tomorrow’s organization

    CERN Document Server

    Bals, Lydia; Jensen, Peter; Larsen, Marcus

    2013-01-01

    The continuous search for efficiency gains and the goal of attaining a sustainable competitive advantage have steadily increased the volume of goods and services procured globally from third party vendors. In this context, named as “the next wave of globalization”, the offshoring phenomenon has stimulated research and political debates. With the rise of services offshoring, international value chain disaggregation for services has reached a formerly unknown scale. Also, it is increasingly complex transactions, requiring a higher degree of qualification, which are becoming subject to offshoring as well. The Offshoring Challenge: Strategic Design and Innovation for Tomorrow’s Organization features selected chapters by an international research community on the topic of offshoring. All potential business models from offshore outsourcing to third party providers are covered, from cooperative arrangements to internal organizational set-ups including captive offshore centers. Contributions have significant in...

  11. Oil and international security: old and new issues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noel, P.

    1998-09-01

    This paper questions the effectiveness of the link between international oil and (inter)national security. First, it explains an acknowledge the rise and decline of the traditional case of this link: the threat that so called ''oil dependence'' inflicts upon the national economy, hence the problem it raises for government. The reason for that decline is looked for in the emergence of multiple forms of competition in oil and energy markets, making the ''oil weapon'' less credible and its use less desirable and less possible. In oil like in any other commodity, the normal situation is the competition between suppliers for access to markets. For all basic economics tells us and experience has confirmed, analyses and policies (at least in France) are still strongly influenced by the ''oil security'' thinking shaped in the eve of the 1970 crises. Yet, those fallacies may be the strongest obstacle to the acknowledgment of the real oil security issues we face. The main one is the possible political destabilization of the Middle East due to oil competition between its members in an increasingly competitive world market. The consequences on regional antagonisms of the come back of Iraqi oil to the market on one hand, the internal stability of Iran and Saudi Arabia in a situation of lasting low oil revenues on the other hand, are reviewed as the main possible factors of regional destabilization in a context of strong competition in the world oil market. A large scale political burst with major oil producers concerned would certainly hurt developed and developing economy. That leads us to this paradoxical situation: the very cause of the decline of the traditional oil dependence issue is, due to Middle East situation, the main cause of possible destabilization of world oil market today. (author)

  12. Oil spills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Katsouros, M.H.

    1992-01-01

    The world annually transports 1.7 billion tons of oil by sea, and oil spills, often highly concentrated discharges, are increasing from a variety of sources. The author discusses sources of oils spills: natural; marine transportation; offshore oil production; atmospheric sources; municipal industrial wastes and runoff. Other topics include: the fate of the spilled oil; the effects of the oil; the response to oil spills; and prevention of oil spills. 30 refs., 1 fig., 4 tabs

  13. Emergency response in the Newfoundland offshore industry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dempsey, J. [Cormorant Ltd., St. John' s, NL (Canada)

    2006-07-01

    This presentation reviewed current offshore oil activities with respect to safety issues regarding year-round marine operations in a harsh environment. Considerable logistics support is required for all offshore activities, including seismic and geotechnical surveys; exploration and production drilling; well testing; subsea construction; on-site production; and, delivery to market. Response to an offshore emergency must address the urgency of the incident along with stakeholder concerns. This presentation described the different types of emergencies and addressed issues regarding contingency planning; preventative measures; response philosophy; response scope; response at site; emergency management; communications links; and, oil spill response. The following current operations were highlighted: ExxonMobil's production drilling from the gravity-based concrete platform at Hibernia; Petro-Canada's production drilling at the Terra Nova FPSO; Husky Energy's production drilling at White Rose; and Chevron Canada's exploration drilling at the Orphan Basin. It was noted that in an emergency situation, the focus is on the welfare of offshore personnel. On an average day, the total offshore population is in the order of 1000 workers, all registered in the Personnel Logistics System which is updated with the departure of every helicopter from St. John's, Newfoundland or from the offshore platform. It is possible to prepare for foreseeable emergency incidents such as fire, explosion or gas leaks; spills to the marine environment; structural damage or collisions; persons lost at sea; helicopter or support vessel accidents; vessel sinking; sabotage; serious injuries or loss of life; severe ice events; and, loss of well control. The establishment of permanent safety zones at the Hibernia, White Rose and Terra Nova production fields are among the preventative measures, along with standby vessels that provide a rescue service for offshore installations

  14. Emergency response in the Newfoundland offshore industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dempsey, J.

    2006-01-01

    This presentation reviewed current offshore oil activities with respect to safety issues regarding year-round marine operations in a harsh environment. Considerable logistics support is required for all offshore activities, including seismic and geotechnical surveys; exploration and production drilling; well testing; subsea construction; on-site production; and, delivery to market. Response to an offshore emergency must address the urgency of the incident along with stakeholder concerns. This presentation described the different types of emergencies and addressed issues regarding contingency planning; preventative measures; response philosophy; response scope; response at site; emergency management; communications links; and, oil spill response. The following current operations were highlighted: ExxonMobil's production drilling from the gravity-based concrete platform at Hibernia; Petro-Canada's production drilling at the Terra Nova FPSO; Husky Energy's production drilling at White Rose; and Chevron Canada's exploration drilling at the Orphan Basin. It was noted that in an emergency situation, the focus is on the welfare of offshore personnel. On an average day, the total offshore population is in the order of 1000 workers, all registered in the Personnel Logistics System which is updated with the departure of every helicopter from St. John's, Newfoundland or from the offshore platform. It is possible to prepare for foreseeable emergency incidents such as fire, explosion or gas leaks; spills to the marine environment; structural damage or collisions; persons lost at sea; helicopter or support vessel accidents; vessel sinking; sabotage; serious injuries or loss of life; severe ice events; and, loss of well control. The establishment of permanent safety zones at the Hibernia, White Rose and Terra Nova production fields are among the preventative measures, along with standby vessels that provide a rescue service for offshore installations. Supply vessels are also

  15. Technological learning in offshore wind energy: Different roles of the government

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smit, Thijs; Junginger, Martin; Smits, Ruud

    2007-01-01

    Offshore wind energy is a promising source of renewable electricity, even though its current costs prevent large-scale implementation. Technological learning has improved the technology and its economic performance already, and could result in significant further improvements. This study investigates how technological learning takes place in offshore wind energy and how technological learning is related to different policy regimes. Offshore wind energy developments in Denmark and the United Kingdom have been analysed with a technology-specific innovation systems approach. The results reveal that the dominant forms of learning are learning by doing and learning by using. At the same time, learning by interacting is crucial to achieve the necessary binding elements in the technology-specific innovation system. Generally, most learning processes were performed by self-organizing entities. However, sometimes cultural and technical barriers occurred, excluding component suppliers and knowledge institutes from the innovation system. Danish policies successfully anticipated these barriers and removed them; therefore, the Danish policies can be characterized as pro-active. British policies shaped stable conditions for learning only; therefore, they can be characterized as active. In the future, barriers could hinder learning by interacting between the oil and gas industry, the offshore wind industry and academia. Based on this study, we suggest national and international policy makers to design long-term policies to anticipate these barriers, in order to contribute to technological learning

  16. International oil and gas imnvestment: moving eastward?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Waelde, T.W.; Ndi, G.K.

    1994-01-01

    Emerging trends in international oil and gas investment are surveyed in this volume. There is a particular emphasis on the evolution in investment conditions, the environment, and the relationship between the international petroleum industry and the oil and gas sectors in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Eastern Europe. A number of legislative documents appear as annexes. A separate abstract has been prepared for each of the 23 chapters. (UK)

  17. Merger and acquisition in the international oil industry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Imai, Yoshiichi

    1988-07-01

    Outlines are given of the background and evaluation of recent giant mergers and acquisitions in the international oil industry and of future trends of them. The petroleum exporting countries or OPEC nationalized oil resourses in the first half of 1970's and acquired the crude oil deposits that had been controlled by the seven majors. The percentage of the seven majors' crude oil deposits in the free world was about 70% in 1968, but decreased sharply down to about 6% in 1978 to 1979, when the world experienced the second oil crisis. The decrease of Texaco, COCAL, and Mobil was remarkable. That was the background of these three companies' giant acquisitions in 1984. For the oil companies suffering from decrease of oil deposits, the inexpensive and dependable way to secure deposits was to take over developed reserves of other companies. Although there are the pros and cons in the evaluation of the merger and acquisition, these trends continues, including the oil exporting countries, and are very likely to move to the international reconstraction of the oil industry. (10 tabs)

  18. 0-Accidents in Offshore Oil and Gas Production - the Quantitative part

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Olaf Chresten

    According to data from the national authorities and operators, the injury incidence rates of lost time accidents in Danish oil and gas operators have declined significantly over the recent decades. There have been significant annual variations, but the trend points towards a zero-injury level......, and this is probably due to the safety programmes applied by the industry. An analysis of the data and methods used by the authorities in five countries shows comparable trends, but incomparable risk levels. This incomparability is due mainly to different criteria applied for inclusion of injuries and to different...... populations that may or may not include onshore workers. The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) runs an international surveillance sys-tem that, however, also gives insufficient information on the methods in the OGP annual reports. We identified a number of potential threats...

  19. RBI Optimization of Offshore Wind Turbines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ramírez, José G. Rangel; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2009-01-01

    methods for oil & gas installations, a framework for optimal inspection and maintenance planning of offshore wind turbines is presented. Special aspects for offshore wind turbines considered are the fatigue loading characteristics where usually the wind loading are dominating the wave loading, wake......Wind turbines for electricity production have increased significantly the last years both in production capability and size. This development is expected to continue also in the coming years. Offshore wind turbines with an electricity production of 5-10 MW are planned. Typically, the wind turbine...... support structure is a steel structure consisting of a tower and a monopile, tripod or jacket type foundation. This paper considers aspects of inspection and maintenance planning of fatigue prone details in jacket and tripod type of wind turbine support structures. Based on risk-based inspection planning...

  20. Project alliancing in the offshore industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Halman, J.I.M.; Braks, B.F.M.

    1999-01-01

    In this paper the shift towards new types of project organisation within the offshore industry is explained and discussed. Special focus is given to the organisational concept of project alliancing. The principles, structure and culture of a project alliance as applied within the offshore industry are described. In the paper the organisational concept of project alliancing is discussed on its potential to reduce project costs and enhance profits, both for the operator (oil and gas company) as well as for participating contractors. A risk and reward mechanism developed to share project risks and rewards between allied parties is explained for an alliance case. Based upon an in-depth study carried out within a contractor company in the offshore industry the organisational and financial implications of project alliancing are presented. (author)

  1. Offshore Outsourcing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Bent; Benito, Gabriel R. G.; Dovgan, Olesya

    While the extant literature on offshore outsourcing deals with this operation mode in isolation, and typically with a focus on cost effects, we address the broader question of how companies choose and use outsourcing as part of foreign operation mode development and as a contributor to internatio...... that outsourcing can be used proactively to promote expanded international operations.......While the extant literature on offshore outsourcing deals with this operation mode in isolation, and typically with a focus on cost effects, we address the broader question of how companies choose and use outsourcing as part of foreign operation mode development and as a contributor...

  2. Coastal effects of offshore energy systems. An assessment of oil and gas systems, deepwater ports, and nuclear power plants off the coast of New Jersey and Delaware. Volume II. Parts 1 and 2. Working papers 4 thru 10

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1976-11-01

    This report consists of ten working papers prepared as background material for the assessment of the effects of three proposed offshore energy systems on the coastal areas of New Jersey and Delaware. The three proposed offshore energy systems are: exploration for and development of offshore oil and gas, deepwater ports for supertankers, and floating nuclear powerplants. The 10 working papers cover: federal and state regulation of the three systems, the biological impacts, the risk of oil spills in developing oil and gas resources and operating deepwater ports, the air and water quality impacts, regional energy supply and demand considerations, the fiscal effects of developing the three systems, environmental studies, a safety analysis of floating nuclear powerplants, an analysis of fuel and waste handling of floating nuclear powerplants, and an analysis of the economic considerations of floating nuclear powerplants

  3. Strategic Biodiversity Risk Assessment (SBRA) of the offshore oil and gas exploration and production (E and P) plans and programs in Brazil; Avaliacao estrategica do risco a biodiversidade (AERB) nos planos e programas de E e P offshore de petroleo e gas natural no Brasil

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Garcia, Katia Cristina

    2007-07-15

    This thesis proposes a methodological framework, called Strategic Biodiversity Risk Assessment (SBRA), within Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), as a way to efficiently incorporate the risks to biodiversity caused by accidental spills into the strategic levels of offshore oil and gas E and P decision-making process. Moreover, this approach can also indicate the exclusion (or postponement) of bidding areas with extreme environmental sensitivity, as well as the choices for environmental-friendly E and P technologies. In order to exemplify this methodological framework application, two case studies are presented, one of the offshore O and G development program in southern Bahia state, Northeast of Brazil, and other of the offshore development plan in Abrolhos region, Brazil. (author)

  4. Fatigue Reliability and Calibration of Fatigue Design Factors for Offshore Wind Turbines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dominguez, Sergio Marquez; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2012-01-01

    Consequences of failure of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are in general lower than consequences of failure of, e.g., oil & gas platforms. It is reasonable that lower fatigue design factors can be applied for fatigue design of OWTs when compared to other fixed offshore structures. Calibration...

  5. Job retention in the British offshore sector through greening of the North Sea energy industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Esteban, Miguel; Leary, David; Zhang, Qi; Utama, Agya; Tezuka, Tetsuo; Ishihara, Keiichi N.

    2011-01-01

    For the case of the UK there are currently three ways of obtaining energy from sea areas, namely from wind, tides and waves. A methodology was developed to determine the future size of the offshore renewable industry based on the concept of employment factor, or the number of people required to maintain each unit of electricity production. An assessment was made of the decline in the number of people employed in oil related jobs in the North Sea and the gap that this could create in the UK's economy unless this pool of offshore expertise could find an alternative employment in the renewable sector. The paper will also investigate the effect of gradually transforming the UK's oil and gas sector into offshore renewables. If this was to happen by 2050 the UK offshore renewable industry could produce between 127 and 146 TWh of electricity, equivalent to around 57-66% of the current energy consumption in the country. - Research highlights: → There are three possible sources of energy from sea areas in the UK: wind, tide and waves. → As the number of jobs in the offshore oil industry reduces they should be compensated with jobs in the renewable offshore sector. → By 2050 the UK offshore renewable industry could produce between 127 and 146TWh of electricity. → This would represent around 57-66% of the current energy consumption in the UK.

  6. Comparative analysis of fiscal terms for Alberta oil sands and international heavy and conventional oils

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Meurs, P.

    2007-01-01

    There are considerable differences between international heavy oil and Alberta oil sands projects, notably the high viscosity of the bitumen in the oil sands reservoirs. The oil sands bitumen do not flow to wells without heating the bitumen, thereby adding to the already high cost of Alberta oil sand operations. This report provided an economic comparison of Alberta oil sands and international heavy oil projects. It also included a brief scoping review to compare with conventional oil regimes. Full exploration costs including the costs of dry holes were allocated to conventional oil operations in order to obtain a proper comparison. This investigation included the costs of dry holes. The report was a follow up to an earlier study released on April 12, 2007 on the preliminary fiscal evaluation of Alberta oil sand terms. The report provided an economic framework and described project selection. It then provided a discussion of production, costs and price data. Four adjusted projects were presented and compared with Alberta. The Venezuelan royalty formula was also discussed. Last, the report provided a detailed fiscal analysis. Comparisons were offered with Cold Lake and Athabasca Mine. A review of some other fiscal systems applicable to conventional oil were also outlined. It was concluded that Alberta oil sands developments are very competitive. It would be possible to modestly increase government revenues, without affecting the international competitive position of Alberta with respect to conventional oil. There is also some possibility to increase the base royalty on the Alberta oil sands without losing competitiveness. tabs., figs

  7. After Macondo: how has Brazil reacted to the largest accidental marine oil spill in history?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schwind, William Prescott [Thompson and Knight LLP, Houston, TX (United States); Porto, Nara Galeb [Thompson and Knight LLP, Dallas, TX (United States)

    2012-07-01

    The Macondo spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was an undeniable and unprecedented environmental disaster. To many critics, however, the damage to the environment was exacerbated by harm to the economy, as a drilling moratorium and a regulatory slowdown practically eliminated new offshore drilling, cost both the nation and the region thousands of jobs and millions of dollars, and dealt a severe set-back to the offshore oil and gas industry in the United States. Over two years after the spill, the industry is still struggling to recover. What does Macondo mean for Brazil? As Brazil eyes its own abundant offshore oil and gas resources, the country is grappling with the environmental and political fallout of two recent spills that, while much smaller than Macondo, turned the public spotlight squarely on the possibility of a similar disaster in Brazilian waters. This article highlights the regulatory measures that were or are expected to be implemented in the United States and Brazil in the wake of Macondo, reviews the effects of the recent offshore spills in Brazil, and discusses evolutions in the contractual allocations of risks and responsibility in the international and the Brazilian oil and gas industry in response to Macondo. (author)

  8. Fishing activity near offshore pipelines, 2017

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Machiels, Marcel

    2018-01-01

    On the North Sea bottom lie numerous pipelines to link oil- or gas offshore drilling units, - platforms and processing stations on land. Although pipeline tubes are coated and covered with protective layers, the pipelines risk being damaged through man-made hazards like anchor dropping and fishing

  9. Sediment porewater toxicity assessment studies in the vicinity of offshore oil and gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carr, R.S.; Chapman, D.C.; Presley, B.J.; Biedenbach, J.M.; Robertson, L.; Boothe, P.; Kilada, R.; Wade, T.; Montagna, P.

    1996-01-01

    As part of a multidisciplinary program to assess the potential long-term impacts of offshore oil and gas exploration and production activities in the Gulf of Mexico, sediment chemical analyses and porewater toxicity tests were conducted in the vicinity of five offshore platforms. Based on data from sea urchin fertilization and embryological development assays, toxicity was observed near four of the five platforms sampled; the majority of the toxic samples were collected within 150 m of a platform. There was excellent agreement among the results of porewater tests with three different species (sea urchin embryological development, polychaete reproduction, and copepod nauplii survival). The sediment concentrations of several metals were well in excess of sediment quality assessment guidelines at a number of stations, and good agreement was observed between predicted and observed toxicity. Porewater metal concentrations compared with EC50, LOEC, and NOEC values generated for water-only exposures indicated that the porewater concentrations for several metals were high enough to account for the observed toxicity. Results of these studies utilizing highly sensitive toxicity tests suggest that the contaminant-induced impacts from offshore platforms are limited to a localized area in the immediate vicinity of the platforms. 

  10. Probabilistic Calibration of Fatigue Design Factors for Offshore Wind Turbine Support Structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ramirez, José Rangel; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2010-01-01

    for the considered offshore wind turbines in such a way that the specific uncertainties for the fatigue life are accounted in a rational manner. Similar approaches have been used for offshore oil & gas sub-structures, but the required reliability level for offshore wind turbines is generally lower and the fatigue......This paper describes a reliability-based approach to determine fatigue design factors (FDF) for offshore wind turbine support structures made of steel. The FDF values are calibrated to a specific reliability level and linked to a specific inspection and maintenance (I&M) strategy used...

  11. Positive organizational behavior and safety in the offshore oil industry: Exploring the determinants of positive safety climate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hystad, Sigurd W; Bartone, Paul T; Eid, Jarle

    2014-01-01

    Much research has now documented the substantial influence of safety climate on a range of important outcomes in safety critical organizations, but there has been scant attention to the question of what factors might be responsible for positive or negative safety climate. The present paper draws from positive organizational behavior theory to test workplace and individual factors that may affect safety climate. Specifically, we explore the potential influence of authentic leadership style and psychological capital on safety climate and risk outcomes. Across two samples of offshore oil-workers and seafarers working on oil platform supply ships, structural equation modeling yielded results that support a model in which authentic leadership exerts a direct effect on safety climate, as well as an indirect effect via psychological capital. This study shows the importance of leadership qualities as well as psychological factors in shaping a positive work safety climate and lowering the risk of accidents.

  12. The economics of offshore wind

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Green, Richard; Vasilakos, Nicholas

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents an overview of the main issues associated with the economics of offshore wind. Investment in offshore wind systems has been growing rapidly throughout Europe, and the technology will be essential in meeting EU targets for renewable energy in 2020. Offshore wind suffers from high installation and connection costs, however, making government support essential. We review various support policies used in Europe, concluding that tender-based feed-in tariff schemes, as used in Denmark, may be best for providing adequate support while minimising developers' rents. It may prove economic to build an international offshore grid connecting wind farms belonging to different countries that are sited close to each other. (author)

  13. The economics of offshore wind

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Green, Richard; Vasilakos, Nicholas [Department of Economics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom)

    2011-02-15

    This paper presents an overview of the main issues associated with the economics of offshore wind. Investment in offshore wind systems has been growing rapidly throughout Europe, and the technology will be essential in meeting EU targets for renewable energy in 2020. Offshore wind suffers from high installation and connection costs, however, making government support essential. We review various support policies used in Europe, concluding that tender-based feed-in tariff schemes, as used in Denmark, may be best for providing adequate support while minimising developers' rents. It may prove economic to build an international offshore grid connecting wind farms belonging to different countries that are sited close to each other. (author)

  14. Offshore wind power. Market opportunities for the Norwegian supply industry, and regulatory framework needed to realize these opportunities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Volden, G.; Bull-Berg, H.; Skjeret, F.; Finne, H.; Hofmann, M.

    2010-07-01

    Full text: Offshore wind power has received much attention these last few years, from governments, NGOs as well as energy companies. There are still huge technological challenges to overcome, especially concerning floating constructions on deep water, but offshore wind has a potential to become an important energy source in the future. The main objective of our study was to build more knowledge about market opportunities for the Norwegian supply industry, most of which is closely related to offshore oil and gas activities. We started by mapping and quantifying the parts of the supply industry that could be relevant to offshore wind, which is actually most of it. Then, through interviews and questionnaires, we asked potential suppliers about their attitude and strategies towards offshore wind. An over-whelming majority was optimistic about future markets internationally, whereas there was less belief in large-scale power production on the Norwegian shelf. Suppliers do not necessarily find the lack of a Norwegian 'home market' to be a barrier. However many of them expressed that the risk is high and it may be crucial to establish a national demo program, for supplier to test new technological solutions at low cost, gain references and develop industrial relations with other suppliers. We argue that being part of an industrial cluster may be a success criterion within offshore wind. By using Michael Porter's 'Diamond Model' we analyse Norway's inherent competitiveness as a potential host for an offshore wind cluster - with or without energy producers. Norway's most important advantage is the existing industrial environment, with a strong maritime sector and engineering companies with special competence in floating and fixed installations for the oil industry. Norway also has disadvantages; such as lack of traditions within wind power and wind turbine manufacturing, as well as high salaries and lack of engineers. So far it is also

  15. Oil and gas in British Columbia : 10 steps to responsible development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-04-01

    The British Columbia government has proposed to double production of oil and gas, the burning of which causes global warming. West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL) claims there is a strong divide between British Columbia's plans to expand the production and use of fossil fuels, and the international scientific consensus regarding the negative aspects of global warming. The impacts of oil and gas production negatively affect the health of local citizens, First Nations rights and the environment. Offshore oil and gas development could also threaten fisheries and pollute sensitive marine ecosystems. WCEL criticizes the fact that the British Columbia government has streamlined environmental regulations, has laid off compliance monitoring staff, and has given subsidies to the highly profitable oil and gas industry. WCEL argues that the impact of fossil fuel production must be mitigated to limit the damage to lands and people in British Columbia. The organization has proposed 10 recommendations to the British Columbia government. The recommendations focus on impacts of land-based oil and gas development rather than offshore impacts. WCEL claims that adoption of the 10-point mitigation plan is vital for putting British Columbia on the path toward sustainable development. 43 refs

  16. China places first self-financed offshore development on production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that China's Bohai Oil Co. (BOC) last month started up its first exclusively self-financed offshore petroleum development. Jinzhou 20-2 oil and gas/condensate field went on stream in the Liaodong Bay area of the Bohai Sea with production of 53 MMcfd of gas and 3,019 b/d of condensate

  17. Net oil exports embodied in China's international trade: An input–output analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tang, Xu; Zhang, Baosheng; Feng, Lianyong; Snowden, Simon; Höök, Mikael

    2012-01-01

    As the world's second largest oil importer, China has been one of the important factors which affect the global oil market. In recent years, China has attained great international trade surplus through exporting a large number of “Made in China” products even during the global economic crisis. Due to direct and indirect effects in production chain, each 'Made in China' product contains oil directly or indirectly. China is exporting much oil through “Made in China” products, which is not often considered even within China. An input–output model is established to calculate oil embodied in the international trade of China. The research results suggest the following: China's net oil exports embodied in the international trade were 87.02 million tonnes in 2007; manufacture of communication equipment, computers and other electronic equipment is the largest sector to export embodied oil; United States, China Hong Kong SAR and Netherlands are the top three countries and regions which benefit most from the embodied oil in “Made in China” products. China's adjusted degree of dependence on foreign oil is 24.9% in 2007, and 38.4% in 2011 if net oil exports embodied in international trade are considered. -- Highlights: ► Model is established based on IO analysis to calculate the net oil exports embodied in China's international trade. ► China's net oil exports through “Made in China” products are 87 million tones in 2007. ► United States, China Hong Kong SAR and Netherlands benefit most from the embodied oil in China's international trade. ► China's degree of dependence on foreign oil can be reduced obviously if oil embodied in international trade are considered.

  18. Study of waste generation in the drilling and cementing operations during construction of offshore oil and gas wells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Letícia Ferraço de Campos

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This literature review aims to present drilling and cementing activities which take place during the construction of offshore oil and gas wells, listing the waste generated in each step. IBAMA, the environmental agency that regulates the activity, allows two disposal options for these wastes: disposal in open sea or treatment followed by disposal on shore. The documentary research applied in this article details the destination options showing that the monitoring required by the environmental agency is a way to track the actual results of the activities described.

  19. Making offshore industries greener: negotiating environmental policy in the Dutch oil and gas sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hinssen, J.

    1994-01-01

    In this paper the negotiations between the Dutch Government and the oil and gas sector regarding environmental measures for the offshore industry are analysed. Dutch environmental policy is presently being developed via 'Target Group Management'. The instrument used in this approach is policy negotiations, resulting in covenants. By signing a covenant, both government and industry take responsibility for the development and implementation of a realistic environmental policy. Negotiating environmental policies, however, can be problematic. This relates to the delay in obtaining an integrated approach to environmental problems. It is not unlikely that, in the four years required for the negotiation process, a legally binding environmental law might also have been developed. It is concluded that the value of the covenant mainly depends on the goodwill of the parties involved. (Author)

  20. A Study on the efficient alleviation of domestic oil price at international oil crisis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Young Ku [Korea Energy Economics Institute, Euiwang (Korea)

    1999-01-01

    For alleviating domestic oil price when the international oil crisis happens, the government has been reacted directly such as using stored oil or alleviation fund. Although the release of stored oil works for short-term depending on the type of crisis, concerning that most of oil crisis had been resulted in temporary supply reduction rather than long-term supply suspension, utilizing the domestic alleviation fund is regarded more economical than storing oil. However, it has been suggested to compare efficiencies of alleviation fund and a futures market regarding the perspectives that using alleviation fund is more inefficient than utilizing a futures market. Moreover, the direct management by government is less efficient than indirect management. As an efficient way to alleviate domestic oil price at international oil crisis, this study presents an effective utilization of trading in futures of crude oil. There is a high probability of occurrence of this kind of oil crisis by judging from the world political situation and the trend of oil market. In such a case, the government as a crude oil importer should minimize the stored oil and utilize a futures market effectively. The subject of alleviating oil price by trading in futures is an oil supplier, such as oil refining companies or oil importers not the government as a prerequisite. Furthermore, the government should approve to include appropriate cost for preparing oil price alleviation in the oil price and it is required that such a government policy should be consistent. (author). 41 refs., 3 figs., 15 Tabs.

  1. For the birds : suspected roastings prompt study of offshore flares

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reid, W.

    1999-01-01

    A recent research project has revealed that offshore flares can pose a hazard to waterfowl. Two academic environmentalists from Memorial University and the Atlantic Co-operation Wildlife Ecology Research are working with Hibernia, PanCanadian Resources, Terra Nova and the Sable gas group to study the possibility of oil platforms having killed great numbers of birds. The objective is to study the potential problem and try to quantify the number of seabirds and what the impacts might be on the birds. The work involves observing waterfowl from oil platforms and supply vessels and taking a census of various species, the number of casualties and how they die. This project did not start because of any hard facts suggesting the offshore oil industry hurts the ecology of the Grand Banks. It stems from public concerns about Terra Nova, the next big project. 1 fig

  2. Towards sustainability in offshore oil and gas operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, M. Ibrahim

    acceptable, economically profitable and socially responsible. This dissertation discusses the framework of true 'sustainability' for practically all aspects oil and gas operations and nature-based resource operations. Sustainability of existing offshore oil and gas operations techniques are analyzed and new nature-based technologies are proposed. Also evaluated are the fate and effect, environmental impact, risk factors, and the green supply chain in the case of seismic, drilling, production and decommissioning of oil operations. It is demonstrated with detailed examples that using the new approach will be economically more beneficial than the conventional approach, even in the short-term. The dissertation also examines the present status of petroleum operations with respect to waste generation, improper resource management, and the usage of toxic compounds in the overall lifecycle. To achieve true sustainability, some innovative models and technologies are presented. They include achievement of zero emissions, zero waste of resources, zero waste in activities, zero use of toxics, and zero waste in product life-cycle. This dissertation also discusses the environmental and technological problems of the petroleum sector and provides guidelines to achieve overall sustainability in oil company activities. Finally, this dissertation shows that inherent sustainability can be achieved by the involvement of community participation. The new screening tool proposed in this dissertation provides proper guidelines to achieve true sustainability in the technology development and other resource development operations.

  3. 3. International Workshop on Transmission Networks for Offshore Wind Farms. Proceedings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ackermann, T [ed.

    2002-07-01

    The emphasis is on both theoretical discussions and on practical applications. After almost a decade with mainly demonstration projects in the area of offshore wind power, this year will see the first large commercial offshore wind projects with more than 50 MW installed capacity and more and more larger projects are scheduled for the coming years. Also more and more energy policy makers, electric utilities as well as the media recognize the enormous potential of offshore wind power as a large-scale sustainable energy source. The development in this area results in new ideas, questions and research proposals. Such a new topic is, hydrogen production using offshore wind farms.

  4. Technological change, depletion and environmental policy in the offshore oil and gas industry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Managi, Shunsuke

    Technological change is central to maintaining standards of living in modern economies with finite resources and increasingly stringent environmental goals. Successful environmental policies can contribute to efficiency by encouraging, rather than inhibiting, technological innovation. However, little research to date has focused on the design and implementation of environmental regulations that encourage technological progress, or in insuring productivity improvements in the face of depletion of natural resources and increasing stringency of environmental regulations. This study models and measures productivity change, with an application to offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico using Data Envelopment Analysis. This is an important application because energy resources are central to sustaining our economy. The net effects of technological progress and depletion on productivity of offshore oil and gas production are measured using a unique field-level set of data of production from all wells in the Gulf of Mexico over the time period from 1946--1998. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that technological progress has mitigated depletion effects over the study period, but the pattern differs from the conventional wisdom for nonrenewable resource industries. The Porter Hypothesis was recast, and revised version was tested. The Porter Hypothesis states that well designed environmental regulations can potentially contribute to productive efficiency in the long run by encouraging innovation. The Porter Hypothesis was recast to include market and nonmarket outputs. Our results support the recast version of Porter hypothesis, which examine productivity of joint production of market and environmental outputs. But we find no evidence for the standard formulation of the Porter hypothesis, that increased stringency of environmental regulation lead to increased productivity of market outputs and therefore increased industry profits. The model is used to

  5. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Decommissioning Offshore Wells Using Stakeholder Engagement, Risk Identification, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Battalora, L.; Prasad, M.

    2017-12-01

    Context/PurposeThe typical oil and gas project lifecycle includes acquisition, exploration, drilling, production, and decommissioning phases. The oil and gas industry (Industry) has become proactive in identifying and mitigating health, safety, security, environment, and social responsibility risks during these phases as well as designing for sustainable development. With many fields reaching the end stages of the lifecycle, Industry is faced with the challenge of identifying and evaluating risks in the decommissioning phase. The level of challenge is increased when planning for the decommissioning of offshore wells. This paper describes tools that can be applied in the multidisciplinary design of the decommissioning program including use of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). MethodsStakeholder engagement is key to a successful project. Typical stakeholders in an oil and gas project include the community, regulatory agencies, federal, state, and local governments, private investors, academia, and non-governmental organizations. Before engagement begins, stakeholders must be identified as well as their level of influence in the project. Relationships between stakeholders are "mapped" providing a better understanding of priorities and areas of concentration. Project risks are identified and ranked according to likelihood and impact. Mitigations are matched to risks. Sustainable development is implemented through acknowledgement of societal, economic, and environmental impacts in engineering design. InterpretationRecently, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and IPIECA, the global oil and gas industry association for environmental and social issues, partnered to develop the publication, Mapping the oil and gas industry to the Sustainable Development Goals: An Atlas. SDGs have been linked to Industry operations and can serve as a guide for the offshore decommissioning phase Conclusion

  6. Waste heat recovery technologies for offshore platforms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pierobon, Leonardo; Benato, Alberto; Scolari, E.

    2014-01-01

    This article aims at finding the most suitable waste heat recovery technology for existing and future offshore facilities. The technologies considered in this work are the steam Rankine cycle, the air bottoming cycle and the organic Rankine cycle. A multi-objective optimization approach is employed...... to attain optimal designs for each bottoming unit by selecting specific functions tailored to the oil and gas sector, i.e. yearly CO2 emissions, weight and economic revenue. The test case is the gas turbine-based power system serving an offshore platform in the North Sea. Results indicate that the organic...... and of the primary heat exchanger, organic Rankine cycle turbogenerators appear thus to be the preferred solution to abate CO2 emissions and pollutants on oil and gas facilities. As a practical consequence, this paper provides guidelines for the design of high-efficiency, cost-competitive and low-weight power...

  7. Estimates of oil entering the marine environment in the past decade : GESAMP Working Group 32 project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Etkin, D.S.; Grey, C.; Wells, P.; Koefoed, J.; Nauke, M.; Meyer, T.; Campbell, J.; Reddy, S.

    1998-01-01

    A meeting of the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Protection (GESAMP), Working Group 32, was held to discuss a new approach for evaluating available data sources on the input of oil into the marine environment from sea-based activities. GESAMP Working Group on Estimates of Oil Entering the Marine Environment, Sea Based Activities (Working Group 32) will collect and analyze data on oil inputs over the last decade from shipping, offshore and coastal exploration and production, pipelines, atmospheric emissions from sea-based activities, coastal refineries and storage facilities, oil reception facilities, materials disposed of at sea, and natural seepage. The group will compare its oil input estimate model to estimates made by the National Research Council, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and GESAMP in previous decades, to evaluate the efficacy of IMO conventions and other pollution reduction efforts in the last 10 years. The group will also consider the amounts of oil entering the sea through operational and accidental spillage in relation to the quantities of oil transported by ship and through pipelines, and in relation to offshore and coastal oil production. 7 refs., 4 tabs

  8. Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board : annual report 1998/1999

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-01-01

    Financial information from the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board and a review of their operations was presented. The Board manages the petroleum resources in the Newfoundland Offshore area on behalf of the Canadian Government and the Newfoundland and Labrador Government. The Board ensures that resource development is conducted in accordance with good oilfield practice to optimize recovery and avoid waste. Energy resource activities were summarized. A total of nine offshore seismic surveys were completed during the summer of 1998, the largest acquisition of seismic data in any one year. The surveys recorded 76,000 km of 2-D and 3-D seismic data. The drilling and production activities of the Hibernia field were also reviewed. 24 million bbls of oil were produced from the platform during the 1998 calendar year. The Terra Nova project continues to progress for a first oil target date of late 2000. This report presented an operations review, exploration activity, and consolidated financial statements. Revenue and expenditure statements were summarized by source. tabs., figs

  9. Positive organizational behavior and safety in the offshore oil industry: Exploring the determinants of positive safety climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hystad, Sigurd W.; Bartone, Paul T.; Eid, Jarle

    2013-01-01

    Much research has now documented the substantial influence of safety climate on a range of important outcomes in safety critical organizations, but there has been scant attention to the question of what factors might be responsible for positive or negative safety climate. The present paper draws from positive organizational behavior theory to test workplace and individual factors that may affect safety climate. Specifically, we explore the potential influence of authentic leadership style and psychological capital on safety climate and risk outcomes. Across two samples of offshore oil-workers and seafarers working on oil platform supply ships, structural equation modeling yielded results that support a model in which authentic leadership exerts a direct effect on safety climate, as well as an indirect effect via psychological capital. This study shows the importance of leadership qualities as well as psychological factors in shaping a positive work safety climate and lowering the risk of accidents. PMID:24454524

  10. Mauritania and its sea: could offshore oil exploitation help better manage ecological insecurity?; La Mauritanie et la mer: et si le petrole aidait a mieux gerer l'insecurite ecologique?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Magrin, G. [CIRAD-ES, UMR TETIS, UMR PRODIG, 34398 Montpellier (France); Van Vliet, G. [CIRAD-ES, UMR Art-Dev, 34398 Montpellier (France); Van Dessel, B. [3232 Brielle (Netherlands); Chabason, L. [IDDRI, 75006 Paris (France)

    2011-07-15

    Over centuries Mauritania societies have turned their backs to the sea until independence and, later, drought created incentives for the State and national actors to take an interest in sea resources. Whether at sea or on the mainland the relationship to the territory's resources appeared to be entrusted to the same State who was more interested in exercising control on flows rather than in management, production or transformation. However, regarding the fisheries industry and the issue of its preservation the Mauritania state has progressively increased its intervention capacities. The extraordinary ecological and economic value of Mauritania waters - with the 'banc d'Arguin' as their most famous ecosystem - certainly played a role in this evolution. The recent exploitation of offshore oil resources has reinforced the need to increase the overall capacity to regulate all aspects of the maritime area (conservation, fisheries, transport and oil and gas). The emergence of oil and gas activities re-emphasises the difficulties faced by a dependent State when trying to appropriate and manage a territory whose resources attract the attention of powerful international shareholders. (authors)

  11. Characterizing pinniped use of offshore oil and gas platforms as haulouts and foraging areas in waters off southern California from 2013-01-01 to 2015-01-31 (NCEI Accession 0138984)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) and Pacific harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) use offshore oil and gas platforms as resting and foraging areas. Both...

  12. International activities and experience in offshore wind power generation; Internationale Aktivitaeten und Erfahrungen im Bereich der Offshore-Windenergienutzung

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rehfeldt, K.; Gerdes, G.J.

    2002-01-01

    Current activities in the area of offshore wind energy are being made only in the European Community in the form of concrete plans or as projects. Denmark and Sweden began as pioneers in the setting up of offshore wind parks along their coast in the Baltic Sea. As a world-wide first, Denmark saw the practicality of offshore wind energy as a way of reducing the emission of CO{sub 2} and opening new doors in the wind energy branch. Essential is not to name the ambitious goals, but that at the designated suitable regions, pilot projects are implemented therefore initiating extensive research and development projects. Our European neighbours have shown us through their own experience what great potential and underlying dynamic offshore wind energy has. The development of projects can be given with confidence to private sector, if however the main consensus from promoters and environmentalists is desired, then in this instance the governmental participation as a guide would be desirable. (orig.)

  13. Comments on new technical and economic data available for EPA's proposed offshore oil and gas discharge guidelines and standards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to provide comments on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Notice in the Federal Register entitled, ''Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category, Offshore Subcategory; Effluent Limitations Guidelines and New Source Performance Standards; New Information and Request or Comments'' (53 FR 41356; October 21, 1988). This Notice announces the availability of new technical, economic and environmental assessment information relating to the development of Best Available Technology economically achievable (BAT and New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) regulations under the Clean Water Act governing the discharge of drilling fluids (muds) and drill cuttings from offshore oil and gas facilities. The Notice is part of a rulemaking process which formally began with the initial release of rules in August 1985 and which incorporates numerous comments and additional data received subsequent to the release of the 1985 rules. The comments in this paper will concentrate on the following five issues: Estimated project impacts are misrepresented by assuming weighted-average incremental costs of regulation. Economic impacts are inaccurate, since annual compliance costs will likely affect the number of wells drilled, by the effect of compliance costs on project economics and the reduction in industry cash flows on capital available for drilling. Initial well productivity assumptions for various scenarios do not vary with field size. The assumed lease costs, which are based on historical data, do not accurately reflect the future value of leases. The experimental decline rates assumed for the Pacific are too high

  14. A new era for the offshore oil and gas industry on the UKCS [United Kingdom Continental Shelf

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pickering, H.

    1998-01-01

    This paper explores the development of the offshore oil and gas industry on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) and particularly the role played by science and technology in that development. An historical perspective is taken in the first instance to place recent developments in context, before exploring the role of science and technology in the 1990s. Three areas of key importance form the basis of the discussion: the maintenance of production from the traditional provinces, the development of new provinces and the mitigation of environmental impacts. The paper demonstrates the crucial role that science and technology plays in each of these areas. (author)

  15. Strengthening, modification and repair techniques’ prioritization for structural integrity control of ageing offshore structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samarakoon, Samindi M.K.; Ratnayake, R.M. Chandima

    2015-01-01

    Structural integrity control is vital for existing ageing as well as newly built offshore and onshore structures. Structural integrity control becomes highly sensitive to interventions under a potential loss of structural integrity when it comes to offshore oil and gas production and process facilities. This is mainly due to the inherent constraints present in carrying out engineering work in the offshore atmosphere. It has been further exacerbated by the ageing offshore structures and the necessity of carrying out life extension toward the end of their design service lives. Local and international regulations demand the implementation of appropriate strengthening, modification and repair plans when significant changes in the structural integrity are revealed. In this context, strengthening, modification and repair techniques such as welding, member removal/reduction of loading, mechanical clamping and grouted repairs play a vital role. This manuscript presents an approach for prioritizing the strengthening, modification and repair techniques using a multi-criteria analysis approach. An analytic hierarchy process has been selected for the analysis via an illustrative case. It also provides a comprehensive overview of currently existing; strengthening, modification and repair techniques and their comparative pros and cons. - Highlights: • Structural integrity control (SIC) of ageing and intact offshore structures. • Strengthening, modification and/or repair (SMR) techniques have been explained. • Application of multi-criteria analysis conserving SI has been illustrated. • SMR techniques prioritization and sensitivity analysis has been performed

  16. Offshore Hydrocarbons Extraction In Colombia: Legal Overview And Challenges Regarding The New Offshore Free Trade Zones

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carolina Acosta Ramos

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Offshore extraction of hydrocarbons has increasingly become important in the context of the oil business. Thus, the Republic of Colombia has wanted to encourage the development of such operations in the country, despite the fact that it does not have at present time a harmonious legal framework to regulate the activity and/or to proper coordinate the governmental agencies involved in the approval of such operations. This article presents an overview of the problems associated with offshore activities in the world and analyzes – from a critical perspective - the role of local authorities in authorizing said operations as well as the new regime of customs-free zones created in the country.

  17. Rapid microbial respiration of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in offshore surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Edwards, Bethanie R; Reddy, Christopher M; Carmichael, Catherine A; Longnecker, Krista; Van Mooy, Benjamin A S; Camilli, Richard

    2011-01-01

    The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was one of the largest oil spills in history, and the fate of this oil within the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem remains to be fully understood. The goal of this study-conducted in mid-June of 2010, approximately two months after the oil spill began-was to understand the key role that microbes would play in the degradation of the oil in the offshore oligotrophic surface waters near the Deepwater Horizon site. As the utilization of organic carbon by bacteria in the surface waters of the Gulf had been previously shown to be phosphorus limited, we hypothesized that bacteria would be unable to rapidly utilize the oil released from the Macondo well. Although phosphate was scarce throughout the sampling region and microbes exhibited enzymatic signs of phosphate stress within the oil slick, microbial respiration within the slick was enhanced by approximately a factor of five. An incubation experiment to determine hydrocarbon degradation rates confirmed that a large fraction of this enhanced respiration was supported by hydrocarbon degradation. Extrapolating our observations to the entire area of the slick suggests that microbes had the potential to degrade a large fraction of the oil as it arrived at the surface from the well. These observations decidedly refuted our hypothesis. However, a concomitant increase in microbial abundance or biomass was not observed in the slick, suggesting that microbial growth was nutrient limited; incubations amended with nutrients showed rapid increases in cell number and biomass, which supported this conclusion. Our study shows that the dynamic microbial community of the Gulf of Mexico supported remarkable rates of oil respiration, despite a dearth of dissolved nutrients.

  18. Structural reasons for vertical integration in the international oil industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luciani, G.

    1991-01-01

    Once upon a time, the international oil industry was vertically integrated. A small group of companies controlled a very substantial share of international oil flows, extending their operations from the oil well to the gas pump, and relying on intracorporate transfers for most in-between transactions. The historical reasons for vertical disintegration, the market role, and structural reasons for vertical reintegration are examined. (author)

  19. A new submarine oil-water separation system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Wen-Bin; Liu, Bo-Hong

    2017-12-01

    In order to solve the oil field losses of environmental problems and economic benefit caused by the separation of lifting production liquid to offshore platforms in the current offshore oil production, from the most basic separation principle, a new oil-water separation system has been processed of adsorption and desorption on related materials, achieving high efficiency and separation of oil and water phases. And the submarine oil-water separation device has been designed. The main structure of the device consists of gas-solid phase separation device, period separating device and adsorption device that completed high efficiency separation of oil, gas and water under the adsorption and desorption principle, and the processing capacity of the device is calculated.

  20. Danish offshore wind - Key environmental issues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2006-11-01

    Danish experience from the past 15 years shows that offshore wind farms, if placed right, can be engineered and operated without significant damage to the marine environment and vulnerable species. The comprehensive environmental monitoring programmes of Horns Rev Offshore Wind Farm and Nysted Offshore Wind Farm confirm that, under the rieght conditions, even big wind farms pose low risk to birds, mammals and fish, even though there will be changes in the living conditions of some species by an increase in habitat heterogeneity. The monitoring also shows that appropriate siting of offshore wind farms is an essential precondition for ensuring limited impact on nature and the environment, and that careful spatial planning is necessary to avoid damaging cumulative impacts. Due consideration to limiting the impacts on nature together with positive attitudes towards offshore wind farms in local communities and challenging energy policy objectives at national and international levels mean that prospects look bright for future offshore expansion. (au)

  1. International oil market: instability and restructuring

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ayoub, A

    1988-12-01

    The three phenomena which today dominate the international oil market are: 1. the downward price trend since 1981 and the uncertainty about medium and long term price evolution; 2. chronic price instability in the short term; 3. the trend toward new forms of vertical integration and concentration which are now stabilizing a market confronted by a weakening OPEC and free markets which are volatile. The new market restructuring the present period for the international oil sector as a transition period, with the following characteristics: 1. an evident convergence in the motivations of the major oil companies and of a number of OPEC countries, to see a certain stability restored in the oil market based on vertical integration and concentration; 2. markets cannot be stabilized by political agreements between the states, but only by reciprocal financial implications and participations between companies according to the rules of the business world; 3. the market as a whole will still continue for a certain time to be governed by the OPEC-free market pair, with alternating domination by one or the other according to the economic situation. Nevertheless, the longer the market continues to be unstable, the more the trend toward concentration and integration will intensify.

  2. Pirólise de resíduos poliméricos gerados por atividades offshore Pyrolysis of offshore solid wastes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mara L. de Oliveira

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Resíduos plásticos gerados pelas atividades offshore da indústria de exploração e produção de óleo e gás, após caracterização por ensaio de identificação das classes poliméricas e análise térmica, foram pirolisados em atmosfera inerte a 450 °C. Os óleos pirolíticos foram caracterizados por espectrofotometria de infravermelho por transformada de Fourier (FTIR e cromatografia em fase gasosa acoplada à espectrometria de massas (CG/EM, indicando a composição de parafinas, olefinas e aromáticos.Solid wastes from oil and gas offshore exploration and production activities, after characterization of polymeric classes and thermal identification analysis tests, were pyrolysed under an inert atmosphere at 450 °C. The pyrolysis oil was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR gas chromatography mass spectrometry (CG/EM, indicating high generation of paraffin, olefines and aromatics.

  3. Compensation for oil pollution damage caused by oil spills from ships and the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jacobsson, M.

    1994-01-01

    Liability and compensation for pollution damage caused by oil spills from laden tankers is governed by two international conventions: the 1969 Civil Liability Convention and the 1971 Fund Convention. The Civil Liability Convention established a system of strict liability for tanker owners and introduced compulsory liability insurance. The Fund Convention created a system of supplementary compensation administered by an intergovernmental organization, the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC Fund), which at present has 56 member states (August 1993). The IOPC Fund pays compensation to victims of oil pollution in member states when the compensation from the ship owner and his insurer is insufficient. (author)

  4. Centrifuge and Numerical Modeling of Monopiles for Offshore Wind Towers Installed in Clay

    OpenAIRE

    Murali, Madhuri; Grajales, Francisco; Beemer, Ryan D.; Biscontin, Giovanna; Aubeny, Charles

    2015-01-01

    This is a metadata record relating to an article that cannot be shared due to publisher copyright. Offshore wind power has gained momentum as a means to diversify the world’s energy infrastructure; however, little is still known of the global stiffness behavior of the large diameter low aspect ratio monopiles which have become the foundation of choice for offshore wind towers. Traditionally, offshore foundations have been associated with gravity structures for the oil and gas industry, whi...

  5. Communities and change : number 8 of a series of papers on energy and the offshore

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon

    1998-01-01

    The issue of how communities change when faced with the sudden influx of new industries and major capital investments are discussed, focusing on the benefits and drawbacks of Nova Scotia's offshore oil and gas developments, especially those experienced in the the five counties of southwest Nova Scotia with close connections to Georges Bank. The prospect of offshore oil and gas is clearly controversial in the area. One of the concerns is that transient construction workers will create problems for local communities. Other concerns are that the beauty of the coastline will be spoiled, the way of life changed forever, communities will be split into haves and have-nots, and fears that the petroleum industry will drive hard bargains and cheat people. On the positive side, opportunities for job creation go a long way to dampen concerns. The need to consider lessons that can be learned from other communities with offshore oil and gas experience, including the experiences of the Scottish North Sea developments, Newfoundland's Hibernia development, the Gulf Coast of the United States, and Nova Scotia's Sable Offshore Energy Project are stressed as a way to cushion the impact of disruption. 9 refs

  6. Valuation of international oil companies - size matters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mohn, Klaus

    2005-01-01

    According to economic theory, exploration and the development of new oil and gas fields should respond positively to increasing prices. But since the late 1990s, financial analysts have focused strongly on short-term accounting return measures, like RoACE (Return on Average Capital Employed), for benchmarking and valuation of international oil and gas companies. Consequently, the demands for strict capital discipline among oil and gas companies may have reduced their willingness to invest for future reserves and production growth. We investigate the presumed positive relation between RoACE and stock market valuation. Based on panel data for 12 international oil and gas companies for the period 1997-2002, we seek to establish econometric relations between market valuation on one hand, and simple financial and operational indicators on the other. Our findings do not support the perceived positive relation between reported RoACE and market-based multiples. Recent evidence also suggests that the stock market is increasingly concerned about reserve replacement and sustained profitable production growth. The current high-price, low-investment equilibrium is therefore hardly stable. (Author)

  7. Offshore wind energy prospects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaudiosi, Gaetano

    1999-01-01

    In last two years offshore wind energy is becoming a focal point of national and non national organisations particularly after the limitations of fossil fuel consumption, adopted by many developed countries after Kyoto conference at the end of 1997 on global climate change. North Europe is particularly interested in offshore for the limited land areas still available, due to the intensive use of its territory and its today high wind capacity. Really the total wind capacity in Europe could increase from the 1997 value of 4450 MW up to 40 000 MW within 2010, according the White Paper 1997 of the European Commission; a significant percentage (25%) could be sited offshore up to 10 000 MW, because of close saturation of the land sites at that time. World wind capacity could increase from the 1997 value of 7200 MW up to 60 000 MW within 2010 with a good percentage (20%) offshore 12 000 MW. In last seven years wind capacity in shallow water of coastal areas has reached 34 MW. Five wind farms are functioning in the internal seas of Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden; however such siting is mostly to be considered as semi-offshore condition. Wind farms in real offshore sites, open seas with waves and water depth over 10 m, are now proposed in North Sea at 10-20 km off the coasts of Netherlands, Denmark using large size wind turbine (1-2 MW). In 1997 an offshore proposal was supported in Netherlands by Greenpeace after the OWEMES '97 seminar, held in Italy on offshore wind in the spring 1997. A review is presented in the paper of European offshore wind programs with trends in technology, economics and siting effects. (Author)

  8. A decision framework for risk management, with application to the offshore oil and gas industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aven, T.; Vinnem, J.E.; Wiencke, H.S.

    2007-01-01

    In this paper we present and discuss a decision framework for risk management. The framework comprises the basic elements: problem definition (challenges, goals and alternatives), stakeholders, concerns that affect the consequence analyses and the value judgments related to these consequences and analyses (frame conditions and constraints), identification of which consequence analyses to execute and the execution of these, managerial review and judgement, and the decision. The framework has novel aspects on the way of classifying the decision situations and characterising risks. The classification is based on the two dimensions, expected consequences, and uncertainties. Our starting point is the offshore oil and gas industry, but our framework and discussion is to a large extent general and could also be applied in other areas. An example is outlined to illustrate the use of the framework

  9. Integrating experiences from operations into engineering design: modelling knowledge transfer in the offshore oil industry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Souza da Conceição, Carolina; Broberg, Ole; Paravizo, Esdras

    2017-01-01

    of knowledge registered in the systems without standards to categorise and store this knowledge, to being difficult to access and retrieve the knowledge in the systems. Discussion: Transferring knowledge and experiences from users brings human factors into play and modelling the knowledge transfer process...... and workwise distance between operations and engineering design teams, integrating human factors and transferring knowledge are key aspects when designing for better performance systems. Research Objective: Based on an in-depth empirical investigation in an offshore oil company, this study aims to provide......Summative Statement: Integrating human factors and users’ experiences in design projects is a well-known challenge. This study focus on the specific challenges for transferring these experiences and how using a knowledge transfer model can help this integration on the design of high-risk productive...

  10. International ROR: risk, opportunity, reward

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krentz, D.; Gair, J.

    1996-01-01

    Norcen Energy Resources Limited's pursuit of international oil and gas opportunities since the late 1980s were outlined. By 1994 Norcen had exploration and production concessions in 12 countries stretching from Algeria, Russia, Argentina, Indonesia to offshore Australia. The company had seen its share of risks, opportunities and rewards. Since 1994 international efforts of the Company have been focused on lower risk opportunities with exploration upside in defined core areas of South America, particularly in Venezuela, a country with conventional, heavy and ultra-heavy oil resources exceeding that of Saudi Arabia. These, and other similar foreign investments in the formerly closed national oil industries of South America have been greatly facilitated by the political liberalization, economic reforms and stabilization that have taken place there over the past ten years. The story of Norcen's successful bidding on the Oritupano-Leona production block in 1993 and Delta Centro exploration block in 1996 was the subject of this presentation

  11. Offshoring and financial markets

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gianfranco Battisti

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The paper analyses the nature and extent of the offshore world, a grey area that is playing a major role in present-day economy. The main institutions moulding this peculiar environment are discussed: preferential tax regimes, tax havens and offshore financial centers. Their role in the globalised world is outlined after a scrutiny of the specialized literature, reports by non-governmental bodies and companies’ advertisings. Finally, we present a tentative reconstruction of its geographical organization, inclusive of cartographic representations of the main international networks.

  12. Investment Analysis of Offshore Concessions in The Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    J.T.J. Smit (Han)

    1997-01-01

    textabstractDescribes the valuation of a complex capital project, the staged development of an oil field concession in the Netherlands. Stages of offshore petroleum development on the Dutch continental shelf; Asset valuation based on replication in financial markets; Major insights and conclusions.

  13. Learning Paths to Offshore Outsourcing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Maskell, Peter; Pedersen, Torben; Petersen, Bent

    A corporation’s offshore outsourcing may be seen as the result of a discrete, strategic decision taken in response to an increasing pressure from worldwide competition. However, empirical evidence of a representative cross-sector sample of international Danish firms indicates that offshore sourcing...... in low-cost countries is best described as a learning-by-doing process in which the offshore outsourcing of a corporation goes through a sequence of stages towards sourcing for innovation. Initially, a corporation’s outsourcing is driven by a desire for cost minimization. Over a period of time...... the outsourcing experience lessens the cognitive limitations of decision-makers as to the advantages that can be achieved through outsourcing in low-cost countries: the insourcer/vendor may not only offer cost advantages, but also quality improvement and innovation. The quality improvements that offshore...

  14. International offshore petroleum contracts: Towards the compatibility of energy need and sustainable development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gao Zhiguo.

    1993-01-01

    The legal and commercial relationships between petroleum producing countries and foreign oil companies have been defined by traditional oil concession agreements before the 1950s, and since then by modern petroleum contracts. The development policies behind the evolution of various arrangements for offshore petroleum exploration are scrutinized. By studying examples of contracts in four developing countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, and China), the issues of mutuality of interests and environmental sustainability that are reflected in both the structure and substance of modern petroleum contracts are examined. Major findings are that modern petroleum contracts are generally able to achieve and maintain a necessary balance of rights, interests and benefits between the contracting parties, but have failed to produce any balance between the extraction of resources and environmental sustainability. The existing contractual systems have failed in principle to provide adequate environmental regulation and have not addressed the issue of sustainable development at all. Arrangements focusing on economic interests are inappropriate for future energy developments, but through the proper use of contract terms that contain elements favouring sustainable development, economic and environmental interests can nevertheless be accomodated and served at the same time. Future petroleum agreements should recognize explicitly the inherent independence and coexistence between commerciality and sustainable development. 288 refs., 1 fig., 24 tabs

  15. Planning international transit oil pipeline projects in Croatia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sekulic, G.; Vrbic, D.

    2004-01-01

    Planning and development of international oil pipeline projects are aimed primarily at enhancing the safety of crude oil supply. Pipeline development is affected by a variety of overlapping factors, such as energy - and environment-protection-related factors, as well as political, economic, legislative, social, technical and technological ones. The success of any pipeline planning, construction and operation in the present conditions will depend upon the degree to which the above factors have been brought in line with global trends. The government should create stable political, economic and legislative frameworks that will meet the global requirements of crude oil transport development. As regards (new) transportation companies, their function is to secure safe transport by providing competitive tariffs and granting environmental protection. A prerequisite for the pipeline planning is to have both major crude oil consumers and producers (as well as their economic and political integrations) consider any state or company as potential partners for crude oil transport and transit, respectively. Croatia and the JANAF transport company have been 'chosen' as one of priority routes for European supply with crude oil from the Caspian region and Russia and one of the directions for Russian crude oil export due to a number of advantages, opportunities and prospects for a successful development. Two international oil pipeline projects - the Druzba Adria Project and the Constanta-Pancevo-Omisalj-Trieste Project - are currently under consideration. The government commitment towards these projects has been documented by the Croatian Energy Development Strategy (April 2002) and by the Programme for its implementation (March 2004). JANAF has assumed the responsibility for carrying out the project preparation activities assigned to it by the Croatian Government and the pertinent ministries. Cooperation between JANAF and government institutions is an integral part of the procedure

  16. Offshore: nations needing our help to exploit oil and gas. [British offshore supply industry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Laird, R

    1978-02-23

    The opportunities around the world for Great Britian to sell companies its expertise on petroleum and natural gas drilling are surveyed. Hydrocarbon reserves; development plans, especially offshore drilling plans; needed equipment and technology; and investment requirements are a few of the factors discussed for Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, India, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. (MCW)

  17. International Oil Supplies and Demands. Volume 1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1991-09-01

    The eleventh Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) working group met four times over the 1989--90 period to compare alternative perspectives on international oil supplies and demands through 2010 and to discuss how alternative supply and demand trends influence the world`s dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. Proprietors of eleven economic models of the world oil market used their respective models to simulate a dozen scenarios using standardized assumptions. From its inception, the study was not designed to focus on the short-run impacts of disruptions on oil markets. Nor did the working group attempt to provide a forecast or just a single view of the likely future path for oil prices. The model results guided the group`s thinking about many important longer-run market relationships and helped to identify differences of opinion about future oil supplies, demands, and dependence.

  18. International Oil Supplies and Demands. Volume 2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1992-04-01

    The eleventh Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) working group met four times over the 1989--1990 period to compare alternative perspectives on international oil supplies and demands through 2010 and to discuss how alternative supply and demand trends influence the world`s dependence upon Middle Eastern oil. Proprietors of eleven economic models of the world oil market used their respective models to simulate a dozen scenarios using standardized assumptions. From its inception, the study was not designed to focus on the short-run impacts of disruptions on oil markets. Nor did the working group attempt to provide a forecast or just a single view of the likely future path for oil prices. The model results guided the group`s thinking about many important longer-run market relationships and helped to identify differences of opinion about future oil supplies, demands, and dependence.

  19. Effect of Second-Order Hydrodynamics on a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Roald, L.; Jonkman, J.; Robertson, A.

    2014-05-01

    The design of offshore floating wind turbines uses design codes that can simulate the entire coupled system behavior. At the present, most codes include only first-order hydrodynamics, which induce forces and motions varying with the same frequency as the incident waves. Effects due to second- and higher-order hydrodynamics are often ignored in the offshore industry, because the forces induced typically are smaller than the first-order forces. In this report, first- and second-order hydrodynamic analysis used in the offshore oil and gas industry is applied to two different wind turbine concepts--a spar and a tension leg platform.

  20. Environmental implications of offshore oil and gas development in Australia. Part 5; Coastal facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Black, K.P.; Brand, G.W.; Hammond, L.S.; Mourtikas, S.; Noyes-Fitzsimmons, R.L.; Smith, J.M.; Gwyther, D.; Richardson, B.J.

    1994-01-01

    It is emphasised that coastal facilities pertaining to petroleum exploration and production activities are of greater concern for potential deleterious environmental consequences than the offshore facilities. This is primarily because rates of dispersion and dilution of toxic wastes are generally lower in shallow coastal waters which are often subject to complex bathymetry, and more constricted water flows. The review found that the main processes (apart from oil spills) identified as having greatest potential environmental effect were: coastal discharges of produced water; sedimentation caused by dredging; spoil dumping; and pipe-laying activities. The review examines a wide range of marine environmental issues arising from the use of coastal-servicing facilities, including: practices and discharges during regular operation of coastal facilities; nature and extent of any environmental impact on the surrounding environment; and any deleterious effects stemming from these facilities. 194 refs., 13 tabs., 36 figs

  1. Panama: World Oil Report 1991

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports that Texaco signed a contract to explore 1.1 million acres in Blocks 1 and 2, on and offshore the northwestern coast. The firm has not revealed any plans beyond conducting a preliminary analysis. No drilling was reported last year. Switzerland-based Idria Oil and Gas, which drilled and abandoned three offshore wells with oil and gas shows in 1989, the it has no plans for 1991. However, the firm the it may drill three wells in 1992

  2. Seychelles: World Oil Report 1991

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1991-01-01

    This paper reports on the small island group that was host to the first Indian Ocean Regional Seminar on Petroleum Exploration in mid-December. Efforts are under way to set up a regional system for cooperation in petroleum between countries in the region that hope to become oil producers. Offshore permits are held by Enterprise Oil and recently by Texaco. Ultamar Exploration Ltd. signed an eight-year offshore exploration contract becoming only the fourth company to attempt exploration off the archipelago

  3. Out of sight, out of mind - societal considerations in offshore development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rothermund, H.C.

    1996-01-01

    This paper deals with societal considerations in connection with the UK offshore development. The offshore oil and gas industry seems remote from most people's lives, but its responsibilities has been recognised towards people and the environment. The author discusses the industry's changing response to these issues in three areas such as the creation of wealth, the health and safety of those involved in its operations, and the protection of the environment

  4. Offshoring and Job Stability : Evidence from Italian Manufacturing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lo Turco, A.; Maggioni, D.; Picchio, M.

    2012-01-01

    Abstract: We study the relationship between offshoring and job stability in Italy in the period 1995–2001 by using an administrative dataset on manufacturing workers. We find that the international fragmentation of production negatively affects job stability. Service offshoring and material

  5. National Oil Companies and their role in international market

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2007-01-01

    Thirteen of the top 20 international helders of oil and gas reserves are either traditional national oil company (NOC) or newly privatised NOC. The growing importance of NOC in the international energy markets raises questions about emerging policies, objectives and priorities of these organizations since, historically, geopolitical and strategic aims in addition to purely commercial considerations are factored into their foreign investment decisions [it

  6. Consortium for Offshore Aviation Research : description of current projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1998-01-01

    The five projects which are currently underway or being evaluated through the Consortium for Offshore Aviation Research (COAR) were described. The projects are: (1) the use of narrow-beam, high intensity searchlights as approach aids for helicopter landings on helidecks in low visibility conditions, (2) establishment of a precipitation and fog characterization facility forecasting, (3) use of ice-phobic materials for airframe anti-icing, (4) use of differential global positioning satellite systems for offshore operations, and (5) the development of a virtual reality head-up-display for the approach to the Hibernia helideck (or any other helideck) to facilitate low visibility landings. Seed funding for these projects has been provided by the European Space Agency. Additional support is being provided by Hibernia, Petro-Canada, Husky Oil and Chevron Oil Canada. Initiatives to increase the number of partners are underway. 1 fig

  7. Value of information-based inspection planning for offshore structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Irman, Arifian Agusta; Thöns, Sebastian; Leira, Bernt J.

    2017-01-01

    with each inspection strategy. A simplified and generic risk-based inspection planning utilizing pre- posterior Bayesian decision analysis had been proposed by Faber et al. [1] and Straub [2]. This paper provides considerations on the theoretical background and a Value of Information analysis......-based inspection planning. The paper will start out with a review of the state-of-art RBI planning procedure based on Bayesian decision theory and its application in offshore structure integrity management. An example of the Value of Information approach is illustrated and it is pointed to further research......Asset integrity and management is an important part of the oil and gas industry especially for existing offshore structures. With declining oil price, the production rate is an important factor to be maintained that makes integrity of the structures one of the main concerns. Reliability based...

  8. 33 CFR 151.19 - International Oil Pollution Prevention (IOPP) Certificates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... International Oil Pollution Prevention (IOPP) Certificates. (a) Each U.S. oil tanker of 150 gross tons and above... Oil Pollution Prevention (IOPP) Certificate. (b) Each oil tanker of 150 gross tons and above and each... construction, equipment, fittings, or arrangements required by the pollution prevention requirements of parts...

  9. Events - France. Stock exchange. International; Actualite - France. Bourse. International

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anon,

    2000-10-01

    These columns made of short articles report on facts and events in the oil and gas industry in France and worldwide: 1 - France: increase of the production capacity of the ethylene oxide unit of BP's Lavera plant; the 'Plateaux-du-Vexin' gas pipeline crosses the Seine river; completion of the pumping of the front wreckage of the Erika tanker ship; Total inaugurates a vapor recovery unit at the Gonfreville l'Orcher refinery; a national energy saving plan for the abatement of the greenhouse effect; Sercel, a daughter company of Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG), acquires Mark Products division of Shaw industries; the oil prices shoot the international trade; 2 - stock exchange: trend of market values in the context of oil crisis; 3 - international: important oil and gas strike made by TotalFinaElf and OKIOC (Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company) in Kazakhstan; communication: a new look for BP; status of Lukoil reserves in Russia; next round for the exploration of the Norwegian North Sea; Transocean Sedco Forex absorbs R and B Falcon Corp and becomes the first drilling contractor; ENI (Italy) becomes operator on the development of South Pars gas field (Iran) for the phases 4 and 5; Shell Overseas Investments BV, BP and Exxon Mobil have signed strategic alliance agreements with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec); first exploration permits for the Faeroe islands; different gas pricing rules for the industrialists in the different European countries. (J.S.)

  10. Events - France. Stock exchange. International; Actualite - France. Bourse. International

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anon.

    2000-10-01

    These columns made of short articles report on facts and events in the oil and gas industry in France and worldwide: 1 - France: increase of the production capacity of the ethylene oxide unit of BP's Lavera plant; the 'Plateaux-du-Vexin' gas pipeline crosses the Seine river; completion of the pumping of the front wreckage of the Erika tanker ship; Total inaugurates a vapor recovery unit at the Gonfreville l'Orcher refinery; a national energy saving plan for the abatement of the greenhouse effect; Sercel, a daughter company of Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG), acquires Mark Products division of Shaw industries; the oil prices shoot the international trade; 2 - stock exchange: trend of market values in the context of oil crisis; 3 - international: important oil and gas strike made by TotalFinaElf and OKIOC (Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company) in Kazakhstan; communication: a new look for BP; status of Lukoil reserves in Russia; next round for the exploration of the Norwegian North Sea; Transocean Sedco Forex absorbs R and B Falcon Corp and becomes the first drilling contractor; ENI (Italy) becomes operator on the development of South Pars gas field (Iran) for the phases 4 and 5; Shell Overseas Investments BV, BP and Exxon Mobil have signed strategic alliance agreements with China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec); first exploration permits for the Faeroe islands; different gas pricing rules for the industrialists in the different European countries. (J.S.)

  11. Exergy destruction and losses on four North Sea offshore platforms: A comparative study of the oil and gas processing plants

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Voldsund, Mari; Nguyen, Tuong-Van; Elmegaard, Brian

    2014-01-01

    The oil and gas processing plants of four North Sea offshore platforms are analysed and compared, based on the exergy analysis method. Sources of exergy destruction and losses are identified and the findings for the different platforms are compared. Different platforms have different working...... conditions, which implies that some platforms need less heat and power than others. Reservoir properties and composition vary over the lifetime of an oil field, and therefore maintaining a high efficiency of the processing plant is challenging. The results of the analysis show that 27%-57% of the exergy...... destruction take place in the gas treatment sections, 13%-29% take place in the gas recompression sections and 10%-24% occur in the production manifolds. The exergy losses with flared gas are significant for two of the platforms. The exact potential for energy savings and for enhancing system performances...

  12. Ice monitoring program in support of Sakhalin Energy's offshore oil production

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pilkington, R. [CANATEC Associates International Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada); Keinonen, A. [AKAC Inc., Victoria, BC (Canada); Tambovsky, V.; Ryabov, S. [Environmental Company of Sakhalin, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russian Federation); Pishchalnik, V. [Russian Academy of Science, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russian Federation)]|[Far East Geological Inst., Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Russian Federation). Sakhalin Dept.; Sheikin, I. [Arctic and Antarctic Research Inst., St. Petersburg (Russian Federation); Brovin, A. [ABIC Service Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada)

    2006-11-15

    The Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC) has been producing oil at the Molikpaq platform off the east coast of Sakhalin Island since 1999. The Molikpaq oil production occurs during the open water summer season. When ice begins to form in late November, an Ice Management Team begins to monitor conditions at the site to ensure a safe operation. This paper described the ice monitoring program designed to provide extensive ice and environmental data to support risk management and allow the planning of safe oil production operations using a Single Anchor Leg Mooring( SALM) system, Floating Storage and Offloading System (FSO), and export tankers in ice. The following 2 key aspects of the in-ice operations were covered: ice management to protect the offshore loading operation on a minute by minute basis in moving ice, and also ice forecasting, to determine when any unmanageable ice might approach the tanker loading site and cause the shut down of operations in the fall and during the startup of operations in the spring. The forecasting of ice drift, ice formation and growth in the fall and ice decay in the spring were discussed. It was noted that in the last few years, the date on which ice first appears is getting later. Operations cease for the winter before the ice is forecast to become a problem for the operations. The Ice Management Team returns to the site in May when the ice melts and and is no longer harmful to the operations. The Ice Management Team consists of 9 individuals with several years of operational ice experience. Their tasks include data collection from satellite images; helicopter ice reconnaissance; ice breaker ice maps; radar ice maps and ice drift; and, ice drift analysis using terra MODIS satellite images. A daily or twice daily weather forecast is provided by a commercial weather forecasting company. These forecasts provide the winds, gusts, cloud cover, air temperature, wind wave and swell for every 6 hours for the first 3 days, then every

  13. Evaluation of methodology for QRA in offshore operations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vinnem, Jan Erik

    1998-01-01

    A brief summary is presented of the development of Quantified Risk Analysis in the offshore oil and gas industry for nearly 20 years. From a modest start in Norway as a research activity, QRA has today become one of the focal points of oil and gas management in all countries around the North Sea, and also in other areas. This was mainly initiated by authority regulations and requirements, but has now for some time been driven by the industry itself, as it sees the QRA as a vehicle to gain extended flexibility with respect to optimization of offshore safety standards. This article discusses how QRAs are used, and examines in this light how methodology developments that are and should be carried out by R and D institutions and the industry. Recommendations with respect to how and where knowledge should be developed are expressed and discussed. Lastly visions for future use and developments within the QRA technology are outlined

  14. Economic impacts of oil spills: Spill unit costs for tankers, pipelines, refineries, and offshore facilities. [Task 1, Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1993-10-15

    The impacts of oil spills -- ranging from the large, widely publicized Exxon Valdez tanker incident to smaller pipeline and refinery spills -- have been costly to both the oil industry and the public. For example, the estimated costs to Exxon of the Valdez tanker spill are on the order of $4 billion, including $2.8 billion (in 1993 dollars) for direct cleanup costs and $1.125 billion (in 1992 dollars) for settlement of damages claims caused by the spill. Application of contingent valuation costs and civil lawsuits pending in the State of Alaska could raise these costs appreciably. Even the costs of the much smaller 1991 oil spill at Texaco`s refinery near Anacortes, Washington led to costs of $8 to 9 million. As a result, inexpensive waming, response and remediation technologies could lower oil spin costs, helping both the oil industry, the associated marine industries, and the environment. One means for reducing the impact and costs of oil spills is to undertake research and development on key aspects of the oil spill prevention, warming, and response and remediation systems. To target these funds to their best use, it is important to have sound data on the nature and size of spills, their likely occurrence and their unit costs. This information could then allow scarce R&D dollars to be spent on areas and activities having the largest impact. This report is intended to provide the ``unit cost`` portion of this crucial information. The report examines the three key components of the US oil supply system, namely, tankers and barges; pipelines and refineries; and offshore production facilities. The specific purpose of the study was to establish the unit costs of oil spills. By manipulating this key information into a larger matrix that includes the size and frequency of occurrence of oil spills, it will be possible` to estimate the likely future impacts, costs, and sources of oil spills.

  15. Offshore support vessel developments for deep water oil and gas E and P

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dielen, Baldo A.M. [SMIT, Rotterdam (Netherlands)

    2008-07-01

    The worldwide trend to move towards more exposed locations and deeper waters for O and G exploration and production activities resulted in an increased need for larger and more powerful tugs and offshore support vessels. These vessels must meet higher operational requirements under higher wind and sea-state conditions. This market-driven need, together with technological developments, is leading towards a new generation of powerful and sophisticated offshore support vessels (OSV's). This paper will describe the actual and future trends in OSV design for deep water offshore use. (author)

  16. International Oil Price’s Impacts on Carbon Emission in China’s Transportation Industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guoxing Zhang

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: This paper analyses the impact mechanism of international oil price on the industrial carbon emission, and uses the partial least squares regression model to study international oil price’s impact on carbon emissions in China’s transportation industry.Design/methodology/approach: This paper chooses five independent variables of GDP, international oil price, private car population, passenger and freight transportation volume as impact factors to investigate industrial carbon emissions, the paper also analyses the impact mechanism of international oil price on the industrial carbon emission, and finally the paper uses the partial least squares regression model to study international oil price’s impact on carbon emissions in China’s transportation industry. With the independent variables’ historical data from 1994 to 2009 as a sample, the fitting of the industry carbon emissions is satisfying. And based on the data of 2011, the paper maintains the private car owning, passenger and freight transportation volume to study international oil prices’ impact on the industry carbon emissions at different levels of GDP.Findings: The results show that: with the same GDP growth, the industry carbon emissions increase with the rise in international oil prices, and vice versa, the industry carbon emissions decrease; and lastly when GDP increases to a certain extent, in both cases of international oil prices’ rise or fall, the industry carbon emissions will go up, and the industry carbon emissions increase even faster while the energy prices are rising.Practical implications: Limit the growth in private-vehicle ownership, change China's transport sector within the next short-term in the structure of energy consumption and put forward China's new energy, alternative energy sources and renewable energy application so as to weaken the dependence on international oil, and indirectly slowdown China's GDP growth rate, which are all possible

  17. Offshore platform sourced pollution monitoring using space-borne fully polarimetric C and X band synthetic aperture radar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singha, Suman; Ressel, Rudolf

    2016-11-15

    Use of polarimetric SAR data for offshore pollution monitoring is relatively new and shows great potential for operational offshore platform monitoring. This paper describes the development of an automated oil spill detection chain for operational purposes based on C-band (RADARSAT-2) and X-band (TerraSAR-X) fully polarimetric images, wherein we use polarimetric features to characterize oil spills and look-alikes. Numbers of near coincident TerraSAR-X and RADARSAT-2 images have been acquired over offshore platforms. Ten polarimetric feature parameters were extracted from different types of oil and 'look-alike' spots and divided into training and validation dataset. Extracted features were then used to develop a pixel based Artificial Neural Network classifier. Mutual information contents among extracted features were assessed and feature parameters were ranked according to their ability to discriminate between oil spill and look-alike spots. Polarimetric features such as Scattering Diversity, Surface Scattering Fraction and Span proved to be most suitable for operational services. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Electrocoagulation with polarity switch for fast oil removal from oil in water emulsions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gobbi, Lorena C A; Nascimento, Izabela L; Muniz, Eduardo P; Rocha, Sandra M S; Porto, Paulo S S

    2018-05-01

    An electrocoagulation technique using a 3.5 L reactor, with aluminum electrodes in a monopolar arrangement with polarity switch at each 10 s was used to separate oil from synthetic oily water similar in oil concentration to produced water from offshore platforms. Up to 98% of oil removal was achieved after 20 min of processing. Processing time dependence of the oil removal and pH was measured and successfully adjusted to exponential models, indicating a pseudo first order behavior. Statistical analysis was used to prove that electrical conductivity and total solids depend significantly on the concentration of electrolyte (NaCl) in the medium. Oil removal depends mostly on the distance between the electrodes but is proportional to electrolyte concentration when initial pH is 8. Electrocoagulation with polarity switch maximizes the lifetime of the electrodes. The process reduced oil concentration to a value below that stipulated by law, proving it can be an efficient technology to minimize the offshore drilling impact in the environment. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. The offshore benthic fish community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lantry, Brian F.; Lantry, Jana R.; Weidel, Brian C.; Walsh, Maureen; Hoyle, James A.; Schaner, Teodore; Neave, Fraser B.; Keir, Michael

    2014-01-01

    Lake Ontario’s offshore benthic fish community includes primarily slimy sculpin, lake whitefish, rainbow smelt, lake trout, burbot, and sea lamprey. Of these, lake trout have been the focus of an international restoration effort for more than three decades (Elrod et al. 1995; Lantry and Lantry 2008). The deepwater sculpin and three species of deepwater ciscoes (Coregonus spp.) that were historically important in the offshore benthic zone became rare or were extirpated by the 1960s (Christie 1973; Owens et al. 2003; Lantry et al. 2007b; Roth et al. 2013). Ecosystem changes continue to influence the offshore benthic fish community, including the effects of dreissenid mussels, the near disappearance of burrowing amphipods (Diporeia spp.) (Dermott et al. 2005; Watkins et al. 2007), and the increased abundance and expanded geographic distribution of round goby (see Nearshore Fish Community chapter) (Lantry et al. 2007b). The fish-community objectives for the offshore benthic fish community, as described by Stewart et al. (1999), are:

  20. Radiation and contamination survey of the Terengganu offshore facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amran Abd Majid; Sukiman Sarmani

    1995-01-01

    It is well known that low specific activity of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (LSA TENORM) such as U-238 and Th-232 and their daughter products have been associated with oil and gas fields. For the period of October 1988 and August 1989 UKM personels were involved in conducting the radiation and contamination survey at several offshore platforms in Terengganu. The results showed that the maximum external and internal radiation levels was 0. 45 μSv/hr whereas the maximum surface contamination level was 0. 124 Bq cm sup -2. These results indicate that the levels were below the level prescribed by the Malaysian Atomic Energy Licensing Board. However, several measures still need to be considered for the safety of the workers and will be discussed in this paper. (author)

  1. Decommissioning of offshore oil and gas facilities: a comparative assessment of different scenarios.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ekins, Paul; Vanner, Robin; Firebrace, James

    2006-06-01

    A material and energy flow analysis, with corresponding financial flows, was carried out for different decommissioning scenarios for the different elements of an offshore oil and gas structure. A comparative assessment was made of the non-financial (especially environmental) outcomes of the different scenarios, with the reference scenario being to leave all structures in situ, while other scenarios envisaged leaving them on the seabed or removing them to shore for recycling and disposal. The costs of each scenario, when compared with the reference scenario, give an implicit valuation of the non-financial outcomes (e.g. environmental improvements), should that scenario be adopted by society. The paper concludes that it is not clear that the removal of the topsides and jackets of large steel structures to shore, as currently required by regulations, is environmentally justified; that concrete structures should certainly be left in place; and that leaving footings, cuttings and pipelines in place, with subsequent monitoring, would also be justified unless very large values were placed by society on a clear seabed and trawling access.

  2. Offshore wind energy : balancing risk and reward

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nerland, C.

    2010-01-01

    Offshore wind energy developments are expected to increase as the demand for renewable energy sources grows. This poster presentation described a method of balancing risk and reward in offshore wind energy projects. The method was based on risk assessment strategies used by the oil and gas industry. The dedicated framework considered schedules; budgets; performance; and operating and maintenance costs. A value chain assessment method was used to optimize the balance between risk and reward by evaluating uncertainties and risk related to each project element and its relationship to other elements within an integrated dynamic model designed to determine the net present value of a project. The decision-making criteria included the RISKEX risk expenditure strategy designed to consider the balance between risk exposure, capital expenditures, and operational expenditures in relation to the statistical cost of unplanned repairs, and lost production capacity. A case study of a large offshore wind farm was used to demonstrate the method. tabs., figs.

  3. The offshore trend: Structural changes in the wind power sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Markard, Jochen; Petersen, Regula

    2009-01-01

    In recent years, the wind power sector has begun to move offshore, i.e. to use space and good wind speeds on the open sea for large scale electricity generation. Offshore wind power, however, is not just technologically challenging but also a capital intensive and risky business that requires particular financial and organizational resources not all potential investors might have. We therefore address the question, what impact offshore wind power may have on ownership and organizational structures in the wind power sector. We compare on- and offshore wind park ownership in Denmark, the UK and Germany. The analysis shows that offshore wind power in all three countries is dominated by large firms, many of which are from the electricity sector. In Denmark and the UK, also investors from the gas and oil industry play an important role in the offshore wind business. This development represents a major shift for countries such as Germany and Denmark, in which the wind power sector has grown and matured on the basis of investments by individuals, farmers, cooperatives and independent project developers. The structural changes by which offshore wind power is accompanied have consequences for turbine manufacturers, project developers, investors, associations and policy makers in the field.

  4. Offshore Q & A

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    AmberStohr

    2003-01-01

    Equity International, Asia, is a leading financial service provider in China, offering planning expertise for expatriates on investing their income and savings. I recently sat down with four senior wealth managers in Shanghai to discuss Equity's approach to offshore investing.

  5. The Russian oil industry between public and private governance: obstacles to international oil companies' investment strategies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Locatelli, Catherine

    2006-01-01

    The low level of involvement by international oil companies in Russia seems difficult to explain given what development of its resources and production has to offer. There are still many restrictions and contradictions, born of the particular institutional and political environment of the Russian oil industry at the end of 15 years of transition, that act as a bar to international integration. Three factors currently define the establishment of relations with foreign investors. First, because of the many different levels of negotiation with Russian companies, the State and the Regions, the decisions are based on complex relations between the various forces. Second, the reforms, and especially privatisation and the allocation of rights of ownership to deposits, are considered by sizeable sections of public opinion and many political classes to be illegitimate, thus making the issue of international investment and foreign presence still more complicated. Finally, the State's wish to take back the oil industry in order to use it to fulfil its economic and foreign policies is creating further uncertainty. These three elements seriously restrict the entry of international oil companies to the Russian market

  6. Advances in operations research in the oil and gas industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Breton, M.; Zaccour, G.

    1991-01-01

    Various theories and examples of modelling, forecasting and optimization designing in the different parts of the petroleum and gas industries are presented, stochastic programming for long term planning in the refining industry, stochastic model for gasoline blending, feedstock optimization, location and sizing for offshore platforms, hydrocarbon exploration simulation rapid method, valuation of oil field development leases, economic models for petroleum allocation, models for oil supply market, trade embargo game theory, stochastic programming of gas contract portfolio management, scheduling transportation of oil and gas, strategic planning in an oil pipeline company, simulation of offshore oil terminal systems, hierarchical selection of oil and gas distribution systems

  7. Reverse logistic applied to offshore operations; A logistica reversa aplicada as operacoes offshore

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Castro Neto, Jorge Raimundo de Almeida [Universidade Salvador (UNIFACS), BA (Brazil)

    2010-07-01

    Mass production development has brought as consequence the necessity of more complexes distributions ways to come to multiple final consumers a big products quantity. Additionally, these same products has support necessities as well, substitution or product residue during or on the end of yours life. From the initial necessity, have the logistic concept and from the additional necessity, have the reverse logistic concept. Oil offshore operations are applying the reverse logistic concept through the residues returning by support vessels that attends Oil platforms and workers through helicopters to work turns. However, the relative cost to this residue destination is lower in comparative to the operation total costs, decreasing the interest by remanufacture and reapplication during planning stage. Adding to this reason, the fact that this kind of operation occurs during a shorts time periods. (author)

  8. Short-term outlook for Canadian crude oil to 2006 : an energy market assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-09-01

    The National Energy Board monitors the supply of all energy commodities in Canada along with the demand for Canadian energy commodities in domestic and export markets. This report is intended to expand the effectiveness of the Board's monitoring activities by providing an assessment of the current state of the petroleum industry and the potential for growth. It provides an 18-month outlook on international and domestic crude oil prices; drilling and exploration activity; supply projections for Canadian crude oil and petroleum products; Canada's crude oil trade balance and markets for Canadian crude; existing export pipeline networks and project expansion plans; and, the Canadian petroleum products industry and the impact of higher prices. It also identifies the major issues and challenges associated with the development of Canada's crude oil. The 2 major oil producing areas in Canada are the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) including the oil sands, and offshore eastern Canada. While conventional production in the WCSB is declining, development focus has shifted to Alberta's oil sands as well as Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose, the 3 major oil fields offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. High energy prices have resulted in record profits for the Canadian oil and gas industry, and has stimulated billions of dollars in investment, with Alberta's oil sands being the main beneficiary. The 19 refineries in Canada have been operating at about 90 per cent capacity for the last several years due to strong demand for transportation fuels. 10 tabs., 37 figs., 2 appendices

  9. Oil companies make cutbacks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dupin, Ludovic

    2014-01-01

    As oil prices are falling, the oil sector faces company restructuring, merger projects, closure of oil fields, and so on. Restructuring is motivated by the costs of offshore exploration and oil production projects. Saudi Arabia tries to fight the emergence of shale gases by reducing oil prices, and somehow succeeds as some projects in the USA are put into question again. Experts perceive this situation as an opportunity for the sector to improve its efficiency and reduce over-staffing

  10. The oil and gas industry and the Canadian economy: a backgrounder

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-06-01

    The technological and economic significance of the Canadian petroleum industry to the national economy and to Canada's standing in the world are reviewed. The six key ways in which the oil and gas industry affects Canada, namely employment, balance of trade, products, government revenues, international technology trade and community support are stressed within the context of describing present and future oil and gas resources, Canada's petroleum and natural gas trade balance, and capital spending and product sales. Attention is also drawn to the role of the Canadian petroleum and natural gas industry as a producer and exporter of world class technology, especially in the areas of high tech exploration methods, cold-climate and offshore operations, enhanced recovery techniques, heavy oil production and and processing, mining and upgrading of oil sands bitumen, oil well firefighting, and environmental protection technology. maps, figs

  11. Interest grows in African oil and gas opportunities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knott, D.

    1997-01-01

    As African countries continue a slow drift towards democratic government and market economics, the continent is increasingly attractive to international oil and gas companies. Though Africa remains politically diverse, and its volatile politics remains a major barrier to petroleum companies, a number of recent developments reflect its growing significance for the industry. Among recent projects and events reflecting changes in Africa: oil and gas exporter Algeria has invited foreign oil companies to help develop major gas discoveries, with a view to boosting exports to Europe; oil and gas producer Egypt invited foreign companies to explore in the Nile Delta region, and the result appears to be a flowering world scale gas play; west African offshore exploration has entered deep water and new areas, and a number of major projects are expected in years to come; Nigeria's reputation as a difficult place to operate has been justified by recent political and civil events, but a long-planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant is being built there; South Africa, which has returned to the international scene after years of trade isolation because of apartheid, is emerging as a potential driver for energy industry schemes throughout the continent. Activities are discussed

  12. Advanced Service Offshore Outsourcing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brandl, Kristin; Jensen, Peter D. Ørberg; Lind, Manya Jaura

    2018-01-01

    the capabilities, where the deficient development of one capability can be mitigated by the development of another capability (firm-internal determinants). Grounded in organization and service production theory, the paper contributes to the thematic literature on service offshoring and literature on organizational...

  13. North Sea oil and gas: a geographical perspective

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chapman, K

    1976-01-01

    Only ten years after the first rig moved into position, British oil has been piped ashore from the North Sea and, by 1980, will be making a substantial contribution to UK energy supplies. The discovery of natural gas in 1967--for initially gas was the primary objective--has transformed the gas supply so that 90% of the UK's needs already come from the North Sea. The speed and concentration of exploration pinpoints the vital importance of this new energy source. Until now the major oil 'pipeline' in the world has been led between the Middle East and Western Europe, so this new energy source has far reaching implications, both political and economic. Keith Chapman examines these implications starting from events in the North Sea itself; the geological background, agreement on the division of the North Sea, relations between oil companies, and government embodied in offshore mining legislation. The latter part of the book concentrates on the onshore repercussions of offshore activities; how North Sea oil fits into the international oil system, the various options open for its utilisation, the attitude of the EEC towards Scottish-based resources, government policy for the North coast of Scotland--an area which planners classed as ''peripheral'' but which must now accommodate extensive support facilities and service industries for the oil sites. There is also the question of relations between national and commercial interests--government versus the giant multi-national companies which took the initial gamble in the North Sea and are now responsible for the development of a resource vital to the economic well-being of Western Europe.

  14. Offshore wind energy - Proceedings of the 2009 Le Havre International Meetings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gerard, Bernard; Rufenacht, Antoine; Marchand, Philippe; Perrot, Jean-Yves; Blanchard, Loic; Leredde, Bruno; Gouverneur, Philippe; Buch, Mette; Westra, Chris; Deswartes, Fabien; Kaelble, Laure; Lutsen, Didier; Kolb, Jean-Mathieu; Moine, Sebastien; Kipke, Ruediger; Coelingh, Jan; Fagot, Guillaume; Noury, Bruno; Herpers, Frederick; Bersani, Catherine; Lanoe, Frederic; Grosdemange, Didier; Uhl, Frederic; Lapierre, Anne; Dumarquez, Philippe; Ruer, Jacques; Huberson, Serge; Barakat, Georges; Cooke, Richard; Reisse, Eric; Bihel, Pierre-Nicolas; Mohr, Rainer; Goesswein, Jens; Brossard, Jerome; Duval, Stephane; Bonnefond, Thierry; Jacquemin, Jerome; His, Stephane; Fazio, Bertrand; Theobald, Fabrice; Boeuf, Marc; Ruer, Jacques; Mercher, Gerard; Poitou, Pascal; Lemarquis, David; Bal, Jean-Louis; Abonnel, Cyrille; Mouslim, Hakim; Rousset, Jean-Marc; Brochard, Emmanuel; Lengyel, Jacques; Antolini, Andre; Gerard, Bernard

    2009-11-01

    This document gathers keynote addresses, contributions and Power Point presentations of a colloquium on the development of offshore wind energy. This colloquium comprises several sessions: the strategy of offshore wind energy development, the planning of wind energy development, the keys of wind energy development, the associated environmental, technological and industrial challenges, the industrial and port deployment for the development of marine energies

  15. 77 FR 71607 - Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU) Electrical Equipment Certification Guidance

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-12-03

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Coast Guard [Docket No. USCG-2012-0839] Mobile Offshore Drilling... hazardous areas on foreign-flagged Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODUs) that have never operated, but... International Maritime Organization (IMO) Code for the Construction and Equipment of Mobile Offshore Drilling...

  16. Terminology Guideline for Classifying Offshore Wind Energy Resources

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Beiter, Philipp [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Musial, Walt [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2016-09-01

    The purpose of this guideline is to establish a clear and consistent vocabulary for conveying offshore wind resource potential and to interpret this vocabulary in terms that are familiar to the oil and gas (O&G) industry. This involves clarifying and refining existing definitions of offshore wind energy resource classes. The terminology developed in this guideline represents one of several possible sets of vocabulary that may differ with respect to their purpose, data availability, and comprehensiveness. It was customized to correspond with established offshore wind practices and existing renewable energy industry terminology (e.g. DOE 2013, Brown et al. 2015) while conforming to established fossil resource classification as best as possible. The developers of the guideline recognize the fundamental differences that exist between fossil and renewable energy resources with respect to availability, accessibility, lifetime, and quality. Any quantitative comparison between fossil and renewable energy resources, including offshore wind, is therefore limited. For instance, O&G resources are finite and there may be significant uncertainty associated with the amount of the resource. In contrast, aboveground renewable resources, such as offshore wind, do not generally deplete over time but can vary significantly subhourly, daily, seasonally, and annually. The intent of this guideline is to make these differences transparent and develop an offshore wind resource classification that conforms to established fossil resource classifications where possible. This guideline also provides methods to quantitatively compare certain offshore wind energy resources to O&G resource classes for specific applications. Finally, this guideline identifies areas where analogies to established O&G terminology may be inappropriate or subject to misinterpretation.

  17. Turmoil on the International Oil Markets. Getting Used to Production Capacity Constraints

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ten Kate, W.; Van Geuns, L.

    2009-01-01

    In 2008 the world experienced a prelude to the new realities of the international oil market. These new realities include a tight balance between supply and demand, the rapidly increased cost of the marginal barrel and the extreme price volatility. This price volatility has driven prices up $50 a barrel in the space of 5 months, only to drop $50 in 2 months after the July 14 peak of $147 a barrel when consumers began to seriously drop out of the market and inventories were drawn down. After the extreme downward correction, the crisis on the international capital markets led to dim expectations about economic growth for the rest of the year and 2009, and this also played a role. However, prices are expected to rebound again, reflecting the fundamental upward shift of oil prices from an average of about $70-80 a barrel to about $110-120 a barrel. This fundamental upward shift is due to a combination of so-called 'underground' and 'above ground' conditions. The 'underground' problems include the size, depth and geological complexities of new oil fields that are driving up the cost per barrel. These complex oil fields need to be taken into production, since 'above ground' problems limit International Oil Companies' (IOCs) ability to access the lower-cost oil in producing countries. The 'above ground' problems slow the pace of development of medium-cost oil in the largest producing countries in the Middle East and Russia. Despite the expectation of a continued demand for oil, oil exporting countries are concerned about the security of demand, and adapt their development plans accordingly. Moreover, with the increased prices of the last few years and the resulting increase in oil revenues, the management of the monetarised oil wealth has become a concern as well. The value of the dollar has been slipping and oil exporting countries tried to match this depreciation by increasing oil prices. China's rise as an important manufacturer in the world, with the accompanying

  18. Transporting US oil imports: The impact of oil spill legislation on the tanker market

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rowland, P.J.

    1992-05-01

    The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (''OPA'') and an even more problematic array of State pollution laws have raised the cost, and risk, of carrying oil into and out of the US. This report, prepared under contract to the US Department of energy's Office of Domestic and International Policy, examines the impact of Federal and State oil spill legislation on the tanker market. It reviews the role of marine transportation in US oil supply, explores the OPA and State oil spill laws, studies reactions to OPA in the tanker and tank barge industries and in related industries such as insurance and ship finance, and finally, discusses the likely developments in the years ahead. US waterborne oil imports amounted to 6.5 million B/D in 1991, three-quarters of which was crude oil. Imports will rise by almost 3 million B/D by 2000 according to US Department of energy forecasts, with most of the crude oil growth after 1995. Tanker demand will grow even faster: most of the US imports and the increased traffic to other world consuming regions will be on long-haul trades. Both the number of US port calls by tankers and the volume of offshore lightering will grow. Every aspect of the tanker industry's behavior is affected by OPA and a variety of State pollution laws

  19. Transporting US oil imports: The impact of oil spill legislation on the tanker market

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rowland, P.J. (Rowland (P.) Associates (United States))

    1992-05-01

    The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 ( OPA'') and an even more problematic array of State pollution laws have raised the cost, and risk, of carrying oil into and out of the US. This report, prepared under contract to the US Department of energy's Office of Domestic and International Policy, examines the impact of Federal and State oil spill legislation on the tanker market. It reviews the role of marine transportation in US oil supply, explores the OPA and State oil spill laws, studies reactions to OPA in the tanker and tank barge industries and in related industries such as insurance and ship finance, and finally, discusses the likely developments in the years ahead. US waterborne oil imports amounted to 6.5 million B/D in 1991, three-quarters of which was crude oil. Imports will rise by almost 3 million B/D by 2000 according to US Department of energy forecasts, with most of the crude oil growth after 1995. Tanker demand will grow even faster: most of the US imports and the increased traffic to other world consuming regions will be on long-haul trades. Both the number of US port calls by tankers and the volume of offshore lightering will grow. Every aspect of the tanker industry's behavior is affected by OPA and a variety of State pollution laws.

  20. 11. International Oil Summit 2010

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    2010-01-01

    In his introduction at the 11. international oil summit 2010, Mr N. Ait-Laoussine (President of Nalcosa and past Energy Minister in Algeria) has summarized the main points which will be approached during the meeting: 1)after the crisis of 2008, what will be the challenges of the petroleum industry? the environmental constraints? the availability of the new technologies? Will the prices volatility be permanent? 2)what will be the strategy at middle/long term of the national petroleum companies, of the international petroleum companies and of the service companies (partnership, research and innovation,....)? (O.M.)

  1. Identifying polar bear resource selection patterns to inform offshore development in a dynamic and changing Arctic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Ryan R.; Horne, Jon S.; Rode, Karyn D.; Regehr, Eric V.; Durner, George M.

    2014-01-01

    Although sea ice loss is the primary threat to polar bears (Ursus maritimus), little can be done to mitigate its effects without global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Other factors, however, could exacerbate the impacts of sea ice loss on polar bears, such as exposure to increased industrial activity. The Arctic Ocean has enormous oil and gas potential, and its development is expected to increase in the coming decades. Estimates of polar bear resource selection will inform managers how bears use areas slated for oil development and to help guide conservation planning. We estimated temporally-varying resource selection patterns for non-denning adult female polar bears in the Chukchi Sea population (2008–2012) at two scales (i.e., home range and weekly steps) to identify factors predictive of polar bear use throughout the year, before any offshore development. From the best models at each scale, we estimated scale-integrated resource selection functions to predict polar bear space use across the population's range and determined when bears were most likely to use the region where offshore oil and gas development in the United States is slated to occur. Polar bears exhibited significant intra-annual variation in selection patterns at both scales but the strength and annual patterns of selection differed between scales for most variables. Bears were most likely to use the offshore oil and gas planning area during ice retreat and growth with the highest predicted use occurring in the southern portion of the planning area. The average proportion of predicted high-value habitat in the planning area was >15% of the total high-value habitat for the population during sea ice retreat and growth and reached a high of 50% during November 2010. Our results provide a baseline on which to judge future changes to non-denning adult female polar bear resource selection in the Chukchi Sea and help guide offshore development in the region. Lastly, our study provides a

  2. Feasibility study of electromechanical cylinder drivetrain for offshore mechatronic systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hagen, D.; Pawlus, W.; Ebbesen, M. K.

    2017-01-01

    Currently, there is an increasing focus on the environmental impact and energy consumption of the oil and gas industry. In offshore drilling equipment, electric motors tend to replace traditionally used hydraulic motors, especially in rotational motion control applications. However, force densiti...

  3. Offshore Financial Centers in Global Capital Flow

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lutsyshyn Zoriana

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The article is dedicated to investigation of the place and role of offshore financial centers in financial globalization system, and of the reasons for using offshores in assets securitization mechanism. Numerous offshore and other preferential zones enabling to avoid the effective national and governmental tax regime are important attributes of global financial system and redistributive links of world financial flows. At present, around 70 countries and territories offer their offshore services for foreign capital, bank transactions, profitability from activities in financial markets proper. The global offshore business concentrates large amounts often having no relation to the country of origin, the so-called cosmopolitan capital (wandering. Although in the early 80's of the XXth century offshore companies were considered to control approximately 500 billion dollars, it was already in the early 90's that this amount doubled and was estimated as 1 trillion dollars. Today, from ⅓ to half of the world capital turnover goes through offshore business channels, and therefore, almost half of non-resident bank deposits are concentrated in world offshore centers. These are the world financial centers comprising international capital markets that provide for the accumulation and redistribution of world capital. From the process of reproduction (circulation of capital, the world financial centers plunge out the most homogeneous and mobile element — money, and freely manipulating with them, concentrate huge economic power in their hands. The role of world financial centers was also enhanced by the latest achievements in computer science, allowing execution of instant transactions and movement of huge amounts to any point of the world within the shortest possible time. The world financial centers consist not only of powerful banks and financial institutions operating on the international scene, but also have currency, stock and other exchanges as their

  4. The changing structure of the international oil industry: implications for OPEC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdalla, K.L.; )

    1995-01-01

    This paper examines the changes in international oil market structure observed in the 1980s and early 1990s and assesses possible effects on oil market conditions in the future and implications for OPEC. It focuses on the trend toward a more vertical organization mainly resulting from substantial purchases of downstream assets by state owned oil companies in major oil producing countries. While the Gulf war prevented greater horizontal concentration of oil reserves, it merely interrupted the trend toward vertical concentration in the international oil industry. The vertical integration of only some of the OPEC members will cause a further divergence of goals within the organization resulting in a lower likelihood of OPEC regaining its former position as an effective cartel. If the trend toward greater vertical concentration increases, future oil prices will, in part, be affected by decisions made by vertically integrated firms. (author)

  5. The transformation of the global oil industry and its impact on international relations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Appleyard, J.

    1994-01-01

    The transformations of ownership and control in the global oil industry since the first oil shock of 1974 are discussed and the impact of that change on several interconnected issues is explored. It is argued that structural changes in the industry affect interstate relations in ways that are of central concern to the discipline of international relations. Any likely future oil industry scenario will have considerable political and economic repercussions for both producer and consumer states, with a concommitant impact on the relations between those states more generally. There is a danger that interstate conflicts among oil producers will increase with perodic changes in the global supply and demand conditions for oil. Ways are suggested for international relations studies to take into account the change in the global oil industry and its impact on the distribution of power and on international order and justice. It is contended that a growing number of states must be considered as behaving much like firms in a competitive market, and the new international oil order both constrains and provides opportunities for those firm-like states. 20 refs

  6. 8th international workshop on large-scale integration of wind power into power systems as well as on transmission networks for offshore wind farms. Proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Betancourt, Uta; Ackermann, Thomas

    2009-01-01

    Within the 8th International Workshop on Large-Scale Integration of Wind Power into Power Systems as well as on Transmission Networks for Offshore Wind Farms at 14th to 15th October, 2009 in Bremen (Federal Republic of Germany), lectures and posters were presented to the following sessions: (1) Keynote session and panel; (2) Grid integration studies and experience: Europe; (3) Connection of offshore wind farms; (4) Wind forecast; (5) High voltage direct current (HVDC); (6) German grid code issues; (7) Offshore grid connection; (8) Grid integration studies and experience: North America; (9) SUPWIND - Decision support tools for large scale integration of wind; (10) Windgrid - Wind on the grid: An integrated approach; (11) IEA Task 25; (12) Grid code issues; (13) Market Issues; (14) Offshore Grid; (15) Modelling; (16) Wind power and storage; (17) Power system balancing; (18) Wind turbine performance; (19) Modelling and offshore transformer.

  7. Powering oil and gas offshore operations from mainland eletrical grid

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Maeland, Asmund; Chokhawala, Rahul S.

    2010-09-15

    This paper describes principal power from shore (PFS) technologies available today, highlights their key attributes, and discusses cost-benefit aspects of these emerging solutions in comparison to decades of gas turbines generation offshore.

  8. Offshore: Economic Deterrent or Necessity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Igor B. Turuev

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The downside of investment's addition rate in Russia, lack of capital investments result from "poor investment attractiveness". As a result, the companies' financial imbalance together with high investments risks lead to capital outflow from the country by virtue of offshores. Along with negative aspects connected with "financial oases" many advantages are given to the business community: lessening of tax payments, monetary privacy and confidentiality of operations. Taking in consideration the above and also the existence of specific international agreements concerning the avoidance of double taxation and offshore zones, the banner of the latter appears to be quite difficult and would divest the global economy of an important segment of global economic growth. The author performed a SWOT analysis of the role and the importance of offshores in international economy. Tolerant coexistence of local and global economic interests seems to be achievable by implementing a distinct circumspect and complex plan of measures aimed at the raise of the investment attractiveness of a country, for which the creation of "Skolkovo" and new Institutes for market development would not be sufficient. Transparent and oriented on business stability and safety provision of monitor and regulatory system, data interflow, improvement of prudential control on financial markets operations - are parts of measures that have to be accomplished in order to solve and exclude the problems associated with offshores. But the author also appeals to not forgetting that besides the offshores exists a number of such issues directly related to the outflow of capital as lowering of inflationary pace, enlargement of direct investment flow-in, support of social peace, which have to be handled for the purposes of improvement of domestic investment climate of countries with developing economy.

  9. Wind energy in offshore grids

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schroeder, S.T.

    2013-01-15

    This cumulative PhD thesis deals with wind integration in offshore grids from an economic point of view. It is composed of a generic part and eight papers. As the topic has mostly been analysed with a focus on topology and technical issues until now, market-operational questions in offshore grids and investment implications under different regulatory frameworks are a hitherto underrepresented research field. They are addressed by this thesis. Offshore grids between several countries combine the absorption of wind energy with international power trading. However, the inclusion into an offshore grid affects the economics of an offshore wind park. It is shown that the spot market income is lower if an offshore wind farm is placed in an interconnector and subject to nodal pricing instead of having a national affiliation. Moreover, congestion in the interconnector can prevent the wind farm from correcting its wind forecast errors in a specific onshore balancing group. An analytical approach with a transmission system operator and a wind farm as stakeholders illustrates resulting incentives for strategic behaviour. Depending on the regulatory regime, they may be inclined to announce more or less generation than expected at the closure of the day-ahead spot market. This can lead to a suboptimal utilisation of the infrastructure and associated socio-economic losses. These and possibly undesired reallocative effects between the parties can be avoided if the regulatory regime is adjusted to reflect special characteristics of offshore grids. With an operational real options approach, it is furthermore illustrated how different support schemes and connections to additional countries affect the investment case of an offshore wind farm and the income of the transmission system operator. The investment framework has also been addressed with a policy study about possible combinations of support schemes and international cooperation mechanisms between countries to achieve their

  10. North Sea oil and the environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cairns, W.J.

    1992-01-01

    This book, which is arranged in five sections, provides an historical record of the development of North Sea oil and gas over the past twenty years and records the lessons learnt from this experience. This first section provides an introductory framework to the three main themes, namely resources, environment and development. Section 2 is primarily concerned with the economic and social consequences of oil related development at two levels; firstly on the national economy and secondly the impact on local communities. Section 3 deals with impacts upon the physical environment and introduces the statutory land use planning system in Scotland. The Scottish approach to environmental assessment is reviewed and the need for mitigation by design explored. Section 4 examines specific field developments, and reviews the statutory controls and international initiatives regulating the extent of environmental disturbance and pollution from offshore operations. The effects of oil spillage and submarine pipelines on the environment and their impact on the fishing industry is followed by a discussion on the decommissioning and abandonment of offshore installations. Section 5 deals with the role and value of hazard and risk analysis in the siting, layout and safety zoning of onshore facilities and develops a case study on a major fractionation facility. The means of mitigating acute and chronic environmental risks are considered. A postscript provides a range of past comments and criticisms and finally draws some conclusions on the performance of environmental management and North Sea oil development. The North Sea oil and gas development experience proves that with wisdom, forethought and goodwill, industrial exploiters of natural resources can operate economically within legislative, policy, scientific, technical and design parameters without causing long-term irreversible environmental damage. (author)

  11. Offshore petroleum engineering task force report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruelokke, M.

    1999-05-01

    The Offshore Petroleum Engineering Task Force was established in July 1998 in response to concerns about Newfoundland and Labrador's share of offshore petroleum engineering activity, with the aim of determining the current capability of the local sector, the demand for such companies and individuals until the year 2010, their capability to grow over that time-frame, and requirements in order to achieve that growth. The report summarizes the analysis undertaken by the Task Force as well as the conclusions it reached and associated recommendations. Section two provides an overview of the offshore engineering activity, including its origins, structure, and key success factors, and its also provides a profile of the industry, internationally, in Canada and in Newfoundland. Section three presents an analysis of the future demand for offshore engineering in Newfoundland until 2010, based on three development scenarios. Section four based on a Consulting Engineers of Newfoundland and Labrador (CENL) survey, establishes the present offshore engineering capacity and capabilities within the province. Section five examines current education and training programs and their ability to respond to future demands. Section six summarizes the conclusions of the analysis and presents recommendations designed to facilitate and promote the development of the local offshore engineering industry. 6 figs

  12. Off-shore enhanced oil recovery in the north sea: matching CO_2 demand and supply given uncertain market conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Compernolle, Tine; Welkenhuysen, Kris; Huisman, Kuno; Piessens, Kris; Kort, Peter

    2015-04-01

    Introduction CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) entails the injection of CO2 in mature oil fields in order to mobilize the oil. In particular, the injected CO2 reduces the oil's viscosity and acts as a propellant, resulting in an increased oil extraction rate (Leach et al., 2011). Given uncertainty in both oil price and CO2 price under the EU ETS system, aim of this study is to analyze under which economic conditions a CO2 exchange can be established between a CO2 supplier (an electricity producer for whom CO2 is a by-product) and a CO2 user (an offshore oil company that exploits oil fields in the North Sea and needs CO2 for enhanced oil recovery). Methodology A techno-economic simulation tool, PSS IV, was developed to provide investment decision support on integrated CO2-EOR projects (Welkenhuysen et al., 2014). Until now, a fixed onshore supply of CO2 was presumed. An economic optimization model is now developed for both the CO2 producer and the CO2 user. Because net present value and discounted cash flow methods are inadequate to deal with issues like uncertainty and the irreversibility of an investment decision, the real options theory is applied (Dixit and Pindyck, 1994). The way in which cooperation between the companies can take place, will be studied using game theoretical concepts (Lukas and Welling, 2014). Economic and technical data on CO2 capture are available from the PSS database (Piessens et al., 2012). Data on EOR performance, CO2 requirements and various costs are taken from literature (BERR, 2007; Klokk et al., 2010; Pershad et al., 2012). Results/Findings It will be shown what the impact of price uncertainty is on the investment decision of the electricity producer to capture and sell CO2, and on the decision of the oil producer to make the necessary investments to inject CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. Based on these results, it will be determined under which economic conditions a CO2 exchange and transport can take place. Furthermore, also the

  13. Frontier lands: Oil and gas statistical overview, 1992

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-01-01

    Canada's frontier lands consist of offshore and onshore areas outside the provinces which fall under federal authority. These lands cover some 10.2 million km 2 and include the Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory, and areas off the east and west coasts and in the far north. A statistical summary is presented of oil and gas activities in these frontier lands for 1992. Information provided includes activity status and wells drilled on frontier lands, a resource inventory, oil and gas production, land holdings and status, licenses concluded, petroleum-related employment on frontier lands, and petroleum expenditures on frontier lands. Highlights of activities include the first commercial production of crude oil from the Panuke oil field on the Scotian Shelf; a continued decrease in exploration activity on the frontier lands; the introduction of legislation to eliminate restrictions on foreign ownership of production licences on frontier lands; and the resolution to the Canada-France maritime boundary dispute by the International Court of Arbitration. 9 figs., 10 tabs

  14. Western Newfoundland and Labrador offshore area strategic environmental assessment amendment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2007-11-15

    The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board issued a call for bids in May 2007 that included a piece of land in offshore western Newfoundland. This report presented an amendment to the 2005 western Newfoundland and Labrador offshore strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in order to extend the coverage of the previous piece of land and included additional lands southwest of the original SEA prepared in 2005. This report presented the objectives and purpose of the SEA amendment and the history of oil and gas activities in western Newfoundland and Labrador offshore area. It discussed the biological environment in terms of plankton; benthic invertebrates; fish and fisheries; marine-associated birds; marine mammals and sea turtles; species at risk; and potentially sensitive areas. Environmental effects of exploration and production activities were discussed in terms of sound; routine exploratory/delineation drilling and production activities; accidental events; and cumulative effects. Last, the report presented the conclusions including potential issues, data gaps, and planning considerations. It was concluded that petroleum exploration activity generally can proceed in the amendment area with the application of standard mitigation measures currently applied to offshore exploratory activities elsewhere in the Newfoundland offshore. 90 refs., 8 tabs., 18 figs., 1 appendix.

  15. Western Newfoundland and Labrador offshore area strategic environmental assessment amendment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2007-11-01

    The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board issued a call for bids in May 2007 that included a piece of land in offshore western Newfoundland. This report presented an amendment to the 2005 western Newfoundland and Labrador offshore strategic environmental assessment (SEA) in order to extend the coverage of the previous piece of land and included additional lands southwest of the original SEA prepared in 2005. This report presented the objectives and purpose of the SEA amendment and the history of oil and gas activities in western Newfoundland and Labrador offshore area. It discussed the biological environment in terms of plankton; benthic invertebrates; fish and fisheries; marine-associated birds; marine mammals and sea turtles; species at risk; and potentially sensitive areas. Environmental effects of exploration and production activities were discussed in terms of sound; routine exploratory/delineation drilling and production activities; accidental events; and cumulative effects. Last, the report presented the conclusions including potential issues, data gaps, and planning considerations. It was concluded that petroleum exploration activity generally can proceed in the amendment area with the application of standard mitigation measures currently applied to offshore exploratory activities elsewhere in the Newfoundland offshore. 90 refs., 8 tabs., 18 figs., 1 appendix

  16. Offshore oil exploration and impact assessment in Greenland

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Anne Merrild

    2016-01-01

    Greenland needs development. Oil and mineral extraction is pursued as a means to achieve economical growth. Fisheries, hunting and tourism are the main pillars in the Greenland economy in 2015. These businesses are however sensitive to potential negative impacts from oil and gas development. Local...... regulation system in relation to oil and gas projects to promote sustainable development. Additional Impact Benefit Agreements (IBA) have to be negotiated between the communities potentially affected, the Government and the oil companies to assure that social investments are made to secure long-term benefits...

  17. Oil cartel and international financial stability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McKenzie, G

    1976-06-01

    For many years there has existed a debate among economists as to whether the problems of unemployment, inflation, and international economic adjustment are largely financial in nature or whether they are ''real''; i.e., arising from dislocations in commodity and labor markets. The correct position is that they are a bit of both. This is the viewpoint that provides the background for this paper, which examines the consequences of the recent petroleum price increases imposed by the major oil-exporting countries. On the one hand, the ''real'' implications are fairly obvious. First, petroleum products are used either directly or as fuels in virtually every commodity-production process. Higher input costs are therefore bound to lead to increased prices for most other commodities. Second, higher petroleum prices will lead (and are leading) to the use and/or search for viable substitutes. However, there have been several important financial implications as well. First, there has been a dramatic change in the pattern of domestic and international financial flows resulting from the rapid accumulation of new wealth by the oil-exporting countries. Second, there has been an important change in the nature of these flows with significant implications for the stability of domestic commodity and foreign exchange markets. This paper emphasizes the interaction of ''real'' and financial variables that has taken place as a result of the actions of the oil exporters.

  18. Proceedings: An international workshop on offshore lease abandonment and platform disposal: Technology, regulation, and environmental effects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pulsipher, A. [ed.] [Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States). Center for Energy Studies

    1997-03-01

    This Proceedings volume includes papers prepared for an international workshop on lease abandonment and offshore platform disposal. The workshop was held April 15, 16, and 17, 1996, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Included in the volume are several plenary speeches and issue papers. prepared by six working groups, who discussed: Abandoning Wells; Abandoning Pipelines; Removing Facilities; Site Clearance; Habitat Management, Maintenance, and Planning; and Regulation and Policy. Also included are an introduction, an afterword (reprinted with the permission of its author, John Lohrenz), and, as Appendix C, the complete report of the National Research Council Marine Boards An Assessment of Techniques for Removing Fixed Offshore Structures, around which much of the discussion at the workshop was organized. Short biographies of many speakers, organizers, and chairpersons are included as Appendix A. Appendix B is a list of conference participants. Selected papers have been processes separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology database.

  19. Offshore 2010. Final report; Offshore 2010. Sluttrapport

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2001-07-01

    An overview of the accomplishments of the various projects that have received support from the Norwegian Research Council's program 'Offshore 2010'. The following projects are presented, some have English and some Norwegian project names: 'Critical parameters influencing inhibitor performance in multiphase flow', 'Development of the drilling optimization simulator (DDS) and a totally integrated drilling optimization system', 'Produksjonsoptimalisering og automatisk styring av broenner og roerledninger (PETRONICS)', 'Termisk isolerte undervannsroer for sikring av broenntransport over store avstander', 'Utvikling av magnetisk frekvensformer for styring av store subsea pumper paa havdyp ned mot 4000 meter', 'Flerfase stroemningsmaaler for permanent nedihulls installasjon', 'Hastighetsmaaling i flerfase stroemning ved passiv akustikk', 'Oil/water seperation offshore: optimized flow- and seperation behavior', 'Stroemningshastighet', 'A rock mechanics based reservoir simulation', 'MultiTool fase 2 - et flerbruksverktoey for nedihulls applikasjoner', 'Utvikling av undervanns olje-i-vann monitor for kontinuerlig maaling av lave oljekonsentrasjoner basert paa TR-LIFS', 'Subsea multipath ultrasonic liquid flow meter', 'Fluid characterization at elevated pressures and temperatures (Flucha II)'. The two main goals for the research program are 1. The development of new technology and competency in the field of downhole- and subsea processing and multiphase transportation, and 2. Innovation and commercialisation in small and medium sized companies (less than 100 employees). Some details on the financing and results are included (ml)

  20. Electric power supply in an offshore oil production platform | Ibe ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    powered UPS system with a rotary engine UPS which can provide long-term power supply back-up as well as the benefits of rotating machines. KEY WORDS: Offshore, Platform, Power Supply, Gas turbine, Rotary Diesel UPS. [Global Jnl ...

  1. Regulatory impact analysis of final effluent limitations guidelines and standards for the offshore oil and gas industry. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-01-01

    For all major rulemaking actions, Executive Order 12291 requires a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA), in which benefits of the regulation are compared to costs imposed by the regulation. The report presents the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA, or the Agency) RIA of the final rule on the effluent limitations guidelines for the Offshore Subcategory of the Oil and Gas Extraction Industry. The principal requirement of the Executive Order is that the Agency perform an analysis comparing the benefits of the regulation to the costs that the regulation imposes. Three types of benefits are analyzed in this RIA: quantified and monetized benefits; quantified and non-monetized benefits; and non-quantified and non-monetized benefits

  2. Risks to offshore installations in Europe due to natural hazards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Necci, Amos; Krausmann, Elisabeth

    2017-04-01

    Natural hazards, such as storms, earthquakes, or lightning are a major threat to industry. In particular, chemical plants, storage facilities, pipelines, and offshore oil and gas facilities are vulnerable to natural events which can cause hazardous materials releases and thereby endanger workers, the population and the environment. These technological accidents are commonly referred to as Natech accidents. Recent events have increased concerns about safety in the offshore oil and gas sector, and the need for improving knowledge on the matter has become evident. With those premises, we analyzed accidents, near misses and accident precursors at offshore facilities in Europe caused by natural events using both a statistical and a qualitative approach. For this purpose, we screened the World Offshore Accident Database (WOAD) to identify all incidents that featured natural events as causes or aggravating factors. A dataset of 1,085 global Natech events was built for the statistical analysis. Among those, a subset composed of 303 European records was selected. The results of the analysis showed that offshore Natech events in Europe are frequent; they resulted, however, in low consequences. The main threat to offshore facilities resulted from bad weather, such as strong winds and heavy seas. Storms can put intense loads on the structural parts of offshore installations, eventually exceeding design resistance specifications. Several incidents triggered by lightning strikes and earthquakes were also recorded. Substantial differences in terms of vulnerability, damage modality and consequences emerged between fixed and floating offshore structures. The main damage mode for floating structures was the failure of station keeping systems due to the rupture of mooring or anchors, mainly caused by adverse meteorological conditions. Most of the incidents at fixed offshore structures in Europe involved falling loads for both metal jacket and concrete base platforms due to storms. In

  3. P-{Delta} effects on the reliability of oil offshore jacket platforms in Mexico

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    De Leon-Escobedo, D. [Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, Toluca, Estado de Mexico (Mexico)]. E-mail: daviddeleonescobedo@yahoo.com.mx; Campos, D. [Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo (Mexico)]. E-mail: dcampos@imp.mx

    2012-07-15

    Given the important economic consequences of an oil platform failure, all the aspects of its structural behavior and safety issues need to be carefully considered. In particular, P-{Delta} effects on the deck legs of marine offshore jacket platforms may be relevant when the deck height and the vertical load are significant. In this paper, the impact of the moment amplification, due to slenderness of the deck legs, on the platform safety is examined and appraised from the viewpoint of the structural reliability. The formulation is applied to a typical tall deck marine platform under the environmental loading at the Bay of Campeche, Mexico, and its reliability index is calculated with and without the P-{Delta} effect. The results presented herein may be used to improve the current practice in the design and assessment of offshore marine platforms in Mexico and to update the current version of the code. [Spanish] Dadas las importantes consecuencias economicas de la falla de una plataforma petrolera, todos los aspectos de su comportamiento estructural y aspectos de seguridad necesitan considerarse cuidadosamente. En particular, los efectos P-{Delta} en las piernas de la cubierta de plataformas marinas costa fuera petroleras tipo jacket pueden ser relevantes cuando la altura de la cubierta y la intensidad de cargas verticales son significativas. En este articulo se examina el impacto que sobre la seguridad de la plataforma tiene la amplificacion de momentos, debido a la esbeltez de las piernas de la cubierta, y se evalua este impacto desde el punto de vista de confiabilidad estructural. La formulacion se aplica a una plataforma marina tipica, con cubierta alta, bajo la carga ambiental de la Bahia de Campeche, Mexico y se calcula su indice de confiabilidad con y sin el efecto P-{Delta}. Los resultados presentados aqui pueden usarse para mejorar las practicas actuales de diseno y evaluacion de plataformas marinas costa fuera en Mexico y para actualizar la version actual

  4. Study of a new hydraulic pumping unit based on the offshore platform

    OpenAIRE

    Yu, Yanqun; Chang, Zongyu; Qi, Yaoguang; Xue, Xin; Zhao, Jiannan

    2017-01-01

    This article introduces a new technology about a rod pumping in the offshore platform according to the demand of offshore heavy oil thermal recovery and the production of stripper well, analyzes the research status of hydraulic pumping unit at home and abroad, and designs a new kind of miniature hydraulic pumping unit with long-stroke, low pumping speed and compact structure to resolve the problem of space limitation. The article also describes the whole structure and the working principle of...

  5. Oil/gas collector/separator for underwater oil leaks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Henning, C.D.

    1992-12-31

    This invention is comprised of an oil/gas collector/separator for recovery of oil leaking, for example, from an offshore or underwater oil well. The separator is floated over the point of the leak and tethered in place so as to receive oil/gas floating, or forced under pressure, toward the water surface from either a broken or leaking oil well casing, line, or sunken ship. The separator is provided with a downwardly extending skirt to contain the oil/gas which floats or is forced upward into a dome wherein the gas is separated from the oil/water, with the gas being flared (burned) at the top of the dome, and the oil is separated from water and pumped to a point of use. Since the density of oil is less than that of water it can be easily separated from any water entering the dome.

  6. How to make offshore marginal fields work for everyone

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blandford, P.R.

    1995-01-01

    Marginal fields make positive impact on certain oil and gas companies' financial performances. These developments are integrated into the operator's operational and philosophical mindset, so that they optimize return and establish a reasonable reserve base for the company. Having a portfolio of marginal field developments is definitely a part of the offshore business, and oil field suppliers and subcontractors will continue to develop technology and methods to ensure the fields are exploited. It goes without saying that the continued production of marginal fields helps a lot of consumers and the companies that make up the energy chain that gets it to them. There are marginal fields all over the world and the market can only grow as more and more of the resources decline and industrialization expands demand. The projections for 2020 state that fossil fuels will remain the major supply link to dependable and affordable energy, particularly as additional oil and gas infrastructures are built and installed. Likened to the commodity, oil and gas companies and the energy industry have slowly evolved to the point where they are making a difference for people worldwide. As long as there is product to produce, most companies and consumers do not really care what type of reservoir started it all. More often then not, it probably started out as a marginal prospect. The paper discusses the energy picture today, marginal field update, offshore marginal field geography, and independent and marginal field developments

  7. Offshore atomic power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1975-01-01

    Various merits of offshore atomic power plants are illustrated, and their systems are assessed. The planning of the offshore atomic power plants in USA is reviewed, and the construction costs of the offshore plant in Japan were estimated. Air pollution problem may be solved by the offshore atomic power plants remarkably. Deep water at low temperature may be advantageously used as cooling water for condensers. Marine resources may be bred by building artificial habitats and by providing spring-up equipments. In the case of floating plants, the plant design can be standardized so that the construction costs may be reduced. The offshore plants can be classified into three systems, namely artificial island system, floating system and sea bottom-based system. The island system may be realized with the present level of civil engineering, but requires the development of technology for the resistance of base against earthquake and its calculation means. The floating system may be constructed with conventional power plant engineering and shipbuilding engineering, but the aseismatic stability of breakwater may be a problem to be solved. Deep water floating system and deep water submerging system are conceivable, but its realization may be difficult. The sea bottom-based system with large caissons can be realized by the present civil engineering, but the construction of the caissons, stability against earthquake and resistance to waves may be problems to be solved. The technical prediction and assessment of new plant sites for nuclear power plants have been reported by Science and Technology Agency in 1974. The construction costs of an offshore plant has been estimated by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to be yen71,026/kW as of 1985. (Iwakiri, K.)

  8. Proceedings of the CERI 2002 World Oil Conference : Reading the Future. CD ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    The integration and expansion of world oil markets was the main topic of this conference which featured 18 presentations dealing with developments in the international energy sector. The conference provided an opportunity for participants to discuss issues regarding oil supply and demand, oil prices, OPEC's spare capacity, OPEC's view regarding increasing competition from Canada's oil sands, and what role non-conventional oil plays in today's marketplace. The conference was divided into 6 sessions entitled: (1) oil prices, business as usual, (2) world oil demand, the incredible shrinking market, (3) global oil supplies, (4) going offshore, (5) the politics of oil, and (6) the growing North American supply. The outlook of world energy markets was reviewed with particular emphasis on prospects for oil supply and reserves. Also, the current status of the petroleum industry in both OPEC and non-OPEC oil exporting countries was discussed with reference to exploration, production, reserves, and hydrocarbon potential as well as the environmental, and socio-economic challenges that the industry must face. refs., tabs., figs

  9. Services Offshoring and Its Strategic Effects on Value Chains

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulo Roberto Gião

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available This article’s main objective is to examine some known management theories under the offshoring point of view. It detaches some factors in existing theories and how they can be at risk in an increasing offshoring of services processes. In the absence of more systematic studies about the effects of offshoring over value chain and core competencies imprecise borders and definitions, we try to interpret them in a holistic manner and stimulate discussions in a new area of study rather than to provide definitive general conclusions. The methodological aspects mainly concerning the offshoring bibliography are very impressive, especially since 2000. There seems to be a new trend appearing, like a wedge between strategy and international business theories, or that at least complements these theories. The analysis presented in this paper is offered as an aid to systematic investigation involving value chains, core competencies, innovations and the accelerated process of offshore outsourcing of services. Some preliminary evidence showed countries and companies in good conditions to improve their participation in the international market. The internationalization of these new firms from emerging countries and their learning process may need extension to existing theories, at least from the perspective of emerging and in the developing world.

  10. Interest grows in African oil and gas opportunities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Knott, D.

    1997-05-12

    As African countries continue a slow drift towards democratic government and market economics, the continent is increasingly attractive to international oil and gas companies. Though Africa remains politically diverse, and its volatile politics remains a major barrier to petroleum companies, a number of recent developments reflect its growing significance for the industry. Among recent projects and events reflecting changes in Africa: oil and gas exporter Algeria has invited foreign oil companies to help develop major gas discoveries, with a view to boosting exports to Europe; oil and gas producer Egypt invited foreign companies to explore in the Nile Delta region, and the result appears to be a flowering world scale gas play; west African offshore exploration has entered deep water and new areas, and a number of major projects are expected in years to come; Nigeria`s reputation as a difficult place to operate has been justified by recent political and civil events, but a long-planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant is being built there; South Africa, which has returned to the international scene after years of trade isolation because of apartheid, is emerging as a potential driver for energy industry schemes throughout the continent. Activities are discussed.

  11. South America: Brazil leads the way in offshore drilling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1975-08-15

    Brazil has found more than 600 million barrels of oil in the Campos basin and made other strikes to the north, offshore Sergipe, Alagoas, and Rio Grande do Norte states. Argentina's government recently gave the state oil company (YPF) permission to prospect in the Falkland Islands area about 200 miles east of Argentina's southern tip. YPF also is expected to accelerate work offshore Tierra del Fuego next year. The nationalization of petroleum in Venezuela is discussed. Drilling activity has slowed to 67 percent of the level of 1974. The goal for 1975 is about 875 million barrels. Chile has revised its oil law to permit foreign companies to explore, develop and produce the country's resources via contracts. Despite spotty successes, Peru has not given up on the northeastern jungle area, just south of Ecuador's fields. Occidental Petroleum and Petroperu have been the only companies to find commercial oil in the four-year exploration period. Their reserves are put at 464 million barrels. Eighteen foreign companies signed 14 contracts covering more than 50,000 square miles in Bolivia since the country asked for outside help in 1972. Ecuador's output reached an all-time high of 244,000 bpd and then slowed down to a 27,000 bpd dribble when the Trans-Ecuador pipeline broke. The government decreed that production from the Texaco and Gulf fields in the Oriente must rise to 210,000 bopd and that the two companies must drill their unexplored and undeveloped acreage or lose it. Ecuador cut 43 cents from the price of oil by reducing the production tax. Colombia abolished all oil concessions this year in an attempt to stem steadily slipping production. Exploration activities in Uruguay and Paraguay are discussed. (MCW)

  12. Assessment of economic impact of offshore and coastal discharge requirements on present and future operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lindsey, R.

    1996-06-01

    The high potential costs of compliance associated with new effluent guidelines for offshore and coastal oil and gas operations could significantly affect the economics of finding, developing, and producing oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico. This report characterizes the potential economic impacts of alternative treatment and discharge regulations for produced water on reserves and production in Gulf of Mexico coastal, territorial and outer continental shelf (OCS) waters, quantifying the impacts of both recent regulatory changes and possible more stringent requirements. The treatment technologies capable of meeting these requirements are characterized in terms of cost, performance, and applicability to coastal and offshore situations. As part of this analysis, an extensive database was constructed that includes oil and gas production forecasts by field, data on existing platforms, and the current treatment methods in place for produced water treatment and disposal on offshore facilities. This work provides the first comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of alternative regulatory requirements for produced water management and disposal in coastal and offshore areas of the Gulf of Mexico

  13. Transporting US oil imports: The impact of oil spill legislation on the tanker market. Draft final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rowland, P.J. [Rowland (P.) Associates (United States)

    1992-05-01

    The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (``OPA``) and an even more problematic array of State pollution laws have raised the cost, and risk, of carrying oil into and out of the US. This report, prepared under contract to the US Department of energy`s Office of Domestic and International Policy, examines the impact of Federal and State oil spill legislation on the tanker market. It reviews the role of marine transportation in US oil supply, explores the OPA and State oil spill laws, studies reactions to OPA in the tanker and tank barge industries and in related industries such as insurance and ship finance, and finally, discusses the likely developments in the years ahead. US waterborne oil imports amounted to 6.5 million B/D in 1991, three-quarters of which was crude oil. Imports will rise by almost 3 million B/D by 2000 according to US Department of energy forecasts, with most of the crude oil growth after 1995. Tanker demand will grow even faster: most of the US imports and the increased traffic to other world consuming regions will be on long-haul trades. Both the number of US port calls by tankers and the volume of offshore lightering will grow. Every aspect of the tanker industry`s behavior is affected by OPA and a variety of State pollution laws.

  14. Tracking an oil slick from multiple natural sources, Coal Oil Point, California

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leifer, Ira; Luyendyk, Bruce; Broderick, Kris

    2006-01-01

    Oil slicks on the ocean surface emitted from natural marine hydrocarbon seeps offshore from Coal Oil Point in the Santa Barbara Channel, California were tracked and sampled over a 2-h period. The objectives were to characterize the seep oil and to track its composition over time using a new sampling device, a catamaran drum sampler (CATDRUMS). The sampler was designed and developed at UCSB. Chromatograms showed that oil originating from an informally named, very active seep area, Shane Seep, primarily evolved during the first hour due to mixing with oil originating from a convergence zone slick surrounding Shane Seep. (author)

  15. Tracking an oil slick from multiple natural sources, Coal Oil Point, California

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Leifer, Ira [Marine Sciences Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States); Luyendyk, Bruce [Department of Geological Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States); Broderick, Kris [Exxon/Mobil Exploration Company, 13401 N. Freeway, Houston, TX 77060 (United States)

    2006-06-15

    Oil slicks on the ocean surface emitted from natural marine hydrocarbon seeps offshore from Coal Oil Point in the Santa Barbara Channel, California were tracked and sampled over a 2-h period. The objectives were to characterize the seep oil and to track its composition over time using a new sampling device, a catamaran drum sampler (CATDRUMS). The sampler was designed and developed at UCSB. Chromatograms showed that oil originating from an informally named, very active seep area, Shane Seep, primarily evolved during the first hour due to mixing with oil originating from a convergence zone slick surrounding Shane Seep. (author)

  16. Fuel flexibility in power generation onboard offshore floating units

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Keep, Jeroen van [Waertsilae Corporation, Helsinki (Finland)

    2012-07-01

    Power Plants for offshore oil and gas installations utilizing dual fuel (DF) reciprocating engines are by many owners seen as an interesting alternative to conventional solutions due to the apparent advantages in fuel flexibility, fuel efficiency and lower emission. The paper summarizes the dual fuel technology, typical solutions for FPSO's and operational. Items that are discussed: DF operation and how it works; fuel flexibility, including transfer between fuel modes; fuel efficiency, also in production an important cost saver; emissions of the different fuel modes; size and weights, constraints; experiences of the P-63 project. With the above it is safe to conclude that the DF-technology is mature with important benefits for the offshore production market in certain specific applications, most notably the FPSO's for fields in low gas to oil ratios, bringing important fuel cost savings and also for new-built F-LNG/FSO/FPSO's where the power plant can be accommodated below decks, freeing up valuable deck space for the process plant. (author)

  17. Trajetórias tecnológicas no segmento offshore: ambiente e oportunidades Technological trajectories in the offshore segment: enviroment and opportunities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Benedito Ortiz Neto

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available Este artigo apresenta as diferentes trajetórias tecnológicas do segmento offshore na indústria petrolífera mundial considerando os seus principais aspectos e marcos constituintes. Mais especificamente, serão analisadas as trajetórias diferentes nas duas primeiras grandes províncias de petróleo do segmento offshore: o Golfo do México (EUA e o Mar do Norte (Europa. Junto com a Bacia de Campos (Brasil, são as mais produtivas e ricas do planeta e onde as três trajetórias tecnológicas foram desenvolvidas. Esse levantamento histórico é importante porque resgata os elementos que dão as bases do conhecimento tecnológico que permitiu à Petrobras, de forma inédita, iniciar as suas atividades offshore nas décadas de 1960-1970. Será visto aqui que a exploração offshore significou o surgimento de um novo paradigma tecnológico sustentado por três trajetórias.This article presents different technological trajectories concerning the offshore exploration segment in the world petroleum industry, considering their main aspects and components. More specifically, different trajectories will be analyzed in the first two largest crude oil territories: Gulf of Mexico (USA and Sea North (Europe. These, along with Bacia de Campos in Brazil, are the most productive and the richest regions in the planet and, therefore, where the three technological trajectories have been developed. This historic survey is important because it reveals the elements that provide the basis for technological knowledge, which allowed Petrobras to start its offshore activities in the 60s and 70s, via an original technology. The offshore exploration meant the emergence of a new technological paradigm supported by three trajectories.

  18. The offshorization of economy: the present realities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maslak Olga

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In this article the essence and main types of offshore zones have been studied. It has been analyzed the main reasons for cooperation with the tax havens, established that the main reason of the Ukrainian economy offshorization is not only the desire of economic entities to optimize taxes, but also the desire to protect their assets from the negative impact of the crisis phenomena in the national economy during 2010-2016. The foreign experience of the anti-offshore regulation has been researched. It has been defined that the general anti-offshore regulation vector should be based on the principles of financial transparency, active cooperation with the international community, an optimal combination of instruments that restrict the capital outflows and the effective instruments that stimulate the business development in the country. It has been also established that the mechanism of deoffshorization should be aimed not only at elimination of the territories with the preferential taxation, but also at receiving benefits from their use on the basis of the existing financial infrastructure of the leading world offshore centers. The experience of China in attracting additional foreign investments, gaining wider access to financial resources through the cooperation with an offshore financial centre has been researched.

  19. CARIBBEAN OFFSHORE CORPORATE STRUCTURES UNDER A SWOT ANALYSIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana-Maria GEAMÃNU

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Tax havens have long been under the attention of numerous Governments and International Organizations which triggered the concern of an uneven playing field in the taxation area. As a result numerous amendments have been made to both their commercial and tax legislations in order to be in line with the internationally agreed tax standards. The aim of this article is to conduct a SWOT analysis on the offshore corporate structures found in the Caribbean landscape. Based on a selection process of the most commonly recognized tax havens in the Caribbean region and an analysis of their offshore companies at the level of incorporation, administration, activities conducted and costs, a set of frequently met characteristics have been identified which stand at the basis of the SWOT analysis. The results stand to present a comprehensive four dimension framework of the offshore corporate structures in regards to their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

  20. Lightweight Efficient Offshore Fenders

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Banke, Lars; Simonsen, Bo Cerup

    1996-01-01

    At offshore platforms the purpose of fenders is to protect the oil-risers against minor accidental collisions from supply vessels.Normally the fender is designed by use of thin-walled tubes. However, the tube itself is not normally capable of resisting the impact load from of the boat. Therefore...... alternative designs are searched for the fender.Today, an often-used improvement of the fender is to fill it with grout or concrete. However, this improvement is not optimal since the fillingsincrease the weight of the finder beyond the crane capacity of the platform. This causes the need of crane boats...... for installation of the fender and eventually for removing it if new oil-risers are to be installed. The use of crane oats is expensive and weather dependent.Having these effects in mind a study of the energy absorption in the fender system, i.e. the fender itself and the frame, is needed for a furtherdevelopment...

  1. Corrosion resisting properties of 90/10 copper-nickel-iron alloy with particular reference to offshore oil and gas applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gilbert, P T

    1979-01-01

    The use of a copper-nickel-iron alloy for seawater pipeline systems and various other applications on offshore oil and gas platforms is now proving attractive, according to the UK's Yorkshire Imperial Metals Ltd. The alloy has already proved a useful and reliable material in many applications: It has given good results in seawater-cooled condensers and heat exchangers and seawater piping systems, in power stations, ships, desalination plant, and refrigeration service. Its antifouling and corrosion-resistant properties are valuable in these applications. The main limitations that have to be observed in its use are (1) the design, construction, and operation of systems within prescribed velocity and turbulence limits, to avoid the occurrence of impingement attack, and (2) problems that may arise because of badly polluted seawater.

  2. Application of the Coasting Trade Act to offshore oil and gas operations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Jonge, B.B.

    2002-01-01

    The main features of the 1992 Coasting Trade Act are summarized. The main purpose of the Act is to protect Canadian ship owners and to ensure they have an opportunity to recover their investments in having Canadian built and crewed vessels. The Coasting Trade Act replaces provisions of the Canada Shipping Act which prohibited non-British ships from entering into Canadian domestic trade. The intention for the Coasting Trade Act is to reserve the coasting trade of Canada to Canadian-registered ships. However, when a Canadian ship is not available, a suitable foreign ship may be temporarily permitted to engage in the Canadian coasting trade as long as Canadian safety standards are met and duties are paid. The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency deals with licence applications while the Canadian Transportation Agency deals with unfair practices and enforcement. The provisions relating to the Coasting Trade License applications are examined along with how they are administered with particular reference to offshore oil and gas operations. The paper also presents recent decisions regarding application licences for Tycom (US) Inc., the Norwegian Polar Ship Management, and the Cyprus-registered seismic vessel, the Northern Access. It is noted that in evaluating the suitability and availability of a Canadian vessel for an activity proposed to be performed by a foreign vessel, the Canadian Transportation Agency examines the technical, financial and commercial elements brought by the parties

  3. Deep Panuke offshore gas development comprehensive study report : Executive summary

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-10-01

    A project was proposed by EnCana Corporation (EnCana) for the development of the Deep Panuke Offshore Gas Development Project. Located offshore the Scotian Shelf, approximately 175 kilometres southeast of Goldboro, Nova Scotia and 250 kilometres southeast of Halifax, the development of this natural gas reservoir would allow EnCana to derive economic benefit from licences issued under the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act and the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation (Nova Scotia) Act. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act required that a comprehensive study report be prepared, and the results were presented in this document. Consisting of three bottom-founded platforms in a water depth of approximately 40 metres, the wellhead platform would be used for dry wellheads, wellhead control system, and production manifolds. All power generation and processing equipment would be located on the production platform, and the accommodations platform would consist of the utilities, helicopter landing pad, refueling station and crew accommodations. It was determined that the Deep Panuke project was unlikely to result in adverse environmental effects. The offshore oil and gas industry in Atlantic Canada would benefit from this development as a result of the establishment of a viable facility and operation

  4. Efficiency investigation of an offshore deoiling hydrocyclone using real-time fluorescence- and microscopy-based monitors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Dennis S.; Bram, Mads Valentin; Yang, Zhenyu

    2017-01-01

    Offshore oil & gas production is facing an increasing challenge as the water fraction from the production wells rises over time. It is not uncommon that the extracted mixture contains a water-cut of more than 90%. The current North Sea discharge legislation states that the dispersed oil concentra......Offshore oil & gas production is facing an increasing challenge as the water fraction from the production wells rises over time. It is not uncommon that the extracted mixture contains a water-cut of more than 90%. The current North Sea discharge legislation states that the dispersed oil...... concentration in water must be less than 30 parts per million (ppm). Consequently, the discharge ports are sampled two times per day and analyzed using the OSPAR recommended GC-FID method. However, the variations of Oil-in-Water (OiW) concentration between sampling time points are unknown and could exceed...... the regulatory limits. This sampling method is commonly used since the current real-time OiW monitoring technology is still quite open and immature. This work focuses on experimental investigation of reliability and accuracy of selected real-time OiW measuring technologies based on two available commercial...

  5. Accessing offshoring advantages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mykhaylenko, Alona; Motika, Agnes; Wæhrens, Brian Vejrum

    2015-01-01

    . Assuming that different levels of synergy may exist between particular offshoring strategic decisions (choosing offshore outsourcing or captive offshoring and the type of function) and different offshoring advantages, this work advocates that the actual fact of realization of certain offshoring advantages...

  6. New oil and gas discoveries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alazard-Toux, N.

    2004-01-01

    During the period 1999-2003, new oil and gas fields generated additional reserves of nearly 11 000 bcm of natural gas and 62 Gbbl of oil and condensates, volumes very much superior to those discovered in the five previous years. Two-thirds of these discoveries were located offshore, half in deep water. (author)

  7. BC's oil and gas industry : opportunities and challenges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alvarez, P.

    2003-01-01

    An update of the Canadian petroleum and natural gas industry was presented with reference to activity trends and major issues. The presentation also described opportunities and challenges facing the industry in British Columbia and reviewed the impact of federal policies on BC. In recent years the industry has moved to oil sands and unconventional gas, offshore sites, and coalbed methane development. Other changes are a result of technology which makes it possible to drill deeper and faster while having less environmental impact. Government issues have become increasingly complex, however. Industry capital spending from 2000 to 2003 was presented for Northern Canada, the east coast offshore, Alberta, the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, oil sand deposits, and international activities. The presentation included several graphs depicting: the changing natural gas production mix; North American natural gas demand; wells drilled by province; natural gas resources in BC; upstream capital spending in BC; wells drilled by type and depth in BC; top natural gas wells in 2000 and 2002; natural gas production in BC; finding and development costs for Canadian natural gas; and, the widening gap of the federal income tax rate between oil and natural gas and other industries. British Columbia is in the strategic position of having significant untapped gas potential in the northeastern part of the province. For now, there is sufficient pipeline capacity to bring the gas to markets in the United States where there is a strong demand for electric power generation. 16 figs

  8. Specificity of Geotechnical Measurements and Practice of Polish Offshore Operations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bogumil Laczynski

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available As offshore market in Europe grows faster and faster, new sea areas are being managed and new ideas on how to use the sea potential are being developed. In North Sea, where offshore industry conducts intensive expansion since late 1960s, numerous wind farms, oil and gas platforms and pipelines have been put into operation following extensive research, including geotechnical measurement. Recently, a great number of similar projects is under development in Baltic Sea, inter alia in Polish EEZ, natural conditions of which vary from the North Sea significantly. In this paper, those differences are described together with some solutions to problems thereby arising.

  9. Risk-Based Inspection and Maintenance Planning Optimization of Offshore Wind Turbines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ramírez, José G. Rangel; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2009-01-01

    A risk-based inspection planning (RBI) approach applied to offshore wind turbines (OWT) is presented, based on RBI methodology developed in the last decades in the oil and gas industry. In wind farm (IWF) and single-alone locations are considered using a code-established turbulence models including...

  10. Model Predictive Control of Offshore Power Stations With Waste Heat Recovery

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pierobon, Leonardo; Chan, Richard; Li, Xiangan

    2016-01-01

    The implementation of waste heat recovery units on oil and gas offshore platforms demands advances in both design methods and control systems. Model-based control algorithms can play an important role in the operation of offshore power stations. A novel regulator based on a linear model predictive...... control (MPC) coupled with a steady-state performance optimizer has been developed in the SIMULINK language and is documented in the paper. The test case is the regulation of a power system serving an oil and gas platform in the Norwegian Sea. One of the three gas turbines is combined with an organic...... Rankine cycle (ORC) turbogenerator to increase the energy conversion efficiency. Results show a potential reduction of frequency drop up to 40%for a step in the load set-point of 4 MW, compared to proportional–integral control systems. Fuel savings in the range of 2–3% are also expected by optimizing on...

  11. Large Eddy Simulation of Flows Associated with Offshore Oil and Gas Pipeline

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nizamani Z.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Fluid structure interaction (FSI applications are of wide range from offshore fixed and floating structures to offshore pipelines. Reynolds Averaged Navier Stoke (RANS solution has limitation for unsteady and turbulent flow modelling. A possible approach is Large Eddy Simulation (LES and it is applied to flows past a circular cylinder located far above, near and on a flat seabed. The Reynolds number considered is based on the real situation off Malaysia Coast and is sub-critical around 105. Hydrodynamic quantities in terms of mean pressure are predicted and vortex shedding mechanism is evaluated. The results are validated by comparing the simulation and experimental previous studies.

  12. 75 FR 47584 - National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-06

    ... Drilling AGENCY: Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy. ACTION: Notice of Open Meeting. SUMMARY... and Offshore Drilling (the Commission). The Commission was organized pursuant to the Federal Advisory... with offshore drilling in the future. The Commission is composed of seven members appointed by the...

  13. Hearing protector fit testing with off-shore oil-rig inspectors in Louisiana and Texas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, William J; Themann, Christa L; Murata, Taichi K

    2016-11-01

    This field study aimed to assess the noise reduction of hearing protection for individual workers, demonstrate the effectiveness of training on the level of protection achieved, and measure the time required to implement hearing protector fit testing in the workplace. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted field studies in Louisiana and Texas to test the performance of HPD Well-Fit. Fit tests were performed on 126 inspectors and engineers working in the offshore oil industry. Workers were fit tested with the goal of achieving a 25-dB PAR. Less than half of the workers were achieving sufficient protection from their hearing protectors prior to NIOSH intervention and training; following re-fitting and re-training, over 85% of the workers achieved sufficient protection. Typical test times were 6-12 minutes. Fit testing of the workers' earplugs identified those workers who were and were not achieving the desired level of protection. Recommendations for other hearing protection solutions were made for workers who could not achieve the target PAR. The study demonstrates the need for individual hearing protector fit testing and addresses some of the barriers to implementation.

  14. Aromatic hydrocarbons in produced water from offshore oil and gas production. Test of sample strategy; Aromatiske kulbrinter i produceret vand fra offshore olie- og gas industrien. Test af proevetagningsstrategi

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hansen, A.

    2005-07-01

    In co-operation with the Danish EPA, the National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) has carried out a series of measurements of aromatic hydrocarbons in produced water from an offshore oil and gas production platform in the Danish sector of the North Sea as part of the project 'Testing of sampling strategy for aromatic hydrocarbons in produced water from the offshore oil and gas industry'. The measurements included both volatile (BTEX: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) and semi-volatile aromatic hydrocarbons: NPD (naphthalenes, phenanthrenes and dibenzothiophenes) and selected PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). In total, 12 samples of produced water were sampled at the Dan FF production platform located in the North Sea by the operator, Maersk Oil and Gas, as four sets of three parallel samples from November 24 - December 02, 2004. After collection of the last set, the samples were shipped to NERI for analysis. The water samples were collected in 1 L glass bottles that were filled completely (without overfilling) and tightly closed. After sampling, the samples were preserved with hydrochloric acid and cooled below ambient until being shipped off to NERI. Here all samples were analysed in dublicates, and the results show that for BTEX, levels were reduced compared to similar measurements carried out by NERI in 2002 and others. In this work, BTEX levels were approximately 5 mg/L, while similar studies showed levels in the range 0,5 - 35 mg/L. For NPD levels were similar, 0,5 - 1,4 mg/L, while for PAH they seerred elevated; 0,1 - 0,4 mg/L in this work compared to 0,001 - 0,3 mg/L in similar studies. The applied sampling strategy has been tested by performing analysis of variance on the analytical data. The test of the analytical data has shown that the mean values of the three parallel samples collected in series constituted a good estimate of the levels at the time of sampling; thus, the variance between the parallel samples was not

  15. Grey-Box Modeling of an Offshore Deoiling Hydrocyclone System

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bram, Mads Valentin; Hansen, Leif; Hansen, Dennis S.

    2017-01-01

    The increasing water cut from offshore production wells render optimization of the deoiling process vital for continuous oil and gas production. Hydrocyclones are commonly used as the last stage of the deoiling process and must therefore keep the oil content in the produced water below 30ppm...... a method to estimate how the hydrocyclone pressures are related to its flow rates by means of virtual orifice equations. The experimental results prove that the proposed model is able to estimate the relationship between pressures and flow rates with good accuracy and can be extended in future works...

  16. Waste heat recovery for offshore applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pierobon, Leonardo; Kandepu, Rambabu; Haglind, Fredrik

    2012-01-01

    vary in the range 20-30%. There are several technologies available for onshore gas turbines (and low/medium heat sources) to convert the waste heat into electricity. For offshore applications it is not economical and practical to have a steam bottoming cycle to increase the efficiency of electricity...... production, due to low gas turbine outlet temperature, space and weight restrictions and the need for make-up water. A more promising option for use offshore is organic Rankine cycles (ORC). Moreover, several oil and gas platforms are equipped with waste heat recovery units to recover a part of the thermal...... energy in the gas turbine off-gas using heat exchangers, and the recovered thermal energy acts as heat source for some of the heat loads on the platform. The amount of the recovered thermal energy depends on the heat loads and thus the full potential of waste heat recovery units may not be utilized...

  17. Physicochemical and heavy metals values of Nigerian crude oil ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    NPDC) Benin City representing three different oil wells each for Onshore and Offshore and labeled A, B, C for Onshore and D, E, F for offshore were analyzed for their ash content, volatile matter, pH, relative density and metal content. The results ...

  18. Non-OPEC Oil Supply: Economics and Energy Policy Options

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mourik, Maarten van [Paris (France); Shepherd, Richard K. [Perpignan (France)

    2003-07-01

    Apart from the enigmatic FSU, there is little prospect of long term growth for non-OPEC oil supply and a strong likelihood that over the next few years the trend will flatten and then decline irrevocably. Decline will come faster if the spectacular discoveries in the deep water offshore plays of the southern Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico attract sufficient investment to match the loss of production in the North Sea. Deep water oil supply might be expected to reach a peak of as much as 6-7 million barrels a day by the time the North Sea has lost more than half its current output in the period beyond 2010. But economics play as strong a role as geology in real world oil business. Current indicators suggest that the prolific deep water wells are delivering less oil than expected and for a shorter period. That means less revenue. This paper outlines the disappointing performance of recent offshore fields, in both deep water and conventional water depths, and suggests consequences for global supply in the next decade. The 30 year success story of non-OPEC oil supply stems directly from the oil price revolution of the 1970s, without which the North Sea and most other offshore oil plays would not have been economic. The non-OPEC oil boom was also necessary because access to the cheap oil of the Persian Gulf and a few other plays were simply not available to the international private sector oil industry, as they had been before. That era is now over. It is ending not because oil is too cheap, but because there are powerful reasons for change. Firstly there is not enough oil left to make a difference beyond the next few years. Secondly, the economics of deep water and other offshore oil may not be attractive enough. Thirdly the doors to the Middle East are now being opened again to companies that can write those assets on their balance sheets and generate profits, allowing better return on investment and their higher share prices. There is no more compelling reason for a

  19. Modeling and Simulation of Offshore Wind Power Platform for 5 MW Baseline NREL Turbine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roni Sahroni, Taufik

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents the modeling and simulation of offshore wind power platform for oil and gas companies. Wind energy has become the fastest growing renewable energy in the world and major gains in terms of energy generation are achievable when turbines are moved offshore. The objective of this project is to propose new design of an offshore wind power platform. Offshore wind turbine (OWT) is composed of three main structures comprising the rotor/blades, the tower nacelle, and the supporting structure. The modeling analysis was focused on the nacelle and supporting structure. The completed final design was analyzed using finite element modeling tool ANSYS to obtain the structure's response towards loading conditions and to ensure it complies with guidelines laid out by classification authority Det Norske Veritas. As a result, a new model of the offshore wind power platform for 5 MW Baseline NREL turbine was proposed. PMID:26550605

  20. Plenty of action left in northern Europe's middle-aged offshore

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knott, D.J.

    1994-01-01

    Northern Europe's offshore oil industry this year has begun to reveal several symptoms generally associated with middle age. Though in its prime in terms of oil production, North Sea industry has begun a dramatic slimming program. It has started a search for fresh experiences, and it has begun to revisit the big successes of its youth. The paper cites examples demonstrating these trends. The paper then discusses production, outlook for exploration, trends in the United Kingdom, development advances in the natural gas industry, exploration activities, and redevelopment projects

  1. Evaluating stress analysis and failure criteria for offshore structures for Pechora Sea conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nesic, S.; Donskoy, Y.; Zolotukhin, A.

    2017-12-01

    Development of Arctic hydrocarbon resources has faced many challenges due to sensitive environmental conditions including low temperatures, ice cover and terrestrial permafrost and extreme seasonal variation in sunlight. Russian offshore field development in Arctic region is usually associated with annual ice cover, which can cause serious damage on the offshore platforms. The Pechora Sea has claimed as one of the most perspective oil and gas region of the Russian Arctic with seven discovered oil and gas fields and several dozens of structures. Our rough assessment, based on in-place hydrocarbon volumes and recovery factor evaluation concept, indicates that Pechora Sea alone has in-place volumes amounting to ca. 20 billion barrel oil equivalent (BOE). This quantity is enough to secure produced volumes by 2040 exceeding 3 billion BOE [1] that indicates huge resource potential of the region. The environmental conditions are primarily function of water dynamics and ice cover. The sea is covered by the ice for greatest part of the year. In this article, the ice load simulations were performed using explicit dynamic analysis system in ANSYS software to determine best shape and size of an offshore platform for the Pechora Sea ice conditions. Different gravity based structures (GBS) were analyzed: artificial island, hollow cylindrical and conical concrete structures and four-leg GBS. Relationships between the stress, deformations and time were analyzed and important observations from the simulation results were a basis for selecting the most preferable structures.

  2. De-offshorization as a Factor of Development of the National Economy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Galina S. Panova

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The article shows that the concept of "de-offshorization" is interpreted in the economic literature. On the one hand, de-offshorization is seen as a fight against offshore or tightening control over operations in offshore areas, and on the other as facilitating business environment and as a factor of development of the national economy. However, these approaches are not contrary to the understanding of the de-offshorization as a State policy aimed at improving the tax, legislative, enforcement and information sphere of activity of economic entities to reduce capital flight and repatriation. The analysis of the objectives and characteristics of the formation of offshore zones in the world and it is concluded that in general the offshore zone, favorable tax to optimize international economic cooperation, including trade and entrepreneurship. The article stresses that Russia currently has two approaches, the adherents of which have opposing views on combat offshore. Some consider that the need to impose a ban on business that manages the Russian business from foreign jurisdictions and prints there. Others are convinced that first of all it is necessary to improve the conditions for business in Russia, and then to demand the return of money. The authors offer a comprehensive solution to the problem of de-offshorization of the economy, which, in their view, should include not only economic, but also political, institutional, legal, fiscal and administrative components. In General, to ensure a stable, clear, transparent and objective rules of business in all sectors, to make the illegal withdrawal of capital/assets in offshore areas has a reputation and uneconomical. To this end, to take practical measures aimed at improving the transparency of the offshore business. In particular, the promising directions of the de-offshorization the Russian economy with international experience are defined: development and improvement of the financial, fiscal

  3. Site Selection and Resource Allocation of Oil Spill Emergency Base for Offshore Oil Facilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yunbin; Liu, Jingxian; Wei, Lei; Wu, Weihuang

    2018-02-01

    Based on the analysis of the historical data about oil spill accidents in the Bohai Sea, this paper discretizes oil spilled source into a limited number of spill points. According to the probability of oil spill risk, the demand for salvage forces at each oil spill point is evaluated. Aiming at the specific location of the rescue base around the Bohai Sea, a cost-benefit analysis is conducted to determine the total cost of disasters for each rescue base. Based on the relationship between the oil spill point and the rescue site, a multi-objective optimization location model for the oil spill rescue base in the Bohai Sea region is established. And the genetic algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem, and determine the emergency rescue base optimization program and emergency resources allocation ratio.

  4. Energetic aspects and opportunities for reusing water on offshore platforms in Campos Basin, Brazil

    OpenAIRE

    Duarte, Victor Magalhães; Queiroz, Luciano Matos; Torres, Ednildo Andrade; Kiperstok, Asher

    2017-01-01

    Abstract In the drilling and production of oil at sea, a large quantity of potable water used is most commonly transported to oil platforms using offshore supply vessels (OSVs). Sea water desalination is used as well, but only in a few oil platforms. To minimize energy consumption, water supply options were studied. The desalination of seawater and the reusing of streams of grey water and black water were evaluated and compared with the characteristics of the current supply via OSVs. In both ...

  5. Getting the oil to the shore

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Menin, J.A.; Meuter, P.

    2006-03-15

    Conveying highly corrosive fluids - hot water dissolved in salt and sulfide - is just one aspect of getting oil from the field to the shore. Brazilian oil company Petrobras had a requirement for high pressure pumps that could handle high viscosity fluids at its Campos off-shore oil field and be easily maintained. Joao Alberto Menin, Paul Meuter explains how Sulzer Pumps rose to the challenge. (author)

  6. Offshore jurisdictions, controversial topic of the modern business world

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roxana-Daniela PĂUN

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available This article aims to present synthetically the off-shore jurisdiction issues in the context of the globalisation of our lives and automatically of the business world facing new issues and challenges regarding the business in the international area, starting from defining elements and approaching some of the practical challenges offered by the widespread use of such offshore jurisdictions known as “tax havens”.

  7. Radiation dose and risk to recreational fishermen from ingestion of fish caught near eight oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meinhold, A.F.; Holtzman, S.

    1998-01-01

    Offshore production of oil and gas is accompanied by a saline wastewater, called produced water. Produced water discharges to the Gulf of Mexico often contain elevated concentrations of radionuclides that occur naturally in the geologic reservoir along with the oil and gas. These radionuclides may accumulate in organisms that live near offshore oil and gas structures. Because recreational fishing in the Gulf of Mexico is concentrated near oil and gas platforms, there is the potential for increased risks to recreational fishermen from the ingestion of radionuclides in fish caught near produced water discharges. This analysis investigated the potential risk to recreational fishermen from radium and lead-210 in offshore produced water discharges to the Gulf of Mexico. The assessment used data collected at eight discharging offshore platforms and two reference locations. These data were collected in a USDOE funded project titled ''Environmental and Economic Assessment of Discharges from Gulf of Mexico Region Oil and Gas Operations'', here called the USDOE Field Study. The risk assessments were done to support risk managers in developing regulations and permits for offshore discharges of produced water

  8. Economic benefits of final effluent limitations guidelines and standards for the offshore oil and gas industry. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-01-01

    The report provides an overview of the benefits analysis of the effluent limitation guidelines for offshore oil and gas facilities. Regulatory options were evaluated for two wastestreams: (1) drilling fluids (muds) and cuttings; and (2) produced water. The analysis focuses on the human health-related benefits of the regulatory options considered. These health risk reduction benefits are associated with reduced human exposure to various carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic contaminants, including lead, by way of consumption of shrimp and recreationally caught finfish from the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the health-risk reduction benefits analysis is based upon a previous report (RCG/Hagler, Bailly, January 1991), developed in support of the proposed rulemaking. Recreational, commercial, and nonuse benefits have not been estimated for these regulations, due to data limitations and the difficulty of estimating these values for effluent controls in the open-water marine environment

  9. Three Essays in the Public Economics of Offshore Hydrocarbon Investment and Production

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kearney, Owen P.

    Offshore sources, in both shallow and deep waters, are increasingly important contributors to global oil and natural gas production. As both resource owner and taxing authority, national governments play an important role in the production of these offshore hydrocarbons. How the policy choices of these governments affect firm behavior, however, is not necessarily well understood. This dissertation contributes to our knowledge of how public policy influences offshore hydrocarbon investment and production. In the first essay, I estimate the investment responses of hydrocarbon producers to the suspension of the royalty, a type of production tax levied on production from federal lands. I find that the potential for a royalty payments waiver: (1) increases the probability that an individual tract is acquired by an average of 193% (a mean increase of 5.6 percentage points); (2) decreases the probability that a lease is ever drilled during its observed lease term by an average of 14.5% (a mean decrease of 1.3 percentage points); and (3) increases the expected number of explored leases by 150%. The introduction of DWRRA also increases the average winning bid per lease by 60%. These estimates quantify the magnitudes of the discouraging effects of production taxation on oil and natural gas investment. In the second essay, I quantify the implied value of information spillovers in oil and natural gas exploration using an event study design. I find that 25 trading days after a discovery, firms that own leases adjacent to the discovery lease (but not the discovery lease, itself) realize an average abnormal return translating to 315 million in market capitalization. This effect is quantitatively large compared to costs for drilling an exploratory well. In the final essay, I measure how oil price affects water injection, a method for prolonging the productive lifetime of oil fields. I find that a 1 rise in price increases the water injected into the well's reservoir by

  10. Oil Rig Weather Observations

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Weather observations taken at offshore platforms along the United States coastlines. The majority are located in oil-rich areas of the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of...

  11. Oil pollution in the Red Sea - Environmental monitoring of an oilfield in a Coral area, Gulf of Suez

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dicks, B

    1984-01-01

    The Red Sea is rapidly developing as one of the world's largest offshore oil production areas. It also comprises a wide range of tropical marine habitats, many of which are internationally recognised for their conservation, scientific, economic or recreational value. Past oil production, refining and transport have resulted in chronic pollution of some areas, and environmental programmes to protect new areas of development from pollution damage are assuming increasing importance. At the initiative of an Egyptian oil company operating in the Gulf of Suez, an environmental protection and management scheme has been prepared for a new offshore oilfield and marine terminal at Ras Budran. This paper describes the form of the scheme and the results of its component environmental surveys. The development area comprises rich and diverse marine communities of fringing coral reefs, nearshore lagoons, seagrass beds, sandy beaches and fine sediments offshore. A baseline survey was designed following detailed discussion of the scope of the development with the company and a preliminary site visit, and the fieldwork was completed in October 1980. On the basis of the findings of the survey, a series of recommendations was made to the company, aimed at reducing environmental impacts during construction and operation to a minimum and acceptable level. These were subsequently implemented and the results of a post-construction survey in February 1983 are reported which show that environmental damage to the nearshore habitats during the construction phase had been relatively small and localised. Recently, the biological information obtained from the two surveys has also been incorporated into oil spill contingency plans.

  12. Cyclic Behaviour of Laterally Loaded Monopiles in Sand Supporting Offshore Wind Turbines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nicolai, Giulio

    2018-01-01

    Almost 90% of the current offshore wind turbines are supported by monopiles, which are steel hollow piles with a large diameter. Nevertheless, monopiles are currently designed with inappropriate methods that were developed by the oil and gas industry for slender piles that are different from...

  13. Pig lift applications in offshore dry completion wells; Aplicacao do pig lift em pocos offshore de completacao seca

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lima, Paulo C.R.; Faria, Rogerio Costa; Almeida, Alcino Resende [PETROBRAS S.A., Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2000-07-01

    Production increases of 10% to 130% have been obtained with pig lift installations on offshore oil wells in the Cacao Field, southeast Brazil. At the present time 3 wells out of 5 are being produced with pig lift. These deep, highly deviated wells with little space on the platform to the required surface equipment presented a challenge to pig lift technology. However, these difficulties were overcame and the benefits obtained helped to maintain the economical attractiveness of the platform. (author)

  14. Peru seeking buyer for productive offshore tract

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that Petroleos del Peru (Petroperu) is seeking a buyer for its Petromar offshore exploration and production unit. Peru's national oil company wants to sell Petromar acreage, production, and production installations on Block Z-2b for $200 million, payable at $10 million/year for 20 years, plus a share of future production. Petroperu is offering a full interest petroleum exploration and exploitation contract for 30 years for oil and as long as 40 years in the case of gas exploitation. The company seeking the smallest share of current and incremental future production to operate Block Z-2b will be awarded the acreage. Petromar's sale is the latest announced under Peru's privatization program ordered by President Alberto Jujimori

  15. Petroleum hydrocarbons in offshore sediments from the Gulf

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Al-Lihaibi, S.S.; Al-Omran, Laila

    1996-01-01

    Petroleum hydrocarbons in offshore sediments from the central part of the Gulf were measured using fluorescence spectrophotometry. Concentrations varied between 4.0 and 56.2 μg/g wet sediment (expressed as Kuwait Crude Oil equivalents), with an average of 12.3 μ/g. Highest concentrations were recorded in the north-west sector, with concentrations decreasing in a south-westerly direction. No significant correlations were observed between petroleum hydrocarbons and sedimentary organic carbon (r-0.07), 'mud' content (r=0.09), 'sand' content (r= -0.08) or 'gravel' content (r= -0.12). Distributions of oil are considered to relate more closely to prevailing current and localized pollutant sources in the region. Despite the substantial inputs of oil to the Gulf, contamination can be considered comparatively low, possibly reflecting physical processes and biological degradation which accelerate removal of petroleum from this marine environment. (author)

  16. Development of a freshwater lens in the inverted Broad Fourteens Basin, Netherlands offshore

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bouw, Laurien; Oude Essink, Gualbert

    2003-01-01

    The Mesozoic Broad Fourteens Basin is a northwest-southeast trending structural element, situated in the southern North-Sea,Netherlands offshore. Biodegraded and water-washed oils in the southern Broad Fourteens Basin indicate topography-driven meteoric water flow during Late Cretaceous inversion.

  17. Sensitivity analysis of floating offshore wind farms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Castro-Santos, Laura; Diaz-Casas, Vicente

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Develop a sensitivity analysis of a floating offshore wind farm. • Influence on the life-cycle costs involved in a floating offshore wind farm. • Influence on IRR, NPV, pay-back period, LCOE and cost of power. • Important variables: distance, wind resource, electric tariff, etc. • It helps to investors to take decisions in the future. - Abstract: The future of offshore wind energy will be in deep waters. In this context, the main objective of the present paper is to develop a sensitivity analysis of a floating offshore wind farm. It will show how much the output variables can vary when the input variables are changing. For this purpose two different scenarios will be taken into account: the life-cycle costs involved in a floating offshore wind farm (cost of conception and definition, cost of design and development, cost of manufacturing, cost of installation, cost of exploitation and cost of dismantling) and the most important economic indexes in terms of economic feasibility of a floating offshore wind farm (internal rate of return, net present value, discounted pay-back period, levelized cost of energy and cost of power). Results indicate that the most important variables in economic terms are the number of wind turbines and the distance from farm to shore in the costs’ scenario, and the wind scale parameter and the electric tariff for the economic indexes. This study will help investors to take into account these variables in the development of floating offshore wind farms in the future

  18. Corrosion Challenges for the Oil and Gas Industry in the State of Qatar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnsen, Roy

    In Qatar oil and gas has been produced from onshore fields in more than 70 years, while the first offshore field delivered its first crude oil in 1965. Due to the atmospheric conditions in Qatar with periodically high humidity, high chloride content, dust/sand combined with the temperature variations, external corrosion is a big treat to the installations and connecting infrastructure. Internal corrosion in tubing, piping and process systems is also a challenge due to high H2S content in the hydrocarbon mixture and exposure to corrosive aquifer water. To avoid corrosion different type of mitigations like application of coating, chemical treatment and material selection are important elements. This presentation will review the experiences with corrosion challenges for oil & gas installations in Qatar including some examples of corrosion failures that have been seen.

  19. Addressing Differences in Safety Influencing Factors—A Comparison of Offshore and Onshore Helicopter Operations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rolf J. Bye

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The accident levels in helicopter transportation vary between geographical regions and types of operations. In this paper, we develop some hypotheses regarding the factors that may explain this variation. The aim of this paper is to improve safety in helicopter transportation through better understanding of the causes leading to fatal accidents. We provide an analysis of three segments of helicopter transportation in Norway (i.e., offshore transportation; onshore ambulance/police, and onshore transportation. This analysis refers to international research on helicopter accidents. The number of fatal accidents per million flight hours in Norwegian offshore helicopter transportation was 2.8 in 1990–1999 and zero in 2000–2015. In Norwegian onshore helicopter transportation, the fatal accident rate was 13.8 in the period 2000–2012. Twenty-three onshore helicopters crashed to the ground; seven of these crashes were fatal, killing 16 people. It is reasonable to question why there is such a significant difference in accident rates between offshore and onshore helicopter transportation. We have approached this question by comparing how the different segments of helicopter transportation are organized and managed. Our analysis shows that there are major differences both at the “sharp” end (i.e., in actual operations and the “blunt” end (i.e., rules, regulations and organization. This includes differences in regulations, market conditions, work organization (i.e., training, employment conditions, and qualifications of the crews, operations and technology. A central argument is that differences in the market conditions and requirements stipulated by the users explain some of these differences. The same differences can be found internationally. If we use best practice and expert judgments, there is an opportunity to improve helicopter safety through improving the socio-technical system (i.e., organizational issues, improved design, improved

  20. Progress in reducing the environmental impacts of offshore drilling wastes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Flemming, D; Candler, J.E.

    2002-01-01

    Full text:Over the past several years, great progress has been made in understanding and reducing the environmental impacts of offshore drilling wastes. Our understanding of sea floor impacts has been helped along by new environmental assessment tools such us computer modeling of sea floor deposition of drilling discharges, sediment profile imaging, and in situ sediment toxicity bioassays. To further reduce environmental impacts, new pollution prevention technologies have been developed that can shrink the environmental footprint of offshore drilling. These technologies reduce the total amount of drilling wastes discharged and include cuttings dryers and centrifuges that can reduce the drilling fluid content of drill cuttings to below 10 percent. In conclusion, the oil and gas industry is adopting more environmentally compatible drilling fluids, new environmental assessment tools and pollution prevention technologies that dramatically reduce the amount of drilling wastes discharged. Together, all of these elements have the potential to reduce environmental impacts of offshore drilling

  1. 1993 International oil spill conference: Prevention, preparedness, response

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1993-01-01

    This book contains the proceedings of the 1993 International Oil Spill Conference which took place March 29 - April 1 in Tampa, Florida. It was jointly sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute, the US Coast Guard, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Topics discussed included all aspects of spill prevention and preparedness, including planning, training, and research and development. Response issues, including fate and effects of spilled oil, cleanup, bioremediation, and in situ burning were also discussed. Legal and economic issues were also analyzed in the form of case studies

  2. Five offshore wind farms by EDF, GDF Suez and Iberdrola. France; Vijf offshore windparken door EDF, GDF Suez en Iberdrola. Frankrijk

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Polo-Leemreis, J. [TWA Netwerk, Paris (France)

    2012-02-15

    Five offshore wind farms are planned to be built off the Northwest coast of France. On 11 January 2012, three international consortia, led by the French businesses EDF EN (Energie Nouvelles), GDF Suez and the Spanish business Iberdrola, submitted their project proposals to this end. The French government highly values the contribution that offshore wind farms can make to the development of a new industrial sector. This would bring highly needed benefits to the French economy [Dutch] Voor de Noordwest-kust van Frankrijk moeten vijf offshore windparken komen. Op 11 januari 2012 hebben drie internationale consortia onder leiding van de Franse bedrijven EDF EN (Energies Nouvelles), GDF Suez en het Spaanse Iberdrola hun projectvoorstellen hiervoor ingediend. De Franse regering hecht veel waarde aan de bijdrage die offshore windparken kunnen leveren aan de ontwikkeling van een nieuwe industriele sector. De Franse economie zou dit goed kunnen gebruiken.

  3. Happy oil companies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maincent, G.

    2009-01-01

    The decay of demand, the bad financial results of the first half of 2009 and the hypothetical depletion of reserves must not hide a reality: oil companies are passing through the economic crisis without much trouble. Even if profits have marked time in volume (-57% for BP, -65% for Shell..), the net margins have not significantly suffered and the available cash remains comfortable (14 billion euros for Total as an example). The perspectives offered by the new offshore sites (like Santos in Brazil) added to the fabulous promises of the Iraqi market where 'majors' can now make their come-back will be the key of success of oil companies. The overall exploration-production investments should start up again by the beginning of 2011. For the only offshore drilling domain, they should rise up by 32% during the 2009-2013 period which represents a sum of 367 billion dollars. (J.S.)

  4. Modeling and Simulation of Offshore Wind Power Platform for 5 MW Baseline NREL Turbine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taufik Roni Sahroni

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents the modeling and simulation of offshore wind power platform for oil and gas companies. Wind energy has become the fastest growing renewable energy in the world and major gains in terms of energy generation are achievable when turbines are moved offshore. The objective of this project is to propose new design of an offshore wind power platform. Offshore wind turbine (OWT is composed of three main structures comprising the rotor/blades, the tower nacelle, and the supporting structure. The modeling analysis was focused on the nacelle and supporting structure. The completed final design was analyzed using finite element modeling tool ANSYS to obtain the structure’s response towards loading conditions and to ensure it complies with guidelines laid out by classification authority Det Norske Veritas. As a result, a new model of the offshore wind power platform for 5 MW Baseline NREL turbine was proposed.

  5. Crude operators: the future of the oil industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rowell, Andrew.

    1997-01-01

    Technological advances and the maturity of existing oil fields have spurred oil companies to explore for oil and extract it from previously inaccessible or ''frontier'' areas, both offshore and onshore. In many cases, such prospecting and production will have severe environmental impacts and serious social, ethical and cultural consequences. The challenge is not just to halt such exploration and extraction, but to halt oil consumption itself. (author)

  6. French civil law aspects of international sales of oil

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moquet, A.

    1992-01-01

    There is not in France, as in London and New York, and organised trade market for crude oil and oil products. French law does not apply to oil futures negotiated in foreign markets, although solicitation in France for transactions in a foreign market is legal only if that market is approved by the French Minister in charge of Economic Affairs. However, French oil producers do enter into OTC forward and commodity swap agreements. Although most of these agreements are standardised and expressly choose English law and the jurisdiction of the High Court of London for resolution of disputes, fundamental principles of French private international law may impose jurisdiction of a French Commercial Court (in case of bankruptcy of the French party for example) and/or rules of necessary application or public order. (author)

  7. Economics of petroleum exploration offshore Australia and Southeast Asia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allinson, G.; Elliston, M.

    1994-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to assess the economic attractiveness of exploring for crude oil offshore the North West Shelf of Australia by comparison with selected areas offshore Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. In order to do this, the technical, quantifiable factors which affect offshore petroleum exploration acreage acquisition decisions at the country level are examined. These factors are historical prospectivity, costs of field development and fiscal regime. Other factors such as political, macro-economic and business risks are not considered. The paper concludes that there are significant differences between the countries as indicated by these measures. Past exploration in the Barrow/Dampier area of the North West Shelf of Australia has shown high levels of success by comparison with the other countries. It is estimated that this relatively high success rate coupled with comparatively low costs of field development and lenient fiscal regimes makes the economics of exploration on the North West Shelf favourable by comparison with those selected areas in the other countries considered. 5 tabs., 4 figs

  8. Study and application of weak gel used for an offshore oilfield

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tang, X.; Liu, Y.; Bai, B.; Liu, G.; Jiang, R. [Petro-China Research Inst. of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Beijing (China); Xiang, W. [China Offshore Oil Research Center of China National Offshore Oil Co. (China)

    2005-07-01

    This paper described the profile modification technique which has been used successfully in China's oil fields on land and which has become one of the key techniques to improve the development of mature fields with high heterogeneity and high water cut. One such reservoir is SZ361, an offshore oilfield characterized by thick oil layers, high permeability contrast, high oil viscosity and high water salinity. All injection wells were completed by liner gravel-packing. Water cut of some production wells is above 90 per cent. A large volume of weak gel treatment was proposed to control water conformance. A new weak gel was developed to address the specific features of offshore oil fields, such as small space of platform and high salinity of injection water. The gel properties were presented along with an evaluation of the salinity and temperature on the thermal stability of the gel. The plugging efficiency of the gel was carried out on different permeability cores. Results show that the selected polymer and cross-linkers can be well dispersed and solved within 30 minutes when mixing with sea water or produced water. The gelation time can be controlled by adjusting the gel composition. The novel gel can be applied in the reservoirs with a temperature range of 30-70 degrees C and salinity below 40,000 mg/l. The gel was tested in one injection well and proved to be economically efficient. 7 refs., 3 tabs., 8 figs.

  9. Integration of Wave and Offshore Wind Energy in a European Offshore Grid

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chozas, Julia Fernandez; Sørensen, H. C.; Korpås, M.

    2010-01-01

    of offshore renewable energy sources. According to this, the paper covers i) public and private initiatives for offshore transmission networks, ii) the synergies between the wave and the offshore wind energy sector within an offshore grid, iii) power transmission options for offshore generation and iv...

  10. The stability of the international oil trade network from short-term and long-term perspectives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Qingru; Gao, Xiangyun; Zhong, Weiqiong; Liu, Nairong

    2017-09-01

    To examine the stability of the international oil trade network and explore the influence of countries and trade relationships on the trade stability, we construct weighted and unweighted international oil trade networks based on complex network theory using oil trading data between countries from 1996 to 2014. We analyze the stability of international oil trade network (IOTN) from short-term and long-term aspects. From the short-term perspective, we find that the trade volumes play an important role on the stability. Moreover, the weighted IOTN is stable; however, the unweighted networks can better reflect the actual evolution of IOTN. From the long-term perspective, we identify trade relationships that are maintained during the whole sample period to reveal the situation of the whole international oil trade. We provide a way to quantitatively measure the stability of complex network from short-term and long-term perspectives, which can be applied to measure and analyze trade stability of other goods or services.

  11. Energetic aspects and opportunities for reusing water on offshore platforms in Campos Basin, Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victor Magalhães Duarte

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available In the drilling and production of oil at sea, a large quantity of potable water used is most commonly transported to oil platforms using offshore supply vessels (OSVs. Sea water desalination is used as well, but only in a few oil platforms. To minimize energy consumption, water supply options were studied. The desalination of seawater and the reusing of streams of grey water and black water were evaluated and compared with the characteristics of the current supply via OSVs. In both desalination and OSV water supply options an electrolytic wastewater treatment plant is used. The objective of this study was to analyze the current situation regarding water supply on offshore platforms located in the Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and to propose measures to take advantage of opportunities to reuse water and reduce energy expenditure. Two alternative scenarios were developed that involved the reuse of water that comes from the effluent of a biological wastewater treatment plant (WWTP. Information on the logistics of supplying water to platforms was obtained through direct consultation with companies and sources in the literature. The results show that annual energy consumption (uptake, treatment, transportation, use and waste water treatment of water on offshore platforms is currently 1.89 GWh, and that a reduction of 1.8 GWh of the energy consumed can be achieved using advanced reuse treatments. Energy consumption in the water reuse treatment is more competitive than those of transport by OSVs or seawater desalination.

  12. The impact of Oil Prices on the International Economic Arena: The Economic Factors and International Players

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MA. Arben Salihu

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Throughout history the new technologies and discoveries revolutionized the way we live. The discovery, the oil, has been critical for society, becoming the world’s most profitable and essential industry transforming itself from domestic to international business. The aim of this paper, above all is to analyze the role of oil and its price volatility in world economy. The ongoing changes and transformations in world oil industry tend to have a great effect not only on the oilimporting countries but also on oil-exporting nations. The demand or supply-triggered oil price volatility differ in its effects to world economic activity. Although it may have different effect for the oil importing nations in comparison to oil exporting nations, still inflationary pressure may be a common feature. A number of points relevant to the study are put forward highlighting pros and cons of issues discussed. The paper also elaborates the environmental concerns, deriving from the increase of oil consumption and the necessity (globally to increase efforts in finding a decent,(environmentally friendly replacement for oil.

  13. Aerobic microbial enhanced oil recovery

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Torsvik, T. [Univ. of Bergen (Norway); Gilje, E.; Sunde, E.

    1995-12-31

    In aerobic MEOR, the ability of oil-degrading bacteria to mobilize oil is used to increase oil recovery. In this process, oxygen and mineral nutrients are injected into the oil reservoir in order to stimulate growth of aerobic oil-degrading bacteria in the reservoir. Experiments carried out in a model sandstone with stock tank oil and bacteria isolated from offshore wells showed that residual oil saturation was lowered from 27% to 3%. The process was time dependent, not pore volume dependent. During MEOR flooding, the relative permeability of water was lowered. Oxygen and active bacteria were needed for the process to take place. Maximum efficiency was reached at low oxygen concentrations, approximately 1 mg O{sub 2}/liter.

  14. Genotoxicity Biomonitoring Along a Coastal Zone Under Influence of Offshore Petroleum Exploration (Southeastern Brazil).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gutiérrez, Juan Manuel; da Conceição, Moisés Basilio; Molisani, Mauricio Mussi; Weber, Laura Isabel

    2018-03-01

    Offshore oil exploration creates threats to coastal ecosystems, including increasing urbanization and associated effluent releases. Genotoxicity biomarkers in mussels were determined across a gradient of coastal zone influences of offshore petroleum exploration in southeastern Brazil. Coastal ecosystems such as estuaries, beaches and islands were seasonally monitored for genotoxicity evaluation using the brown mussel Perna perna. The greatest DNA damage (5.2% ± 1.9% tail DNA and 1.5‰  ± 0.8‰ MN) were observed in urban estuaries, while Santana Archipelago showed levels of genotoxicity near zero and is considered a reference site. Mussels from urban and pristine beaches showed intermediate damage levels, but were also influenced by urbanization. Thus, mussel genotoxicity biomarkers greatly indicated the proposed oil exploration and urbanization scenarios that consequently are genetically affecting coastal organisms.

  15. Reliability Assessment and Reliability-Based Inspection and Maintenance of Offshore Wind Turbines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ramirez, José Rangel

    actions are the most relevant and effective means of control of deterioration. The risk-based inspection planning methodology, based on Bayesian decision theory, represents an important tool to identify the suitable strategy to inspect and control the deterioration in structures such as offshore wind...... performance during the life cycle. The deterioration processes, such as fatigue and corrosion, are typically affecting offshore structural systems. This damage decreases the system performance and increases the risk of failure, thus not fulfilling the established safety criteria. Inspection and maintenance...... to their offshore location, no pollution risks and low human risks since they are unmanned. This allows the allocation of lower reliability level compared to e.g. oil & gas installations. With the incursion to water depths between 20 and 50 meters, the use of jacket and tripod structures represents a feasible...

  16. Interconnector capacity allocation in offshore grids with variable wind generation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schröder, Sascha Thorsten

    2013-01-01

    the interconnector capacity should be allocated for wind generation and for international power trading. The main difficulty arises from the stochastic nature of wind generation: in a case with radial connections to the national coast, the wind park owner has the possibility of aggregating the offshore wind park....... It is concluded that treating offshore generation as a single price zone within the interconnector reduces the wind operator’s ability to pool it with other generation. Furthermore, a single offshore price zone between two markets will always receive the lower spot market price of the neighbouring zones, although...

  17. RADIATION DOSE AND RISK TO RECREATIONAL FISHERMEN FROM INGESTION OF FISH CAUGHT NEAR EIGHT OIL PLATFORMS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    MEINHOLD,A.F.; HOLTZMAN,S.

    1998-06-01

    Offshore production of oil and gas is accompanied by a saline wastewater, called produced water. Produced water discharges to the Gulf of Mexico often contain elevated concentrations of radionuclides that occur naturally in the geologic reservoir along with the oil and gas. These radionuclides may accumulate in organisms that live near offshore oil and gas structures. Because recreational fishing in the Gulf of Mexico is concentrated near oil and gas platforms, there is the potential for increased risks to recreational fishermen from the ingestion of radionuclides in fish caught near produced water discharges. This analysis investigated the potential risk to recreational fishermen from radium and lead-210 in offshore produced water discharges to the Gulf of Mexico. The assessment used data collected at eight discharging offshore platforms and two reference locations. These data were collected in a USDOE funded project titled ``Environmental and Economic Assessment of Discharges from Gulf of Mexico Region Oil and Gas Operations'', here called the USDOE Field Study. The risk assessments were done to support risk managers in developing regulations and permits for offshore discharges of produced water.

  18. Economics of oil regulation and the Brazilian reform. Some issues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hernandez-Perez, Adriana

    2011-01-01

    This paper reviews the economic fundamentals for regulation in the oil industry, with a focus on the current regulatory proposal for the Brazilian oil industry. The observed exploration and production (E and P) contracts foresee much of the characteristics of the optimal contract, with a remuneration structure that combines upfront with future payments to mitigate uncertainty and incentivize exploratory efforts. In Brazil, despite slow market deconcentration since 1997's liberalization, the current oil regulation is in general consistent with an optimal regulatory response. From an economic standpoint, the 2009's new regulatory proposal prompted by the major oil discoveries offshore in Brazil reduces the power of incentive schemes with respect to exploratory and cost-reducing efforts while the changes in the net risk of the E and P offshore activities are not so clear. (author)

  19. Academics as Part-Time Marketers in University Offshore Programs: An Exploratory Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poole, David; Ewan, Craig

    2010-01-01

    Australian universities maintain almost 900 offshore programs delivered to more than 100 000 students, primarily in the nations of Singapore, Malaysia, China, and Hong Kong (Universities Australia, 2009; IDP, 2009a). Although offshore students comprise an estimated 30 per cent of international student enrolments at Australian universities (IDP,…

  20. Assessment of weld thickness loss in offshore pipelines using computed radiography and computational modeling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Correa, S.C.A.; Souza, E.M.; Oliveira, D.F.; Silva, A.X.; Lopes, R.T.; Marinho, C.; Camerini, C.S.

    2009-01-01

    In order to guarantee the structural integrity of oil plants it is crucial to monitor the amount of weld thickness loss in offshore pipelines. However, in spite of its relevance, this parameter is very difficult to determine, due to both the large diameter of most pipes and the complexity of the multi-variable system involved. In this study, a computational modeling based on Monte Carlo MCNPX code is combined with computed radiography to estimate the weld thickness loss in large-diameter offshore pipelines. Results show that computational modeling is a powerful tool to estimate intensity variations in radiographic images generated by weld thickness variations, and it can be combined with computed radiography to assess weld thickness loss in offshore and subsea pipelines.

  1. Government response to the consultation on proposals relating to the decommissioning of offshore energy installations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2007-11-09

    This document presents the UK government's response to consultation concerning decommissioning offshore oil and gas installations and pipelines and offshore renewable energy installations and associated power lines. The key issues discussed cover provision of funds for decommissioning, safeguarding the funds in event of insolvency, and widening the categories of people on whom decommissioning obligations can be placed in addition to earlier issue of notices and provision of decommissioning security, and extending the power of the Secretary of State to require information.

  2. effect of crude oil extracts on early stages of african catfish

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Admin

    Nigerian Bonny light crude oil and Exxon Mobil Oso off-shore condensate during a ... of Oso condensate extract when larval integument was damaged. It is ... Spills of oil condensate from Oso Exxon Mobil Oil rig readily enter the .... compounds are extracted from oil films in natural .... Resources and Fishing Rome, 9-13 Dec.

  3. The importance of the stimulation vessels in the Brazilian offshore basins: a history of technological evolution; A importancia dos barcos de estimulacao em bacias offshore brasileiras: uma historia de evolucao tecnologica

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Torres, Ricardo S.; Prata, Fernando Gaspar M.; Dean, Gregory D. [BJ Services do Brasil Ltda., RJ (Brazil)

    2004-07-01

    The Campos Basin is known as one of the most challenging deep water basins in the world. Currently there are thirty-seven platforms, more than a thousand oil wells, and about 4200 kilometers of submarine pipelines, having produced more than 1,2 billion barrels of oil per year and 15,7 million cubic meters of gas per day. The Campos Basin is responsible for more than 80% of Brazil's national production. Brazil intends to produce 2,2 million barrels of oil per day by 2007, when it will reach self-sufficiency. Therefore, the continued development of the offshore basins, such as Campos, Santos and Espirito Santo will be critical to meet this goal. In this context, the technological evolution of the vessels that render stimulation services is of fundamental importance to improve job quality, reduce time, protect with the environment, enable efficient communication, and ensure operational viability of new techniques. This paper reports on the history of this vessels, describing and illustrating new and state-of-the-art technology, historical cases of pioneering operations, data transmission in real time and the benefits for offshore operators with a global vision. (author)

  4. Nonconsensual clinical trials: a foreseeable risk of offshoring under global corporatism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spielman, Bethany

    2015-03-01

    This paper explores the connection of offshoring and outsourcing to nonconsensual global pharmaceutical trials in low-income countries. After discussing reasons why the topic of nonconsensual offshored clinical trials may be overlooked in bioethics literature, I suggest that when pharmaceutical corporations offshore clinical trials today, nonconsensual experiments are often foreseeable and not simply the result of aberrant ethical conduct by a few individuals. Offshoring of clinical trials is structured so that experiments can be presented as health care in a unique form of outsourcing from the host country to pharmaceutical corporations. Bioethicists' assessments of the risks and potential benefits of offshore corporate pharmaceutical trials should therefore systematically include not only the hoped for benefits and the risks of the experimental drug but also the risk that subjects will not have consented, as well as the broader international consequences of nonconsensual experimentation.

  5. World oil: the growing case for international policy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chapman, D.; Khanna, N.

    2000-01-01

    Can the economic theory of depletion be reconciled with low petroleum prices? This article uses a revision of the theory, which reflects demand functions that rise in response to increasing world population and income. The magnitude of producers' and consumers' surplus is estimated under both competitive and monopolistic assumptions; the result indicates a present value comparable to or in excess of today's gross world economic product. Game theory suggests a framework that explains the interaction between oil pricing and military policy, and the economic incentives that result in a general pattern of recent market equilibrium crude oil prices often fluctuating with a 15-20 US dollars per barrel range. The analysis concludes that the economic incentives for political instability in the Persian Gulf will increase, and more formal methods of setting the international framework for Persian Gulf oil may be expected. (author)

  6. A Real-Time Offshore Weather Risk Advisory System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jolivet, Samuel; Zemskyy, Pavlo; Mynampati, Kalyan; Babovic, Vladan

    2015-04-01

    Offshore oil and gas operations in South East Asia periodically face extended downtime due to unpredictable weather conditions, including squalls that are accompanied by strong winds, thunder, and heavy rains. This downtime results in financial losses. Hence, a real time weather risk advisory system is developed to provide the offshore Oil and Gas (O&G) industry specific weather warnings in support of safety and environment security. This system provides safe operating windows based on sensitivity of offshore operations to sea state. Information products for safety and security include area of squall occurrence for the next 24 hours, time before squall strike, and heavy sea state warning for the next 3, 6, 12 & 24 hours. These are predicted using radar now-cast, high resolution Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and Data Assimilation (DA). Radar based now-casting leverages the radar data to produce short term (up to 3 hours) predictions of severe weather events including squalls/thunderstorms. A sea state approximation is provided through developing a translational model based on these predictions to risk rank the sensitivity of operations. A high resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF, an open source NWP model) is developed for offshore Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. This high resolution model is optimized and validated against the adaptation of temperate to tropical met-ocean parameterization. This locally specific parameters are calibrated against federated data to achieve a 24 hour forecast of high resolution Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE). CAPE is being used as a proxy for the risk of squall occurrence. Spectral decomposition is used to blend the outputs of the now-cast and the forecast in order to assimilate near real time weather observations as an implementation of the integration of data sources. This system uses the now-cast for the first 3 hours and then the forecast prediction horizons of 3, 6, 12 & 24 hours. The output is

  7. Drugs offshore: companies stepping up fight against hidden adversary

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Redden, J.

    1986-01-01

    Oil companies worldwide are effectively fighting a growing nemesis, drug and alcohol abuse on offshore installations. It is estimated that companies are losing millions of dollars in lost productivity, accidents, and thefts caused by on-the-job use of illegal drugs. Some of the measures being employed to combat the use of such drugs, e.g., tight control, better communications, diversions for employees, and the use of sniffer dogs, are discussed.

  8. Evaluation of the toxicity of the weathered crude oil used at the Newfoundland Offshore Burn Experiment (NOBE) and the resultant burn residue

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blenkinsopp, S.; Sergy, G.; Doe, K.; Wohlgeschaffen, G.; Li, K.; Fingas, M.

    1997-01-01

    Toxicity of the weathered crude oil Alberta Sweet Mixed Blend (ASMB) used at the Newfoundland Offshore Burn Experiment (NOBE), and the resultant burn residue was evaluated using the newly developed Environment Canada water-accomodated fraction (WAF) method and exposure protocol. Rainbow trout, three-spine stickleback and gametes of sea urchins were exposed to saltwater WAF prepared from both weathered ASMB and burn residue. Gas chromatography/ mass spectrometry headspace analysis of 28 analytes showed low levels of volatile hydrocarbons after 96 hours of exposure (except for sea urchins, in which case the test was only 20 minutes in duration). All samples were found to be not toxic to all species tested. 10 refs., 2 tabs

  9. The Newfoundland oil spill burn experiment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fingas, M.

    1992-01-01

    A major offshore oil-spill combustion experiment is being planned for waters off Newfoundland. The experiment is designed to answer outstanding questions on the acceptability of in-situ oil spill burning. In the experiment, variables will be controlled to allow quantitative measurement of the scientific and operational parameters that will enhance understanding of in-situ combustion as an operational oil-spill response technique. The proposed full-scale tests follow six years of testing in laboratory tanks. Analyses have shown that the high temperatures reached during efficient in-situ combustion result in relatively complete destruction of the oil. Tests have shown that the most important factor in this regard is that the oil must be thickened sufficiently before effective burning will occur. Such thickening is potentially possible in the offshore, under suitable wind and sea conditions, using fireproof containment booms. The experiment will involve measurement of emissions to the air, levels of oil in water, and operational parameters of in-situ burning. Time and location of the experiment are chosen to minimize ecological damage and for operational reasons. When suitable conditions are present in early August 1993, two 45-m 3 batches of crude oil will be released into a containment boom and ignited. The burn residue will be recovered mechanically, and a secondary containment and recovery system will be towed behind the fireproof boom to pick up any fugitive oil or residue. 3 figs., 6 tabs

  10. Offshore field development. Statfjord - a geologist's dream: an economist's nightmare

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1980-09-01

    On September 3, 1980, the water injection module was lifted on board the Statfjord A platform. That marks the completion of the platform, a giant 3,000,000 bpd capacity monster of an offshore structure, carrying a price tag of $1.5 billion. Two more such giants are scheduled to follow, each costing approximately $2 billion in the North Sea's largest and most expensive offshore field development ever. Oil wells in the Statfjord field, the largest North Sea field to date, are now producing at up to 30,000 bpd each. The reservoir proves particularly open, and the filling of it is extremely good. Wells have produced up to 40,000 bpd, but with that kind of flow, sand problems occur. Gravel packs have had to be installed in several of the wells. Mobil's Dallas facilities have uncovered the fact that now dominates the Norwegian North Sea scene, i.e., the cut off point for gas reinjection into the Statfjord sand is late 1985. After that point a possible breakthrough of gas could block the oil or even damage the reservoir if reinjection is continued.

  11. The upstream oil and gas industry's initiative in the development of international standards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thomas, G.A.N.; Thorp, G.

    1993-01-01

    The paper describes the international work of the oil industry to formalize as International Standards many of the industry standards used world-wide. It also describes how matters have been developing in Europe. E and P Forum, representing the international exploration and production oil and gas industry, provides a forum for coordinating industry standardization, to ensure that the necessary standards are maintained by the appropriate technical body. The paper discusses the development of the standardization program in ISO/TC67, the Technical Committee directing the transformation of some 70 API Standards into ISO Standards and the relationship to CEN (the European standardization body). The objective of the upstream industry is to operate worldwide to consistent international standards. Company standards can then concentrate on functional and performance requirements. This will facilitate international trade and communication, open competition and the global market. For a practical realization of this objective the oil industry must foster a special relationship between the relevant US bodies, ISO and CEN. The sustained support of all sides of industry is required

  12. Design Load Basis for Offshore Wind turbines

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Natarajan, Anand; Hansen, Morten Hartvig; Wang, Shaofeng

    2016-01-01

    DTU Wind Energy is not designing and manufacturing wind turbines and does therefore not need a Design Load Basis (DLB) that is accepted by a certification body. However, to assess the load consequences of innovative features and devices added to existing offshore turbine concepts or new offshore...... turbine concept developed in our research, it is useful to have a full DLB that follows the current design standard and is representative of a general DLB used by the industry. It will set a standard for the offshore wind turbine design load evaluations performed at DTU Wind Energy, which is aligned...... with the challenges faced by the industry and therefore ensures that our research continues to have a strong foundation in this interaction. Furthermore, the use of a full DLB that follows the current standard can improve and increase the feedback from the research at DTU Wind Energy to the international...

  13. Damage to offshore infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico by hurricanes Katrina and Rita

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cruz, A. M.; Krausmann, E.

    2009-04-01

    The damage inflicted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the Gulf-of-Mexico's (GoM) oil and gas production, both onshore and offshore, has shown the proneness of industry to Natech accidents (natural hazard-triggered hazardous-materials releases). In order to contribute towards a better understanding of Natech events, we assessed the damage to and hazardous-materials releases from offshore oil and natural-gas platforms and pipelines induced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Data was obtained through a review of published literature and interviews with government officials and industry representatives from the affected region. We also reviewed over 60,000 records of reported hazardous-materials releases from the National Response Center's (NRC) database to identify and analyze the hazardous-materials releases directly attributed to offshore oil and gas platforms and pipelines affected by the two hurricanes. Our results show that hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed at least 113 platforms, and severely damaged at least 53 others. Sixty percent of the facilities destroyed were built 30 years ago or more prior to the adoption of the more stringent design standards that went into effect after 1977. The storms also destroyed 5 drilling rigs and severely damaged 19 mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs). Some 19 MODUs lost their moorings and became adrift during the storms which not only posed a danger to existing facilities but the dragging anchors also damaged pipelines and other infrastructure. Structural damage to platforms included toppling of sections, and tilting or leaning of platforms. Possible causes for failure of structural and non-structural components of platforms included loading caused by wave inundation of the deck. Failure of rigs attached to platforms was also observed resulting in significant damage to the platform or adjacent infrastructure, as well as damage to equipment, living quarters and helipads. The failures are attributable to tie-down components

  14. Radiation dose and risk to recreational fishermen from ingestion of fish caught near eight oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meinhold, A.F.; Holtzman, S.

    1998-06-01

    Offshore production of oil and gas is accompanied by a saline wastewater, called produced water. Produced water discharges to the Gulf of Mexico often contain elevated concentrations of radionuclides that occur naturally in the geologic reservoir along with the oil and gas. These radionuclides may accumulate in organisms that live near offshore oil and gas structures. Because recreational fishing in the Gulf of Mexico is concentrated near oil and gas platforms, there is the potential for increased risks to recreational fishermen from the ingestion of radionuclides in fish caught near produced water discharges. This analysis investigated the potential risk to recreational fishermen from radium and lead-210 in offshore produced water discharged to the Gulf of Mexico

  15. Radiation dose and risk to recreational fishermen from ingestion of fish caught near eight oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Meinhold, A.F.; Holtzman, S.

    1998-06-01

    Offshore production of oil and gas is accompanied by a saline wastewater, called produced water. Produced water discharges to the Gulf of Mexico often contain elevated concentrations of radionuclides that occur naturally in the geologic reservoir along with the oil and gas. These radionuclides may accumulate in organisms that live near offshore oil and gas structures. Because recreational fishing in the Gulf of Mexico is concentrated near oil and gas platforms, there is the potential for increased risks to recreational fishermen from the ingestion of radionuclides in fish caught near produced water discharges. This analysis investigated the potential risk to recreational fishermen from radium and lead-210 in offshore produced water discharged to the Gulf of Mexico.

  16. Economics of oil regulation and the Brazilian reform. Some issues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hernandez-Perez, Adriana [Center for Economics and Oil Studies, IBRE/Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Brazil)

    2011-01-15

    This paper reviews the economic fundamentals for regulation in the oil industry, with a focus on the current regulatory proposal for the Brazilian oil industry. The observed exploration and production (E and P) contracts foresee much of the characteristics of the optimal contract, with a remuneration structure that combines upfront with future payments to mitigate uncertainty and incentivize exploratory efforts. In Brazil, despite slow market deconcentration since 1997's liberalization, the current oil regulation is in general consistent with an optimal regulatory response. From an economic standpoint, the 2009's new regulatory proposal prompted by the major oil discoveries offshore in Brazil reduces the power of incentive schemes with respect to exploratory and cost-reducing efforts while the changes in the net risk of the E and P offshore activities are not so clear. (author)

  17. The new great game : international oil markets; Middle East domination or regionalisation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Odell, P.R.

    1998-01-01

    The dynamics of international supply and demand for oil and its effect on world oil prices are discussed. The impact of stagnant prices over the past 15 years on the Middle East, Russia, China and OPEC members was described, together with an attempt to explain the reasons for: (1) Middle East domination or regionalisation, (2) the emergence of a regionalized oil industry, (3) the Middle East as the residual supplier, and (4) the future of Middle East oil and of traded markets. 3 tabs., 5 figs

  18. Economics of oil regulation and the Brazilian reform: Some issues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hernandez-Perez, Adriana, E-mail: adriana.perez@fgv.b [Center for Economics and Oil Studies, IBRE/Fundacao Getulio Vargas (Brazil)

    2011-01-15

    This paper reviews the economic fundamentals for regulation in the oil industry, with a focus on the current regulatory proposal for the Brazilian oil industry. The observed exploration and production (E and P) contracts foresee much of the characteristics of the optimal contract, with a remuneration structure that combines upfront with future payments to mitigate uncertainty and incentivize exploratory efforts. In Brazil, despite slow market deconcentration since 1997's liberalization, the current oil regulation is in general consistent with an optimal regulatory response. From an economic standpoint, the 2009's new regulatory proposal prompted by the major oil discoveries offshore in Brazil reduces the power of incentive schemes with respect to exploratory and cost-reducing efforts while the changes in the net risk of the E and P offshore activities are not so clear. - Research Highlights: {yields} The observed exploration and production (E and P) contracts foresee much of the characteristics of an optimal contract. {yields} The current oil regulation in Brazil is in general consistent with an optimal regulatory response. {yields} The changes in the net risk of the E and P offshore activities in Brazil are not so clear. {yields} The 2009's new regulatory proposal in Brazil reduces the power of incentive schemes with respect to exploratory and cost-reducing efforts.

  19. Charting the new world order: proceedings of the 15. CERI international oil and gas markets conference

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1996-10-01

    The 15th International Oil and Gas Markets Conference, organized by the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) and held in Calgary, AB, provided a wide variety of opportunities for discussion of the global oil and gas market outlook, international oil and gas market strategies and corporate planning in the new world order, competition for investments, the re-emergence of the geopolitics of energy, energy in the Americas, international gas market strategies, and the financing of Canadian international operations. More than 100 delegates from around the world attended the conference to hear some 20 presentations. refs., tabs., figs

  20. Assessment of the use of dispersants on oil spills in California marine waters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trudel, K.; Ross, S.; Belore, R.; Buffington, S.; Ogawa, C.; Panzer, D.

    2002-01-01

    The technical issues regarding the use of dispersants to clean up oil spills from offshore production sources and transportation sources in California were assessed in this study which examined both operational and environmental issues. The operational issues included the dispersibility of produced and imported oils, along with the capabilities of California response resources to deal with typical spills and limiting environmental impacts to offshore environments. The environmental issues include the risks associated with typical spills and potential net environmental benefit of chemically dispersing oil spills. Most crude oils produced offshore California are heavy and border on the undispersable range, but the imported crudes are somewhat lighter. Modeling has shown that most produced oils and some imported oils emulsify quickly and weather more quickly to the point where they are no longer dispersible. There is a very narrow window of time for chemical dispersions to be used effectively. The net environmental benefit analysis demonstrates that the use of dispersants lessens the total environmental impact of spill scenarios. It was emphasized that it is necessary to act quickly if chemical dispersion is to be effective. Rapid response strategies are needed, including locally based vessel and helicopter spraying systems. 19 refs., 8 tabs., 1 fig

  1. Economic impacts of higher oil and gas prices. The role of international trade for Germany

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lutz, Christian; Meyer, Bernd

    2009-01-01

    The analysis concentrates on direct and indirect price increases, induced shifts in international trade and structural changes in the oil importing economies. The paper at hand asks, whether a stabilizing effect via international trade and domestic structural change on the GDP of oil importing countries can be observed, if a permanent oil price increase occurs. At least for Germany, structural change from consumer goods to investment goods industry and an improvement of international competitiveness limit negative impacts of increased energy prices. Analysis is based on the extensive and disaggregated global GINFORS model and the detailed INFORGE model for the German economy. (author)

  2. Emerging conservation challenges and prospects in an era of offshore hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kark, Salit; Brokovich, Eran; Mazor, Tessa; Levin, Noam

    2015-12-01

    Globally, extensive marine areas important for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning are undergoing exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas resources. Such operations are expanding to previously inaccessible deep waters and other frontier regions, while conservation-related legislation and planning is often lacking. Conservation challenges arising from offshore hydrocarbon development are wide-ranging. These challenges include threats to ecosystems and marine species from oil spills, negative impacts on native biodiversity from invasive species colonizing drilling infrastructure, and increased political conflicts that can delay conservation actions. With mounting offshore operations, conservationists need to urgently consider some possible opportunities that could be leveraged for conservation. Leveraging options, as part of multi-billion dollar marine hydrocarbon operations, include the use of facilities and costly equipment of the deep and ultra-deep hydrocarbon industry for deep-sea conservation research and monitoring and establishing new conservation research, practice, and monitoring funds and environmental offsetting schemes. The conservation community, including conservation scientists, should become more involved in the earliest planning and exploration phases and remain involved throughout the operations so as to influence decision making and promote continuous monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystems. A prompt response by conservation professionals to offshore oil and gas developments can mitigate impacts of future decisions and actions of the industry and governments. New environmental decision support tools can be used to explicitly incorporate the impacts of hydrocarbon operations on biodiversity into marine spatial and conservation plans and thus allow for optimum trade-offs among multiple objectives, costs, and risks. © 2015 Society for Conservation Biology.

  3. Oil seepage detection technique as a tool to hydrocarbon prospecting in offshore Campos Basin-Brazil; Deteccao de exsudacoes de oleo como uma ferramenta de prospeccao de hidrocarbonetos na regiao maritima da Bacia de Campos - Brasil

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Castilho, Jose G.; Brito, Ademilson F. [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-graduacao de Engenharia (COPPE). Lab. de Modelagem de Bacias (LAB2M); Landau, Luiz [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-graduacao de Engenharia (COPPE). Lab. de Metodos Computacionais em Engenharia (LAMCE)

    2004-07-01

    With a proven capacity to identify oil slicks in offshore regions, RADARSAT-1 imagery can be useful for oil exploration purposes. The paper discusses the seepage detection method at Campos Basin, offshore Rio de Janeiro State, which is responsible for 80% of the Brazilian production of oil and gas. It is known that the horizontal migration of petroleum can occurs over tens or even hundreds of kilometers, where the source rock placed in more deep locations can be linked with shallow reservoirs or traps and even reach the ocean. It means that seepage can provide information for risking petroleum charge at basin scales, and cannot have a direct relation with the geographical position of the interpreted seeps and possible filled prospects. A good understanding of the geology, and hence the petroleum systems of a basin is the key to use seepage in exploration. The work is divided into three main steps. First step were select oil seepages interpreted at Campos Basin where is found several giant petroleum fields. Second, the geology of the study area and its structural and stratigraphic features were analyzed, in order to identify possible migration pathways related to faults generated by halokinesis. Another important aspect is the presence of 'windows' or ducts in the evaporates beds allowing the contact between the section that contains source rocks and the turbidities reservoirs, that contain the majority of the oil discovers. All these features were interpreted based on a regional dip seismic line (203 - 76), and a geologic cross section with E-W orientation, showing the structure of the Marlim Field. Finally, all the information was integrated in a Geographical Information System (GIS), and then analyzed in an interdisciplinary environment, with the intention to link possible routes of oil migration to post-evaporites reservoirs or to interpreted seeps. (author)

  4. Optimization of Installation, Operation and Maintenance at Offshore Wind Projects in the U.S.: Review and Modeling of Existing and Emerging Approaches

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baldock, Nick [Garrad Hassan & Partners Ltd, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Sevilla, Fernando [Garrad Hassan & Partners Ltd, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Redfern, Robin [Garrad Hassan & Partners Ltd, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Storey, Alexis [Garrad Hassan & Partners Ltd, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Kempenaar, Anton [Garrad Hassan & Partners Ltd, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Elkinton, Chris [Garrad Hassan America, Inc., San Diego, CA (United States)

    2014-12-19

    The United States Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a grant to GL Garrad Hassan (GL GH) to investigate the logistics, opportunities, and costs associated with existing and emerging installation and operation and maintenance (O&M) activities at offshore wind projects as part of the DOE’s program to reduce barriers facing offshore wind project development in the United States (U.S.). This report (the Report) forms part of Subtopic 5.3 “Optimized Installation, Operation and Maintenance Strategies Study” which in turn is part of the “Removing Market Barriers in U.S. Offshore Wind” set of projects for the DOE. The purpose of Subtopic 5.3 is to aid and facilitate informed decision-making regarding installation and O&M during the development, installation, and operation of offshore wind projects in order to increase efficiency and reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCoE). Given the large area of U.S. territorial waters, the generally higher mean wind speeds offshore, and the proximity to the coast of many large U.S. cities, offshore wind power has the potential to become a significant contributor of energy to U.S. markets. However, for the U.S. to ensure that the development of offshore wind energy projects is carried out in an efficient and cost-effective manner, it is important to be cognizant of the current and emerging practices in both the domestic and international offshore wind energy industries. The U.S. can harness the experience gained globally and combine this with the skills and assets of an already sizeable onshore wind industry, as well as the resources of a mature offshore oil and gas industry, to develop a strong offshore wind sector. The work detailed in this report is aimed at assisting with that learning curve, particularly in terms of offshore specific installation and O&M activities. This Report and the Installation and O&M LCoE Analysis Tool, which were developed together by GL GH as part of this study, allow readers to identify, model

  5. The stably stratified internal boundary layer for steady and diurnally varying offshore flow

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garratt, J. R.

    1987-03-01

    A two-dimensional numerical mesoscale model is used to investigate the internal structure and growth of the stably stratified internal boundary layer (IBL) beneath warm, continental air flowing over a cooler sea. Two situations are studied — steady-state and diurnally varying offshore flow. In the steady-state case, vertical profiles of mean quantities and eddy diffusion coefficients ( K) within the IBL show small, but significant, changes with increasing distance from the coast. The top of the IBL is well defined, with large vertical gradients within the layer and a maximum in the coast-normal wind component near the top. Well away from the coast, turbulence, identified by non-zero K, decreases to insignificant levels near the top of the IBL; the IBL itself is characterised by a critical value of the layer-flux Richardson number equal to 0.18. The overall behaviour of the mean profiles is similar to that found in the horizontally homogeneous stable boundary layer over land. A simple physical model is used to relate the depth of the layer h to several relevant physical parameters viz., x, the distance from the coast and U, the large-scale wind (both normal to the coastline) and gδθ/θ, Δθ being the temperature difference between continental mixed-layer air and sea surface, θ is the mean potential temperature and g is the acceleration due to gravity. Excellent agreement with the numerical results is found, with h = 0.014 x 1/2 U ( gδθ/θ)-1/2. In the diurnally varying case, the mean profiles within the IBL show only small differences from the steady-state case, although diurnal variations, particularly in the wind maximum, are evident within a few hundred kilometres of the coast. A mesoscale circulation normal to the coast, and superimposed upon the mean offshore flow, develops seawards of the coastline with maximum vertical velocities about sunset, of depth about 2 km and horizontal scale ≈ 500 km. The circulation is related to the advection, and

  6. Impact of oil and related chemicals on the marine environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-01-01

    This review updates a previous review entitled ''Impact of Oil on the Marine Environment''. It covers oil and individual hydrocarbons, used lubricating oils, chemical control agents for oil spills, and wastes from offshore petroleum operations. It considers all major knowledge generated since the mid-1970s. The review covers its topics comprehensively, from a consideration of the composition, sources and inputs of oil to its ecological and human health effects and its effects on man's use of the sea. The review addresses several key questions on the present levels of contamination, the impact of hydrocarbons and related chemicals on marine biota, the recovery potential of marine ecosystems exposed to these contaminants, the degree of protection required for marine ecosystems known to be vulnerable and sensitive, and recommended research and other actions to fill gaps in knowledge. The review describes the hazards of marine oil pollution and associated chemicals and wastes as they are understood currently, and clarifies the importance of reducing oil inputs in coastal and offshore waters. It assists in considering fundamental questions, asked by the public and decision-makers alike, such as: how much oil is entering our oceans, and how much harm is it doing? (author)

  7. Troll and Heidrun: A day of superlatives. The latest word in platform technology for Norway`s offshore industry; Troll und Heidrun: Tag der Superlative. Modernste Plattformtechnologie fuer Norwegens Offshore-Industrie

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kumpch, J U

    1995-09-01

    May 10, 1995, was a milestone in the history of the European power industry. This was the day when the construction of `Troll A` platform was finished in Vatsfjord, north of Stavanger, and the five-day haul to the world`s biggest gas reserves was started. At the same time, energy politicians from all over the world took part in the christening of `Heidrun` platform, in Gandsfjord south of Stavanger. From August onwards, this platform will extract oil from the Haltenbank, the world`s northernmost offshore field. `Troll` and `Heidrun` are the latest word in platform technology and, at the same time, also indicate a turning point in the Norwegian offshore industry. Experts and politicians agree that `Troll A` is the `last of the dinosaurs`, and there will be no platforms bigger than `Heidrun`. Oil fields are getting smaller, and the advancements in production technology permit smaller and less complex installations. (orig.) [Deutsch] Der 10. Mai 1995 ist ein Meilenstein in der Geschichte der europaeischen Energiewirtschaft. An diesem Tag wurde im Vatsfjord noerdlich von Stavanger der Bau der Plattform Troll A abgeschlossen und mit dem fuenftaegigen Schlepp zu den weltgroessten Gasvorkommen begonnen. Im Gandsfjord etwas suedlich der norwegischen Oelhauptstadt waren Energiepolitiker aus aller Welt zu Gast, als zu gleicher Zeit die Heidrun-Plattform getauft wurde. Diese Anlage wird ab August das Oel von der Haltenbank, dem noerdlichsten Offshore-Feld ueberhaupt, foerdern. Troll und Heidrun sind modernste Plattformtechnologie und gleichzeitige Wendepunkt in der norwegischen Offshore-Industrie. Experten und Politiker sind sich einig: Die Troll A-Plattform ist `der letzte Dinosaurier`, die Groesse von Heidrun wird nicht mehr uebertroffen. Die Felder werden kleiner, und die Foerdertechnologie erlaubt bescheidenere Installationen. (orig.)

  8. Occupational health offshore

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Crosbie, A.; Davies, F.

    2002-07-01

    The proceedings contain the 29 papers presented at the conference plus the opening address from the chair of the Health and Safety Commission. The papers in the first session were concerned with policy, strategy and leadership and included a perspective from the offshore industry advisory committee, details of a health planning tool for occupational health assurance and lessons from occupational health management in the offshore sector. The two sessions on the second day dealt with occupational health in the offshore design process and case studies involving physical, chemical and biological agents. Topics included the need to consider occupational health when designing offshore installations, the development of a human factors engineering strategy in petrochemical engineering projects, measuring occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals, implementation of the noise at work regulations, hand arm vibration syndrome and issues with potable water maintenance. The two sessions on the third day were concerned with human factors and psychological health, and well-being and fitness for duty. Topics covered included circadian adaption to shift change in offshore shift workers, managing stress in the offshore environment, the role of employee assistance programmes in organisational stress management, health care and first aid (the revised ACOP), well-being at work, the medical and physical fitness of offshore emergency response rescue team members, the impact of health surveillance and promotion of offshore accident rates, and the implication of safety and heath of the aging of the workforce ion the Norwegian offshore industry.

  9. FIVE REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES OF CONSTRUCTING AN OFFSHORE CORPORATE STRUCTURE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana-Maria GEAMÃNU

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The offshore company, the emblem of the tax haven jurisdictions, is owned by non-residents and it conducts activities outside the island of incorporation in order to benefit from tax advantages. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comparative analysis on the trends of constructing the offshore corporate structures at the level of five regions where tax havens have been identified: The Caribbean Sea and Central America; Europe; Asia; The Indian Ocean and The Pacific Ocean. Based on the tax and corporate legislations the analysis is focused on the main tax advantages offered by these entities, the incorporation and administration procedures as well as the costs involved. The results have shown that pure offshore corporate legislation is to be found at the level of only three geographic areas: The Caribbean Sea and Central America; The Indian Ocean and The Pacific Ocean and the offshore law is predominantly international, with only fine regional differences.

  10. The tenth CERI [Canadian Energy Research Institute] international oil and gas markets conference

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1991-01-01

    At a conference on oil and gas markets, papers were presented on oil market instability and its impact on economic development, international energy policy, oil supply and demand, natural gas liquids sales, world gas trade, gas markets in Europe and Asia, petroleum industry activities and their relation to government, oil refining and product market developments, and the North American natural gas market. Separate abstracts have been prepared for 25 papers from this conference

  11. Implications of the Netherlands' environmental policy for offshore mining

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meijer, K.; Krijt, K.

    1991-01-01

    The environmental policy in the Netherlands, as outlined in the National Environmental Policy Plan, aims for a sustainable development. In principle a two track approach is adhered to: source oriented as well as effects oriented. Effects oriented policy includes the setting of environmental quality objectives and is used to establish the final goals for the source-oriented measures. The policy aims at integrated life-cycle management; in the final target situation all waste is used again as raw material and remaining emissions to the environment should comply with the environmental objectives. In this paper the implications of this policy for the offshore mining industry are elaborated, both for drilling operations and for the production of oil, gas and condensate. The results of the recently concluded Environmental Impact Assessment for the offshore mining industry as a whole are also elaborated

  12. An assessment of two off-shore igniter concepts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guenette, C. C.

    1997-01-01

    On June 12, 1996, two controlled in-situ oil spill burns (ISB), using a response-prepared ISB system, were conducted in the North Sea, 40 miles off the U. K. coast. The first burn involved fresh crude oil and was ignited with a hand-held igniter using a standard gelled fuel mixture. In the second burn an emulsified crude was used, ignited with a prototype emulsion breaking igniter (EBI) deployed using the Helitorch. The objective was to determine operational practicalities under realistic conditions when responding to a weathered oil situation in an offshore location. This paper is devoted to an assessment of the two igniter systems used during the trials. Results showed that oil aged by 12 hours with a 25 per cent water content burned down to a three-to-four per cent residue. The fire burn survived the two burns intact. The hand-held ignition system worked with fresh oil and the Helitorch lit emulsified oil using EBI. These trials were the first time that the EBI was deployed from a Helitorch slung beneath a helicopter. It was concluded that (1) the simplicity of the logistics required for the hand-held igniter would favour its use over the Helitorch method for fresh or lightly weathered oil, (2) more heavily weathered oils would require the use of an emulsion-breaking type igniter, and (3) aerial deployment of igniters offer the advantage of allowing more accurate positioning. 10 refs.,5 tabs., 3 figs

  13. Research on the trend of Yen exchange rate and international crude oil price fluctuation affected by Japan’s earthquake

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaoguang Li

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Whether this earthquake would become a turning point of the high oil price and whether it would have big impact on yen exchange rate are two issues to be discussed in this paper.Design/methodology/approach: To analyze deeply the internal relations between changes in yen exchange rate caused by Japan’s earthquake and price fluctuation of international crude oil, this research chooses middle rate of yen exchange rate during the 45 days around Japan’s earthquake and price data of international crude oil to do an empirical study, uses VAR model and HP trend decomposition to estimate the mutual effect of yen exchange rate change and price fluctuation of international crude oil in this period.Findings: It has been found in the empirical study with VAR model and HP filter decomposition model on the yen exchange rate and the international crude oil price fluctuation during 45 days around Japan’s earthquake that: the fluctuation of yen exchange rate around the earthquake is one of the main reasons for the drastic fluctuation of international crude oil price in that period. The fluctuation of international crude oil price directly triggered by yen exchange rate occupies 13.54% of its total variance. There is a long-term interactive relationship between yen exchange rate and international crude oil price. The upward trend of international crude oil price after the earthquake was obvious, while yen exchange rate remained relatively stable after the earthquake.Originality/value: As economic globalization goes deeper, the influence of natural disasters on international financial market and world economy will become more and more obvious. It has a great revelatory meaning to studying further each kind of natural disaster’s impacts on international financial market and world economics.

  14. Oil and international security: old and new issues; Petrole et securite internationale: de nouveaux enjeux

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Noel, P

    1998-09-01

    This paper questions the effectiveness of the link between international oil and (inter)national security. First, it explains an acknowledge the rise and decline of the traditional case of this link: the threat that so called ''oil dependence'' inflicts upon the national economy, hence the problem it raises for government. The reason for that decline is looked for in the emergence of multiple forms of competition in oil and energy markets, making the ''oil weapon'' less credible and its use less desirable and less possible. In oil like in any other commodity, the normal situation is the competition between suppliers for access to markets. For all basic economics tells us and experience has confirmed, analyses and policies (at least in France) are still strongly influenced by the ''oil security'' thinking shaped in the eve of the 1970 crises. Yet, those fallacies may be the strongest obstacle to the acknowledgment of the real oil security issues we face. The main one is the possible political destabilization of the Middle East due to oil competition between its members in an increasingly competitive world market. The consequences on regional antagonisms of the come back of Iraqi oil to the market on one hand, the internal stability of Iran and Saudi Arabia in a situation of lasting low oil revenues on the other hand, are reviewed as the main possible factors of regional destabilization in a context of strong competition in the world oil market. A large scale political burst with major oil producers concerned would certainly hurt developed and developing economy. That leads us to this paradoxical situation: the very cause of the decline of the traditional oil dependence issue is, due to Middle East situation, the main cause of possible destabilization of world oil market today. (author)

  15. Oil and international security: old and new issues; Petrole et securite internationale: de nouveaux enjeux

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Noel, P

    1998-09-01

    This paper questions the effectiveness of the link between international oil and (inter)national security. First, it explains an acknowledge the rise and decline of the traditional case of this link: the threat that so called ''oil dependence'' inflicts upon the national economy, hence the problem it raises for government. The reason for that decline is looked for in the emergence of multiple forms of competition in oil and energy markets, making the ''oil weapon'' less credible and its use less desirable and less possible. In oil like in any other commodity, the normal situation is the competition between suppliers for access to markets. For all basic economics tells us and experience has confirmed, analyses and policies (at least in France) are still strongly influenced by the ''oil security'' thinking shaped in the eve of the 1970 crises. Yet, those fallacies may be the strongest obstacle to the acknowledgment of the real oil security issues we face. The main one is the possible political destabilization of the Middle East due to oil competition between its members in an increasingly competitive world market. The consequences on regional antagonisms of the come back of Iraqi oil to the market on one hand, the internal stability of Iran and Saudi Arabia in a situation of lasting low oil revenues on the other hand, are reviewed as the main possible factors of regional destabilization in a context of strong competition in the world oil market. A large scale political burst with major oil producers concerned would certainly hurt developed and developing economy. That leads us to this paradoxical situation: the very cause of the decline of the traditional oil dependence issue is, due to Middle East situation, the main cause of possible destabilization of world oil market today. (author)

  16. Impact assessment of offshore oil activities in the Arctic

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Sanne Vammen; Hansen, Anne Merrild

    2016-01-01

    The global demand for oil and gas has lead to a notable increase in interest for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic. This paper presents the results of a comparative study of the legislation for impact assessment in Greenland, Denmark, Norway, Alaska (USA) and Canada. The point of departure...

  17. Developing AN Emergency Response Model for Offshore Oil Spill Disaster Management Using Spatial Decision Support System (sdss)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balogun, Abdul-Lateef; Matori, Abdul-Nasir; Wong Toh Kiak, Kelvin

    2018-04-01

    Environmental resources face severe risks during offshore oil spill disasters and Geographic Information System (GIS) Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps are increasingly being used as response tools to minimize the huge impacts of these spills. However, ESI maps are generally unable to independently harmonize the diverse preferences of the multiple stakeholders' involved in the response process, causing rancour and delay in response time. This paper's Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) utilizes the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model to perform tradeoffs in determining the most significant resources to be secured considering the limited resources and time available to perform the response operation. The AHP approach is used to aggregate the diverse preferences of the stakeholders and reach a consensus. These preferences, represented as priority weights, are incorporated in a GIS platform to generate Environmental sensitivity risk (ESR) maps. The ESR maps provide a common operational platform and consistent situational awareness for the multiple parties involved in the emergency response operation thereby minimizing discord among the response teams and saving the most valuable resources.

  18. International oil shocks and household consumption in China

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Dayong; Broadstock, David C.; Cao, Hong

    2014-01-01

    We investigate the impacts that oil price shocks have on residential consumption in China. While it is well understood that oil prices affect consumption in a multitude of ways, the timing and directness of these effects on specific consumption categories is not clear. We demonstrate that the most immediate and direct effect passes through transportation consumption, as might be expected. But we also show that significant effects pass through consumption in other sectors—including “food and clothes”, “medical expenditure”, and other general “living expenditure”—with less immediacy. Given the results, particularly observed asymmetries with respect to rises and falls in international oil prices, we discuss some implications for future adjustments to domestic price policies, in particular the case for removal of domestic price regulation. - Highlights: • We study the impact of oil price shocks on residential consumption in China. • The most immediate effect passes through expenditure on transportation. • Effects also appear for health, education and food and clothing expenditure. • Existing price regulation offers no great benefit. • We argue that a compelling case for removing current price regulation exists

  19. Monetization non associated natural gas offshore reserve in the Espirito Santo Basin; Monetizacao de uma reserva 'offshore' de gas natural nao associado na Bacia do Espirito Santo

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kelman, Jose Ricardo; Barbosa, Leonardo Alcantara [BG Group, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Cintra, Marcos Antonio Lins da Costa [Agencia Nacional do Petroleo, Gas Natural e Biocombustiveis (ANP), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Brunet, Patricia Lima [Anadarko Exploracao e Producao Ltda., Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Longo, Rafael Rodrigo [PETROBRAS S.A., Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2008-07-01

    This paper analyzes, from the perspective of a new player in the Brazilian market, the opportunities and the challenges to monetize a non-associated natural gas offshore resource, located in the Espirito Santo Basin. The fictitious exploration block 'BM-ES-07', located in shallow waters, near to the coast of Linhares, in Espirito Santo, was a hundred percent acquired, by an international independent oil and gas company during the fourth bid round of the ANP, occurred in 2002. With 10 (ten) billion cubic meters (m{sup 3}) of recoverable gas, the field will initiate its production in 2012, also producing condensate (C5+). The total investments are estimated (based in 2006 prices) in R$420 millions, including exploration, development and production costs. Considering the assumptions presented, the article describes the project development, presenting the economics results, and also discusses the alternatives for natural gas marketing. (author)

  20. Evaluation of Long Term Behaviour of Polymers for Offshore Oil and Gas Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Le Gac P.-Y.

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Polymers and composites are very attractive for underwater applications, but it is essential to evaluate their long term behaviour in sea water if structural integrity of offshore structures is to be guaranteed. Accelerated test procedures are frequently required, and this paper will present three examples showing how the durability of polymers, in the form of fibres, matrix resins in fibre reinforced composites for structural elements, and thermal insulation coatings of flow-lines, have been evaluated for offshore use. The influence of the ageing medium, temperature, and hydrostatic pressure will be discussed first, then an example of the application of ageing test results to predict long term behavior of the thermal insulation coating of a flowline will be presented.

  1. Offshore Investment Funds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shang-Jin Wei

    1999-12-01

    Full Text Available Offshore investment funds are alleged to have engaged in trading behavior that is different from their onshore counterparts because they may be subject to less supervision and regulation. In particular, they may trade more intensely. They could also pursue more aggressively certain trading strategies such as positive feedback trading or herding that could contribute to a greater volatility in the market. Using a unique data set, this chapter compares the trading behavior in the Korean stock market between offshore investment funds with their onshore counterparts registered in the US and UK. There are a number of interesting findings. First, there is indeed evidence suggesting that the offshore funds trade more intensely than their onshore counterparts. Second, however, there is no evidence that the offshore funds engage in positive feedback trading. In contrast, there is strong evidence that the funds from the U.S. and U.K. do. Third, while offshore funds do herd, they do so far less than onshore funds in the U.S. or UK. Fourth, offshore funds hold less glamour stocks (e.g. stocks with high P/E in their portfolio than funds in the U.S. or U.K. do. Moreover, flight to glamour stocks during the in-crisis period is less evident in the case of offshore funds. In sum, offshore funds are no especially worrisome monsters.

  2. On-land and offshore testing of a new helicopter bucket for dispersant application - response 3000D

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brandvik, P. J.; Lewis, A.; Daling, P. S.; Strom-Kristiansen, T.; Larsen, E.

    1997-01-01

    Development of a new helicopter bucket for dispersant applications to serve the dispersant spraying needs of Norwegian oil companies was described. Testing two existing helicopter buckets and practical experience with firefighting helicopter operations provided the foundations for this developmental experiment, combined with the dispersant applications experience of SINTEF. The newly designed bucket, 3000D, has two dispersant spray systems (high and low flow rates) and a large capacity ( three cu m). It is capable of direct filling of dispersant via a suction hose while the helicopter is hovering and is equipped for remote control of all functions. It is robustly designed for use under harsh offshore conditions in the North Sea. The bucket has been subjected to extensive testing on land and offshore with experimental oil slicks. The results were fully satisfactory. 9 refs., 1 tab., 13 figs

  3. North Sea oil directory 1976

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1976-01-01

    This edition of the North Sea Oil Directory has been revised to keep pace with the ever-changing North Sea industry. The information is grouped under the following topics: exploration and production; group licensees; Dutch and Norwegian licensees; UK Offshore Operators Association Committees; drilling contractors; offshore exploration and surveys; cement, drilling fluids, and related equipment; drilling equipment; prime mover, transmission equipment; production and process equipment; rig and platform equipment suppliers; rig builders, ship builders; rig and platform logistics; ports, supply bases; marine civil engineering; specialized equipment and services; classified index; and an alphabetical index. (MCW)

  4. Common Health, Safety and Environmental Concerns in Upstream Oil and Gas Sector: Implications for HSE Management in Ghana

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seth Oppong

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper explores the literature to identify common occupational injuries, diseases, and psychological wellbeing on oil rigs as well as the negative environmental impacts of the upstream oil and gas sector. It ends by making recommendations for effective health, safety, and environmental (HSE management. Review of the literature showed that contusion (bruise, cuts, and laceration are the commonest occupational injuries that workers on the oil rig suffer and that the injuries mostly affect the hand and finger, leg, and eyes of the offshore workers. These injuries were found to be caused mostly by direct stroke, jamming and overstrain. Similarly, accidental poisoning, musculoskeletal disorders, respiratory disorders and diseases of the digestive system were also documented as the commonest occupational diseases among offshore workers. The literature also shows that working offshore is associated with poorer psychological wellbeing or health; this is to say that offshore workers tend to experience higher levels of stress, burnout, anxiety, depression, low job satisfaction (particularly with the environmental conditions associated with their work, and sleep disorders. Finally, the literature review indicated that land-use problems, air pollution, acid rain, climate change, habitat disruption, environmental degradation, oil spills and leakages are some of environmental impacts of upstream oil production. This review was concluded by recommending some measures for the management of the HSE hazards associated with the oil and gas sector.

  5. Design and optimization of air bottoming cycles for waste heat recovery in off-shore platforms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pierobon, Leonardo; Haglind, Fredrik

    2014-01-01

    This paper aims at comparing two methodologies to design an air bottoming cycle recovering the waste heat from the power generation system on the Draugen off-shore oil and gas platform. Firstly, the design is determined using the theory of the power maximization. Subsequently, the multi-objective......This paper aims at comparing two methodologies to design an air bottoming cycle recovering the waste heat from the power generation system on the Draugen off-shore oil and gas platform. Firstly, the design is determined using the theory of the power maximization. Subsequently, the multi....... Findings indicate that using the power production, the volume of the recuperator and the net present value as objective functions the optimal pressure ratio (2.52) and the exhaust gas temperature (178.8 °C) differ from the values (2.80 and 145.5 °C) calculated using the theory of the power maximization...

  6. Bayesian based Diagnostic Model for Condition based Maintenance of Offshore Wind Farms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Asgarpour, Masoud; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    2018-01-01

    Operation and maintenance costs are a major contributor to the Levelized Cost of Energy for electricity produced by offshore wind and can be significantly reduced if existing corrective actions are performed as efficiently as possible and if future corrective actions are avoided by performing...... sufficient preventive actions. This paper presents an applied and generic diagnostic model for fault detection and condition based maintenance of offshore wind components. The diagnostic model is based on two probabilistic matrices; first, a confidence matrix, representing the probability of detection using...... for a wind turbine component based on vibration, temperature, and oil particle fault detection methods. The last part of the paper will have a discussion of the case study results and present conclusions....

  7. Effects of offshore oil drilling on benthic invertebrate communities on the Grand Banks (North Atlantic)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    DeBlois, E. [Jacques Whitford Ltd., St. John' s, NL (Canada); Wight, F. [Husky Oil Operations Ltd., St. John' s, NL (Canada); Taylor, D. [DG Taylor Inc., Conception Bay South, NL (Canada); Paine, M. [Paine, Ledge and Associates, North Vancouver, BC (Canada)

    2007-07-01

    Drilling occurs at three different drill centres of the White Rose (WR) oil platform that lies 350 km offshore from St. John's Newfoundland. An extensive environmental effects monitoring (EEM) program conducted by Husky Energy is underway at the WR site. The sediment component of the program involves the measurement of physical and chemical characteristics, an assessment of toxicity in laboratory tests, and an assessment of in situ benthic invertebrate communities. Baseline sampling occurred in 2000, followed by post-drilling sampling in 2004 to 2006. The sediment is 95 per cent sand, with polychaetes and bivalves dominating the invertebrate communities. A comparative evaluation was performed for regressions between community variables and distances from drill centres before and after drilling. Concentration-response relationships between community variables and concentrations of major constituents in drilling muds (C10-C21 HCs) were also compared among years. It was shown that the biological effects on invertebrate communities were highly restricted to reductions in the amount of Paraonidae and Amphipoda near drill centres and at higher C10-C21 HC concentrations. The study revealed that the two most abundant invertebrate communities were not influenced by drilling in terms of standing crop, richness, diversity and evenness.

  8. Dynamic occupational risk model for offshore operations in harsh environments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song, Guozheng; Khan, Faisal; Wang, Hangzhou; Leighton, Shelly; Yuan, Zhi; Liu, Hanwen

    2016-01-01

    The expansion of offshore oil exploitation into remote areas (e.g., Arctic) with harsh environments has significantly increased occupational risks. Among occupational accidents, slips, trips and falls from height (STFs) account for a significant portion. Thus, a dynamic risk assessment of the three main occupational accidents is meaningful to decrease offshore occupational risks. Bow-tie Models (BTs) were established in this study for the risk analysis of STFs considering extreme environmental factors. To relax the limitations of BTs, Bayesian networks (BNs) were developed based on BTs to dynamically assess risks of STFs. The occurrence and consequence probabilities of STFs were respectively calculated using BTs and BNs, and the obtained probabilities verified BNs' rationality and advantage. Furthermore, the probability adaptation for STFs was accomplished in a specific scenario with BNs. Finally, posterior probabilities of basic events were achieved through diagnostic analysis, and critical basic events were analyzed based on their posterior likelihood to cause occupational accidents. The highlight is systematically analyzing STF accidents for offshore operations and dynamically assessing their risks considering the harsh environmental factors. This study can guide the allocation of prevention resources and benefit the safety management of offshore operations. - Highlights: • A novel dynamic risk model for occupational accidents. • First time consideration of harsh environment in occupational accident modeling. • A Bayesian network based model for risk management strategies.

  9. Wax deposition in crude oil pipelines

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Assuncao, Pablo Morelato; Rodrigues, Lorennzo Marrochi Nolding [Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo, Sao Mateus, ES (Brazil). Centro Universitario Norte do Espirito Santo. Engenharia de Petroleo; Romero, Mao Ilich [University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute], e-mail: mromerov@uwyo.edu

    2010-07-01

    Crude oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons which consists of aromatics, paraffins, naphthenics, resins asphaltenes, etc. When the temperature of crude oil is reduced, the heavy components, like paraffin, will precipitate and deposit on the pipe internal wall in the form of a wax-oil gel. The gel deposit consists of wax crystals that trap some amount of oil. As the temperature gets cooler, more wax will precipitate and the thickness of the wax gel will increase, causing gradual solidification of the crude and eventually the oil stop moving inside the offshore pipeline. Crude oil may not be able to be re-mobilized during re-startup. The effective diameter will be reduced with wax deposition, resulting in several problems, for example, higher pressure drop which means additional pumping energy costs, poor oil quality, use of chemical components like precipitation inhibitors or flowing facilitators, equipment failure, risk of leakage, clogging of the ducts and process equipment. Wax deposition problems can become so sever that the whole pipeline can be completely blocked. It would cost millions of dollars to remediate an offshore pipeline that is blocked by wax. Wax solubility decreases drastically with decreasing temperature. At low temperatures, as encountered in deep water production, is easy to wax precipitate. The highest temperature below which the paraffins begins to precipitate as wax crystals is defined as wax appearance temperature (WAT). Deposition process is a complex free surface problem involving thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, mass and heat transfer. In this work, a numerical analysis of wax deposition by molecular diffusion and shear dispersion mechanisms in crude oil pipeline is studied. Diffusion flux of wax toward the wall is estimated by Fick's law of diffusion, in similar way the shear dispersion; wax concentration gradient at the solid-liquid interface is obtained by the volume fraction conservation equation; and since the wax deposition

  10. Whether and What to Offshore?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Peter Ørberg; Pedersen, Torben

    In this article, we explore the idea that offshoring of services and technical work should be regarded as a dynamic process that evolves over time. Firms gradually move from offshoring of simple, standardized activities towards offshoring of advanced activities when they accumulate experience...... with offshoring, and this type of offshoring comes with an entirely different set of characteristics compared to traditional, cost-seeking offshoring. Based on a unique survey among the total population of firms in the eastern region of Denmark, we analyze some of the dynamics of this process through a model...... that incorporates two different aspects of the process of offshoring. First, we approach the question of whether to offshore and establish a baseline that investigates the determinants of firms’ participation—or lack thereof—in offshoring. Secondly, we approach the question of what to offshore and the subsequent...

  11. Impact of International Oil Price on Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jian Chai

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available In the context of “new normal” economy and frequent “haze”, the strategy of energy conservation and emission reduction aiming to lower costs and reduce pollution is currently still a major strategic direction in China and the world, and will remain so for some time in the future. This paper uses the annual data of West Texas Intermediate (WTI crude oil price in 1987–2014 as samples. We firstly present the direction and mechanism of the influence of oil price change on total consumption of every kind of energy by path analysis, and then consider establishing a Structural Vector Autoregression model of energy conservation and emission reduction in three statuses. Research shows that if the international oil price increases by 1%, the energy consumption per GDP and carbon dioxide emission increase by 0.092% and 0.053% respectively in the corresponding period. In the status of high energy consumption and high emission, if the international oil price increases by 1%, the energy consumption per GDP and carbon dioxide emission increase by 0.043% and 0.065% respectively in the corresponding period. In the status of low energy consumption and low emission, if the international oil price increases by 1%, the energy consumption per GDP per unit increases by 0.067% and carbon dioxide emission decreases by 0.085% in the corresponding period.

  12. Progress in reorganization of international oil industry and moves of majors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    (Institute of Energy Economics, Tokyo (Japan))

    1988-10-15

    Of oil majors, Texaco, Chevron and Mobil have become depressed because of the sharp decrease in oil abundance due to the OPEC members' nationalization policy of resources in the first half of 1970's, whereas Exxon and Shell, who have made steady efforts in investment for exploration and development, have grown. BP has made a wide stride by acquisitions. Business acquisitions and mergers are increasing again in oil industries of Europe and U.S. with the dull oil price as the background. A particular feature of this trend is active involvement of western firms in North Sea oil. Oil producing countries are actively penetrating in downstream markets of consuming countries to establish stable selling routes. Whereas two directions are possible for changes in the international petroleum industry, that is, either coordinated action of producing countries and majors or increased competition among them, the age of co-existence and co-prosperity is most probable. 1 figure.

  13. A Floating Offshore Wind Turbine in Extreme Wave Conditions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wehmeyer, Christof

    is an expected maximum wave in accordance with a Rayleigh distribution. The maximum waves are numerically represented by embedded Stream-function waves. The author compares the resulting bow tendon loading of the hybrid model to the measured responses, as a key performance indicator. 90% to 95% of the loads show...... a satisfying match, though the hybrid model over predicts the remaining 5% to 10% maximum loads by 32%, 34% and 29% for a linear irregular sea state, a nonlinear irregular sea state and a nonlinear irregular sea state with an embedded Stream-function wave, respectively. The limited number of sea states during...... important aspects, which make them non-conservative in use for FOWT: (A) The offshore wind industry intends to install floating structures at much lower water depth (from 50m onwards), than the offshore oil & gas industry (from 300m onwards). In such cases a linear wave theory approach might...

  14. Microcomputers take over in off-shore process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Claricoates, J

    1978-10-01

    The special capabilities and adaptability of microcomputers are typically demonstrated by the use of them on Mobil Exploration, Norway, Inc.'s Statfjord A Condeep platform. One of the unique features of offshore oil production is that so many different operations are conducted in a very confined space. On Statfjord A drilling, production, storage of crude oil, gas compression for sale or reinjection, custody transfer, generation and distribution of a significant amount of electric power, a hotel facility, and flight operations, all have to be accommodated and controlled. Superimposed on these are comprehensive fire detection and shutdown systems. In such a highly complex, densely packed, and highly interactive environment, a supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) by providing coordinated and easily read displays, better records for alarm analysis, and possibly suggesting corrective action when a fault does occur, is an essential aid to an operator, whose decisions must always by correct.

  15. Offshoring of services: A review of the literature and organizing framework

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pisani, N.; Ricart, J.E.

    2016-01-01

    Offshoring of services (OS), commonly defined as the international relocation of service activities that companies previously performed in their home country, has emerged as a relevant phenomenon in international business (IB). Over the past two decades, OS has grown rapidly in the global economy

  16. From Offshoring to Backshoring

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Slepniov, Dmitrij; Madsen, Erik Skov

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of offshoring over time. The paper employs qualitative methodology and on the basis of two case studies of Danish companies, it develops a framework conceptualizing the stages of offshoring and highlights the factors driving the transition...... between these stages. The framework challenges the linear nature of offshoring and proposes the existence of ‘the pendulum effect’. The pendulum effect suggests that the modes of offshoring (i.e. captive and non-captive) and geographies of offshoring (i.e. home and abroad) are not static; rather...

  17. Environmental Oil Spill Sensitivity Atlas for the Northern West Greenland (72°-75° N) Coastal Zone

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stjernholm, Michael; Boertmann, David; Mosbech, Anders

    This oil spill sensitivity atlas covers the shoreline and the offshore areas of West Greenland between 72º N and 75º N. The coastal zone is divided into 118 shoreline segments and the offshore zone into 3 areas. A sensitivity index value is calculated for each segment/area, and each segment/area ....... Based on all the information, appropriate oil spill response methods have been assessed for each area...

  18. Too much or too little of R&D offshoring : The impact of captive offshoring and contract offshoring on innovation performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Steinberg, Philip; Procher, Vivien D.; Urbig, Diemo

    2017-01-01

    Innovating firms may acquire foreign knowledge and improve their innovation performance by offshoring their R&D activities to their own foreign affiliates (captive offshoring) as well as by contracting out their R&D to external foreign parties (contract offshoring). This study examines the impact of

  19. Development of an oil skimming and separating system to combat oil spills at sea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Klimek, R.; Clauss, G.

    1983-02-01

    For efficiently combatting oil pollution at sea, it is intended to combine a hopper dredger with two oil skimmers. This system consists of two oil skimmers, which are permanently stowed on deck of the ship. In case of operation, the oil skimmers work connected beside the ship, but decoupled from the ship concerning motions of sea. Hopper dredgers have already sufficient pump and tank capacity and are well-suited for operation in offshore areas and river deltas. They are characterized by low draught and are capable of lightening their cargo very quickly so that they are ready for oil skimming operation within 2 hours. Model tests with regard to the behaviour and function of the oil skimmer system were carried out at scales of 1:15, 1:10, and 1:5. Tests with the system ship/oil skimmer were performed at a scale of 1:15.

  20. Research progress of anti-icing/deicing technologies for polar ships and offshore platforms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    XIE Qiang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The polar regions present adverse circumstances of high humidity and strong air-sea exchange. As such, the surfaces of ships and platforms (oil exploiting and drilling platforms serving in polar regions can easily be frozen by ice accretion, which not only affects the operation of the equipment but also threatens safety. This paper summarizes the status of the anti-icing/deicing technologies of both China and abroad for polar ships and offshore platforms, and introduces the various effects of ice accretion on polar ships and offshore platforms, and the resulting safety impacts. It then reviews existing anti-icing/deicing technologies and methods of both China and abroad, including such active deicing methods as electric heating, infrared heating and ultrasonic guided wave deicing, as well as such passive deicing methods as super hydrophobic coating, sacrificial coating, aqueous lubricating layer coating and low cross-link density (with interfacial slippage coating, summarizes their applicability to polar ships and offshore platforms, and finally discusses their advantages/disadvantages.