SUBSEA UK NEWS THE MAGAZINE FROM SUBSEA UK WWW.SUBSEAUK.COM JANUARY 2019
IN THIS ISSUE Innovating the Future with Wood Setting Sights Further Afield – Key Export Markets Market Intelligence Report from SubseaIntel Subsea News and Events from Around the World
INNOVATING THEFUTURE Subsea UK News Supported by:
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Introducing the NEW C-Kore Sensor monitor SAVE MONEY & ENSURE SAFE OPERATIONS DURING FAULT FINDING, CONSTRUCTION AND DECOMMISSIONING. The NEW C-Kore Sensor monitor proves wellheads have safe pressure levels, even after SCMs are removed. Remove risk to divers and environment from unexpected pressure releases. Use on construction projects to confirm sensor health before hook-up, or during fault-finding campaigns to find sensor issues, all with a minimum of vessel time. Follows C-Kore’s design philosophy of creating versatile products that are simple to use.
Ensure safe operations Obtain quick and reliable results Save multiple days vessel time
CA B L E M O N IT O R Identify faulty components within existing fields during fault-finding and prove the health of new components (e.g. umbilicals) during construction campaigns.
SUBSEA TDR Precisely locate faults and discontinuities within electrical cables during faultfinding and characterise new components during construction campaigns.
PRESSURE MONITOR Monitor and log pressure readings during new equipment installation to prove conformance and detect leaks.
Safe for use on all subsea infrastructure, giving you better data faster.
www.c - kore.com Tel: +44 (0)1904 215161 • Email: sales@C-Kore.com or visit www.c-kore.com for more information
GROWTH FOREWORD / PROJECTS
Welcome to Subsea UK News Since 2014, our industry has been challenged by falling oil prices, reduced global investment and dwindling revenues. Now, as we begin the New Year, there is a renewed optimism sweeping the sector and there is a feeling that the tough times are levelling off, and a new period of growth is on its way. If we look back on recent years, companies prioritised cost cutting in order to improve the profitability of their projects. The offshore industry was especially challenged due to the complex and costly nature of their work, in comparison with onshore projects. Due to long lead times for offshore projects, the revenue decline for the subsea sector has been slower than it has for other sectors within the Neil Gordon, Chief upstream industry. Executive, Subsea UK The lower margin environment is expected to continue for a few years, until activity picks up and big projects start to hit the ground, and the demand for subsea equipment and services increases. We are seeing a real willingness to learn, do things differently, build different relationships, different models, and to look at new innovations and technology. However, some of the poorer old behaviours still exist, so we have to keep working on how we do things smarter and more efficiently. Over the past few years, the word innovation has been talked about but it hasn’t been practiced, because cost-cutting has been the main focus. We’re often accused of being a very risk-adverse industry, but we must change this because it is cost-prohibitive. We’ve got to look at doing things smarter and explore ways to add value. Digitalisation, new sensors, remote monitoring are all ways we can cut costs, yet increase efficiencies. We are the underwater experts of the world, putting people and equipment underwater and carrying out operations in extreme environments. The challenge we now have is increasing efficiency in offshore operations in both oil and gas, and the offshore wind sector, as well as other emerging marine sectors and ensuring that the underwater supply chain is best prepared for those challenges ahead. We have 40 years of infrastructure which was born long before the digital revolution. So big changes in digitalisation aren’t going to happen overnight, it will be a progressive evolution. We have to understand how the industry is going to evolve and everyone will have to play their part. The offshore industry that we envisioned in the early days of 2015 is emerging. Through alliances, mergers and JVs, the industry has found new, bold ways of conducting business. This is a huge transition from the old commercial model of discrete services and equipment sales. If we want to maintain our world leading position and create a stronger, more sustainable offshore market, we must work together, and drive positive change for good. We look forward to discussing these topics, amongst many others, at Subsea Expo 2019, which will be held at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre from 5-7th February.
Neil Gordon Chief Executive, Subsea UK
Subscribe to the electronic version of the Subsea UK News magazine If you’d like to receive this magazine in its digital form, as well as keep up to date with the latest news, events and market intelligence from Subsea UK, subscribe for free at: www.subseauk.com/9418/general-consent-form or scan the QR code
Subsea UK Subsea UK News, produced by Subsea UK, reaches over 28,000 subsea-affiliated subscribers each issue. Subsea UK is the champion for the UK subsea industry. We act for the entire supply chain bringing together operators, contractors, suppliers and people in the industry. The UK subsea industry leads the world in experience, innovation and technology. The UK will maintain a leading technological edge by sustaining and expanding this important business sector. Whether you are a company looking to join and reap the benefits or an individual looking to develop your career in the subsea industry, explore our website or contact us to find out how Subsea UK can help you, your business and your industry. Find out more at www.subseauk.com
New Members Ardent Global Dockstr Ltd Eodex Global Offshore Harmonic Drive UK Ltd Ingen-Ideas Leyton UK
LMS (Load Monitoring Systems Limited) Newburgh Precision PDi Slingco Limited Walker Subsea Engineering 3D at Depth, Ltd
To view the full Subsea UK members list, visit the Subsea UK Directory at www.subseauk.com
Forthcoming Events February 2019 Subsea Expo 2019 5-7 February 2019 Aberdeen, UK
March 2019 AOG 2019 13-15 March 2019 Perth, Australia
Subsea UK Awards 2019 and Dinner 6 February 2019 Aberdeen, UK
Fundamentals of Subsea Systems 19 March 2019 Aberdeen, UK
DIT International Trade Day at Subsea Expo 5-7 February 2019 Aberdeen, UK
Strategic Offshore Global Subsea Market Forecast Review 20 March 2019 Aberdeen, UK
Mission to Mexico 18-21 February 2019 Mexico City, Mexico
Flow Assurance: 25 years on from Staffa 28 March 2019 Save the date
These are some of Subsea UK’s events but please visit our website for full details of all forthcoming events www.subseauk.com
Subsea UK News is a magazine which invites contributions from the subsea industry, and is published by Subsea UK. The views and opinions expressed herein are not those of Subsea UK News or its owner, Subsea UK. The opinions and views expressed herein are those solely of individual contributors, and do not reflect in any way those of Subsea UK News, Subsea UK or its staff. All materials published in this magazine are published with the consent and authority of the authors. Subsea UK News makes no representations about the suitability of any information and/or services published for any purpose. Subsea UK News is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims, all liability for, any indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages (including damages for loss of business, loss of profits, litigation, or the like) of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance on any information published within this magazine. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information in Subsea UK News, no guarantee is given that the information published is correct, complete, reliable or current, and its publication in this magazine does not constitute an endorsement by Subsea UK News. To contact Subsea UK News, please email editor Dan Fearon at magazine@subseauk.com
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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JFD and the Royal Australian Navy Successfully Complete Landmark Submarine Rescue Exercise
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JFD, the world leading underwater capability provider serving the commercial and defence diving markets and part of James Fisher and Sons plc, has successfully completed the “Black Carillon” 2018 submarine rescue exercise with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), further demonstrating its commitment to driving the highest standards in submarine rescue safety. Black Carillon 2018 successfully tested every aspect of the RAN’s submarine rescue system, including the new hyperbaric escape and rescue capability, demonstrating a step-change in advanced submarine rescue operations. It was also the first exercise to incorporate the RAN’s new hyperbaric equipment suite (HES) which entered into service in July 2018, testing the fully integrated submarine rescue capability for the first time. This means for the first time, the entire crew of a Collins Class submarine – up to 88 submariners - can be treated simultaneously. The exercise was unequivocally successful in demonstrating an industry-leading step-change in advanced submarine rescue operations, further safeguarding the lives of submariners. It encompassed the entire rescue operation which included mobilisation and preparations, the deep dive mating exercise, aeromedical evacuation, transfer under pressure (TUP) and decompression, as well as the demobilisation of the entire system. The RAN has commended JFD on a safe and highly successful Black Carillon: “Speaking to international observers, they were unanimous in their praise for the exercise and the value they all got out of it. A job exceptionally well done.” A major element in testing the rescue suite this year was a continuously run ‘Rescue Exercise’, which aimed to test the complete system from the submersible through the hydraulics bellows into the transfer under pressure (TUP) chamber where any initial triage of patients could be undertaken. They then move to the
new recompression chambers for simulated treatment depending on the symptoms being exhibited. The exercise, which commenced at early light at 0530 on 19 November and finalised at 1508 the 20 November, involved the launch and recovery of the submersible as in a real DISSUB scenario and necessitated the split manning of all control points of the suite to cover 24 hour operations. JFD worked seamlessly with the RAN medics and doctors to achieve all exercise objectives.
Toff Idrus, JFD Australia managing director, said: “The
annual Black Carillon exercises allow us to test the full capabilities of the JFSRS service, and we were particularly pleased to receive full operational verification from the RAN on the new HES system and advanced TUP capability during this most recent exercise.”
Black Carillon 2018 was conducted over a period of more than three weeks. As a comprehensive operation, the exercise included all assets that would be required in the event of a real rescue operation, including RAN Rescue Gear Ship MV Stoker, Collins-class submarine HMAS SHEEAN and RAN Escape Gear Ship MV Besant.
Leyton Reveals Subsea Businesses Continue to Miss Out on UK R&D Tax Relief As the subsea industry in the UK stabilises following the downturn in oil prices, investment in innovation and technology in the sector has increased and positioned the UK as a world leader in underwater operations. The government has established a wide range of tax relief and funding opportunities for companies operating in the sector, to help sustain the industry. Subsea operators however are continuing to miss out on potentially millions of pounds in tax credits, says R&D innovation funding experts Leyton. Analysis of the latest statistics from HMRC on the number of companies in the sector claiming R&D tax credits, shows that while the overall number of successful claims has grown year on year since 2014, claims from companies in this category in the past year were one of the lowest. Similarly, while R&D tax relief claims by companies in Scotland, where over half of the UK’s subsea operators are based, have risen significantly in recent years, the increase in the number of claims and the amount claimed is among the lowest recorded in the UK. R&D tax credits are designed to encourage greater spending in research and development, leading in turn to greater investment in innovation. They work by rewarding companies for their innovation by a credit that reduces the company’s tax bill, or by the payment of a credit, again linked to the company’s qualifying R&D expenditure.
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David Kent, David Kent, Head of Scotland for Leyton, said:
“By getting to grips with the R&D tax relief initiative, subsea businesses investing substantial amounts of money in the research and development of new technology, systems and processes could be securing themselves a significant saving. To this end, the definition of research and development is quite broad so that it doesn’t restrict applications, along with the range of qualifying expenditure, and while it’s possible to handle the process in-house, the support of a specialist can make identification of eligible projects quick and painless and can ensure higher levels of relief.”
BUSINESS
Brimmond Tackles Subsea Operations Challenges from Installation to Drilling through to Decommissioning The reduction of onshore and offshore shallow-water reserves is a driver for deep water exploration and production, which comes with challenges including inaccessibility of installations along with operational requirements - making deep water exploration and production a specialised field that brings new demands for subsea engineers. Brimmond Group has proven experience in delivering engineering solutions to the global subsea sector, providing a range of products and services to support different stages of the subsea process. There are various subsea operations which Brimmond has recently supported, including the provision of a mass-flow excavation hydraulic package to support a renewable project located in the Nordegrunde Field, Germany. The package comprised of a safe Area high capacity 370kW diesel closed loop HPU (Hydraulic Power Units) with variable flow and pressure controls, allowing accurate operation of the mass flow excavator; a Zone 2 Spooler with hydraulic umbilical; a deployment chute; a generator and a 3000L bulk fuel tank. The package was supported by an offshore technician to operate and manage the equipment.
containerised twin triplex high-pressure water pumps powered by 55kW electric motors. Brimmond also designed and manufactured two standalone valve skids, capable of controlling the decompression of the pipe. The remote valve skids have a pneumatically controlled back pressure valve capable of up to 700lpm and 300 Bar, the skid pipework is stainless steel schedule 160 pipe with SAE Code 62 flanged connections. The full system is integrated into the reel lay vessel and is capable of automatically controlling the pipes internal pressure to prevent damage during reel lay operations. In addition to providing equipment and bespoke solutions the company provides refurbishment and service for LARS (Launch and Recovery Systems) used for ROV/AUV operations.
Brimmond has also designed and manufactured two sets of Twin 55kW electric HPUs and control panels, one ATEX Zone 1 and the other safe area. The HPU and control panels were specifically designed to power and operate a 240” diamond wire cutting machine for the Murchison Decommissioning project. The use of twin 55kW motors offers redundancy, providing half the system flow rate but full system pressure. The control panel had various features such as incremental control on the high flow directional control valve and functions to allow a castellated cut.
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For a recent pipelay operation Brimmond developed a Siemens PLC controlled water pressurisation unit. Allowing the unit to be locally controlled through a 15” touchscreen or remotely through the vessels’ Supervisor, Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system offering an efficient interface for ease of operation. The package provided by Brimmond Group included a DNV 2.7-3, Type A, Class R60
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AISUS Sees an Increasing Demand of J-Tube Inspections Across Subsea Sector Continuing with its progressive expansion strategy, offshore inspection company AISUS has seen an increase in demand for J-Tube inspection campaigns within the subsea sector. Experienced in delivering J-Tube inspection projects, AISUS holds a proven track record in delivering J-Tube inspection campaigns across the North Sea and Mediterranean, with future scopes acquired globally. The projects have seen AISUS carry out a full service from high pressure cleaning, visual and ultrasonic inspection, internal gauging to messenger line retrieval and installation. Andrew Mitchell, Business Development Manager of AISUS said: “This is great news for the company as it continues to expand its service portfolio and growing its client base within the subsea sector. AISUS’ capability to widely apply inspection solutions across applications and industries has created a major advantage for the business. With an ever increasing demand for J-Tube inspections, AISUS will continue tailoring inspection solutions and developing new, innovative inspection systems.” J-Tubes may have not been used since installation, so in order to become operational it is crucial that an in-depth internal inspection is carried out to rule out any integrity issues, ensuring successful future use.
along the length of the pipe, through vertical, horizontal and bend sections. AISUS has the capability to both design and develop tailored tools based on individual client needs, and reconfigure existing tools to carry out challenging inspections.
Mat Meredith, Technical Director of AISUS said: “We
have been investing heavily in new equipment and research & development in order to bring our innovative products and services to the market. Our J-Tube inspection system allows us to complete a gauging inspection simultaneously with remote visual inspection, removing the need to run tools and equipment multiple times through the J-Tube.”
Due to the nature and structural configuration of J-tubes, a thorough internal inspection requires specialist tooling which can be deployed
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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FEATURE ARTICLE
INNOVATING THE FUTURE Earlier this year, Wood teamed up with Abyssal, a 3D visualisation, simulation and digitalisation solutions provider, to provide the latest digital technology aimed at improving the design, constructability, operation and inspection of subsea assets globally.
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This complements the company’s ability to offer an innovative approach to subsea project delivery and operations through collaborative software and services in the areas of visualisation, simulation, operations and data management.
INNOVATING THE FUTURE
Rob Kennedy, digital programme manager at Wood discusses how the company is unlocking new and more efficient ways of planning, executing and operating projects for its customers.
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ur customers look to us to provide solutions to the complex problems across the energy market landscape. Thinking innovatively, embracing technology and partnering with world-class organisations such as Abyssal enables us to continue to offer expertise and add value to every phase of our customers’ project life cycle. Leveraging these key partnerships in combination with Wood’s extensive engineering and operational expertise, we continue to explore how automation, visualisation and digital eco-systems can enhance project delivery and operations, reduce cost and improve safety offshore. In the design phase it is well established that the industry is shifting away from using documents as the primary means of capturing and sharing information, and is embracing the world of data.
When planning a subsea development, a significant amount of information needs to be gathered, assessed and shared with numerous stakeholders, engineers, asset managers and field partners. Historically, this was achieved using controlled documents, spreadsheets, and email – all of which take time to prepare and quickly become outdated.
By integrating technical and project information onto a single platform, we have a new ‘single source of truth’ that contains the latest, verified data in a centralised location. This can be directly referenced by various engineering and execution tools, and by tracking dependencies we can establish exactly how a change to a particular piece of information may impact the project or system.
Our subsea data management platform, based upon Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, is the cornerstone of our digital project delivery. It allows us to capture a diverse range of datasets, including geospatial survey, route and layout data, basis of design and engineering information, asset data and fabrication records. Robust automated validation methods are applied to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the data, and a full version history and audit trail are maintained.
We are now moving to a data-centric design approach, where inputs are taken from a digital basis of design by automated analysis tools, and report generation is automated. These tools utilise our data management platform which eliminates manual data handling and transfer, thereby increasing efficiency. A good example of this is how our pipeline routing and subsea layouts are generated in the GIS space, meaning the full process, through to generation of drawings is automated. Continues overleaf
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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INNOVATING THE FUTURE By employing a digital basis of design and automated engineering tools, we are transitioning to using data as the deliverable, ultimately replacing a significant portion of drawings and documents. In the execute phase of a project, web portals allow live information and data to be accessed anywhere by all personnel, which is particularly powerful for planning and execution of offshore activities. Web applications are used to plan and monitor simultaneous operations offshore, reducing vessel downtime. By combining real time data streams of vessel positions, weather, metocean conditions and manual valve operations, construction and commissioning activities can be monitored live, ensuring safe and efficient operations. At project completion and handover there is significant effort on a large engineering design or execution project to update and handover all associated documentation. In a ‘data as a deliverable’ environment the challenges around this are primarily in matching the database infrastructure standard to an environment recognised by our customer. The use of industry standards greatly simplifies this handover of data, both from the supply chain to the project, and from the project to operations. In general Wood utilise Pipeline Open Data Standard (PODS), an industry standard database model for pipeline projects, as the basis of our information management. We also utilise the Subsea Survey Data Model (SSDM) to store, manage and handover subsea survey data. Wood is also aligned with the emerging Capital Facilities Information Handover Specification (CFIHOS) industry standard which has been developed specifically to promote the efficient exchange and reuse of critical facility information.
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In a post-start-up environment digital twins are used to access and visualise the system design and operating data, resulting in big efficiency gains – data is quicker and easier to access, which in turn enables faster, better decision making. We can create digital twins of subsea fields to optimise brownfield engineering, as well as enhance planning with ROV simulations to determine the feasibility of operations. Developments in digital technology now enable us to perform highly complex tasks in hard to reach subsea environments with reduced risk.
Through our partnership with Abyssal, we use 3D digital twins of subsea systems to simulate complex subsea operations using real world physics. This can be used to plan and design procedures, and train ROV pilots and operational teams before we start work, to identify any issues before going offshore. By simulating the operation in a safe and controlled environment
we are de-risking from a safety, scheduling and cost point of view. The 3D digital twin also forms the basis of a real-time augmented reality operational tool that overlays 3D models of subsea infrastructure over live ROV video feeds. So even if a structure is obscured by poor visibility, the ROV pilot is still able to safely navigate and complete the operation, eliminating downtime. As with most in the industry, Wood are on a journey of discovery to unlock the potential of digital technology on the services we provide to our customers. We continue to expand our suite of tools designed to provide simple solutions, systems and processes tied together across common data platforms. This will enable us to meet extreme operational challenges, allowing operators, technicians and engineers to collaborate more effectively, streamlining work processes and improving safety and execution performance. Ultimately, we want to strengthen our position as the leader in digital delivery of subsea projects and will continue to partner with world-class organisations such as Abyssal to ensure that we continue to add value to every phase of our customers’ project life cycle.
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James Fisher Streamlines Project Solutions with Integrated Service Packages for Offshore and Subsea Contractors
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James Fisher and Sons plc now delivers integrated service packages for oil and gas contractors, a move that signals a new way of tackling the challenges posed by complex offshore and subsea projects. The new approach allows tier one and two contractors to take advantage of the wider range of services on offer via the James Fisher group of companies, drawing upon a multi-disciplinary talent pool and wide range of resources to support the most challenging of operations. Experts from the group’s established subsea companies; including James Fisher Marine Services (JFMS), James Fisher Subsea Excavation (JFSE) and James Fisher Offshore (JFO) are among those offering packaged solutions. The approach means exacting support services for activities such as inspection, repair and decommissioning can be organised via a single source. While JFD offers tailored products and services to allow those within the commercial diving industry access to cutting-edge technology and
enhanced safety improvements through products such as its new bailout rebreather COBRA. In light of growing demand for a wider scope of capability when supporting subsea contractors in the North Sea, the move has proved popular with clients who want to streamline their supply chain and save money, whilst ensuring project safety.
Jack Davidson, managing director at James Fisher Offshore, said: “We
offer a simple, efficient way of integrating complex offshore and subsea projects. Instead of approaching multiple suppliers and then having to coordinate all the different work streams, James Fisher can cater for the multifaceted needs of major contractors through our streamlined approach.” “It’s a new way of doing business for us and one that will deliver unparalleled support to clients in the region. The change to our delivery model has already been well received and we are working closely with our clients to further develop our support capabilities for North Sea oil and gas.”
How Legal Resource is Changing for the Subsea Industry By Roger Connon, retired Partner and former Head of Pinsent Masons (Aberdeen); now works as Head of Oil and Gas for Vario from Pinsent Masons.
Increasingly, subsea businesses are changing how they are using legal resource. When oil and gas prices were low, legal budgets were cut and in-house legal teams shrunk. This meant there were less people and with limited budgets for external legal resource just as the workloads were increasing. The market was changing too and as a result, in-house legal teams needed expertise in areas which perhaps hadn’t been as important in the past, such as regulatory and competition law advice and support. The overall consensus is that the market is looking up for many involved in subsea industries. Oil prices are forecast to climb in the longer term and there is more investment planned within many organisations than at any other point in recent years. Despite these positive steps, the industry is understandably reluctant to return to the bloated workforces and high external costs of the past. It is no surprise therefore that in an industry so familiar with the concept of contractors and project based work, that contract lawyers are being employed more than ever before. Freelance lawyers can be employed on a temporary basis to collaborate with the in-house legal team to ensure projects run smoothly. Projects, such as the decommissioning of oil rigs, needs specialist legal help to circumnavigate the many contractual and
regulatory matters that have to be followed when dismantling these enormous structures. This freelance legal resource can also be completely scaled up or down to meet a businesses’ needs. Most contracts last between six and 18 months and due to the variety of lawyers who want to work in this flexible way, the level of experience can be matched to the job – so companies are only paying for the support they need. For subsea companies, there are a limited number of legal contracting firms available within the oil and gas space and demand is growing for freelance lawyers in this sector. It’s certainly true that the way lawyers are being used by the sector is changing and as the market fluctuates there is a legal resource available which can support companies in a way that suits them.
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By Lewis Sim, Business Development Manager at SEA
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Embracing the ‘Reuse’ of the Circular Economy
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The notion of the circular economy – where resources are kept in use for as long as possible instead of being disposed of – is increasingly being adopted by businesses and governments, as sustainability becomes a top priority for all. However, the oil and gas industry has not kept pace with other sectors, and when it comes to sustainability, only scrapping or recycling are practiced, and the opportunity to reuse is missed. During the process of plugging and abandonment of a well and, ultimately, the decommissioning of the surface and subsea infrastructure, larger steel structures are currently sent back to shore to be cut up and recycled at various scrapyards around the world. But this approach wastes valuable components attached to these structures, which are perfectly reusable. Spares are also scrapped, further compounding the waste problem. The circular economy is built upon the notion of reuse, and in adopting these principles the oil and gas industry could significantly reduce its costs, lead times and waste volumes. Over a longer period, standardisation and commoditisation would also promote the reuse of larger and higher-value equipment, which would reduce currently lengthy field development costs, without compromising safety. Reuse underpins Legacy Locker; the name given to SEA’s inventory of refurbished or recertified spares for the subsea production
controls market. Legacy Locker recently provided remanufactured and recertified electrical jumper assemblies to North Sea oil and gas independent, Chrysaor, in just 36 hours from the point of order. Jumper assemblies were needed in just a day and a half to ensure that operations could continue as scheduled. The assemblies were engineered and recertified with the correct connectors to provide Chrysaor with the equipment that it needed, in time. This removed what would have been a long wait for the equipment to be remanufactured and supplied, and gave a second life to an existing part. Reuse enables the industry to benefit from shorter lead times compared to new manufacture, meaning that operations can go ahead as planned and preventing costly delays. To maximise the value of its existing assets and support investments in growth and sustainability, the industry should support a more circular economy – and embrace the reuse principle fully.
Dräger Marine & Offshore Supports Energy Safety Professionals Dräger Marine & Offshore has become first official sponsor of the Offshore Safety Professionals Register (OSPR), the only membership organisation for offshore health, safety and environment (HSE) professionals. OSPR was established to recognise and create opportunities for those working in HSE across the sector, and simplify the process for energy employers searching for competent HSE professionals. Globally renowned for technology and innovation in personal protection and specialist monitoring such as gas area detectors, Dräger will continue to expand its resource offering to industry in the year ahead, having delivered significant gas detection technology system projects involving offshore assets, onshore facilities and vessels in Q3 and Q4 of 2018.
Kelly Murray, general manager for Dräger Marine & Offshore, said: “Our
partnership with OSPR reflects our commitment to supporting safe working practices while maximising efficiency and productivity in operations on and offshore.
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OSPR members are eligible for discounts on participation in Dräger’s industry-leading training courses, including face fit testing, OPITO approved H2S and confined space.
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“Dräger supported OSPR’s 2019 Annual General Meeting last month with a demonstration of our gas detection technology’s capabilities. Further events are planned throughout the year to promote safety solutions to OSPR’s 300 current member, affiliate companies, and the wider industry.”
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ADVERTORIAL
MEC-Combi PipeCrawler
MEC-MPS Scanner
Advanced Splash Zone & Subsea Inspection by Effective Robotic Systems
Following Innospection’s concept of a tool box of technologies, the range of remote controlled MEC-UT Combi inspection systems are designed and built to achieve comprehensive and high resolution inspection data within single deployment, enable more deployment ease with lesser preparation requirements and to relieve the project dependence on the most expensive resources i.e. divers, ROV systems and support vessels. Based primarily on the next generation MEC (Magnetic Eddy Current) technique for fast corrosion screening with defect sizing and Ultrasonic technique through a multiple UT sensor array for wall thickness measurement, other advanced techniques such as subsea PECT (Pulsed Eddy Current Testing) for remaining wall thickness measurement, laser triangulation system for geometry measurement and other techniques can easily be incorporated into the MEC-UT Combi systems to provide the required high density inspection results.
MEC Combi Crawlers The MEC Combi Crawlers are fast and effective robotic crawler systems combining various techniques for the comprehensive inspection of subsea pipelines and non-piggable pipelines.
MEC-Hug Crawler The MEC-Hug Crawler deploys the advanced MEC-FIT™ technique for the inspection of flexible risers and pipes at their working locations and enables the detection cracking, pitting, corrosion as well as single or multiple wire damage in up to 3 metallic layers.
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Whatever your inspection challenges and integrity targets are, Innospection is your solution provider. For more information, please contact info@innospection.com
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As a provider of advanced and innovative inspection services and solutions for the integrity and lifetime assessment support of offshore and subsea assets in the oil and gas industry, Innospection has been developing and deploying next generation technologies in fast and effective robotic crawler systems to fill the offshore and subsea inspection gaps and to fulfil the industry demand for smart and cost-effective technology solutions.
The MEC-MPS Scanners enable the inspection of coated / cladded assets like risers, caissons and conductors from above and through the splash zone to the subsea area without a break in the continuity of scanning to provide high density data of the internal and external wall condition of the assets. An integrated advanced marine growth cleaning system enables combined inspection and cleaning for time and cost effective operations.
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However, the inspection challenges include harsh subsea environment with access difficulties, a variety of asset configurations to be inspected with different defect detection requirements as well as budget constraints due to fluctuating oil prices.
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Ageing offshore and subsea infrastructures require an increased attention to reliable condition assessment activities for reasons like general integrity issues, planning of maintenance and repair activities and more importantly, for analysis of fitness-for-service and lifetime extension of the mature assets.
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MDL Proves 150Te Portability in Nigeria Maritime Developments (MDL) has proven the complete portability of its flex-lay equipment design with a successfully completed project in West Africa. The newest and largest pipelay tensioner in the company’s rental fleet, the MDL TTS-4/375 Series Tensioner, rated for safe working load of 150-tonne line pull, was used for installation of oil offloading lines offshore Nigeria. The system was mobilised from MDL Peterhead facility in four modules onto trucks for transport to port, where it was reassembled off critical path before being lifted onto a cargo vessel in a single lift. Once at the project mobilisation port in Lagos, it was then lifted from the cargo vessel directly onto the project vessel and installed onto the client’s HLS ramp, also manufactured bespoke by MDL in Peterhead.
“We’re glad that we were able to launch our largest tensioner yet in a market that may pose some mobilisation challenges, where the ability to perform a vessel-to-vessel installation really comes into play,” said Mike Gaskin, MDL Rental Projects Director.
“The TTS-4/375 was the client’s preferred solution because of its road-transportability, as well as the proven track record of MDL tensioners to date. “Furthermore, we were able to offer a steel-pad solution, in line with the product manufacturer’s requirements. Combined with the 5.5m track contact length, the system and our expert crew ensured the most optimum handling and safe deployment of the product on this job.” The 150Te system joined the company’s unique 4-track tensioner range in 2018, shortly after the delivery of a 110Te unit. Despite the increase in size and pulling capabilities, all tensioners retain the key features of the company’s patented MDL TTS-4 design, including Failsafe Grip System, self-centring alignment, Profinet architecture and road-transportability. For the 110Te and 150Te units specifically, these systems can replace the need for a dual-tensioner solution to perform any installation above 50Te line pull and 4.1m track contact length. Use of a single unit not only reduces the footprint of the equipment on board and the associated engineering costs, but also reduces the safety hazards associated with running two systems in tandem, and can reduce operating personnel on board the installation. All of MDL rental systems have been certified to a DNV-GL or Lloyds code.
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Subsea UK News | January 2019
BUSINESS
Unique Group and Innovo Successfully Complete Decommissioning Project in the Middle East Region Unique Group, one of the world’s leading integrated subsea and offshore solution providers together with Innovo, an engineering, construction and equipment rental company, have successfully completed a multi-million dollar decommissioning contract for Saipem on a key offshore platform in the Middle East.
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Rakesh Bangera, Division Manager at Unique Group said: “We are very pleased to have completed this project within the stipulated timeline. Our aim is to be a trusted partner for our clients right from the design stage up until the delivery so that all the requirements are duly met. The emphasis on providing innovative solutions has always been of utmost importance to us.”
Director of Innovo, said, “This project exemplifies Innovo’s and Unique Group’s capabilities in the decommissioning arena, where close collaboration, innovative engineering, tight project management and safe operations are paramount.”
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Internal and external dredging tools, diamond wire cutting tools and internal cutting tools based on abrasive water jet technology, operating at 1,500 bar, were provided for the project along with skilled operators to support the operation.
Stefano Malagodi, Managing
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Unique Group and Innovo team members worked together to meet the project’s requirements of providing bespoke equipment which helped reduce operating times and ensured cost effectiveness of the project within a very tight delivery schedule. The team with their specialist knowledge helped with the design, manufacturing and delivery of the equipment in less than four months. This fast and efficient turnaround considerably helped Saipem to meet the operator’s deadline for kick-off operations, with the first step of the campaign completed safely and ahead of schedule.
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BUSINESS
TechnipFMC Completes Lancaster Subsea Installation Project for Hurricane TechnipFMC have successfully completed the subsea installation for Hurricane Energy’s Lancaster EPS development in the UK. Awarded in 2017, the contract for the UK’s first iEPCI™ project, was executed from TechnipFMC’s Westhill office in Aberdeen, Scotland, and saw the team, led by Ramsay Keay, deliver all SPS and SURF elements of Lancaster. This involved Concept, Design, Procurement, Installation & Pre-Commissioning.
Project Manager Ramsay Keay said: “As
TechnipFMC’s first iEPCITM project in the UK, Hurricane’s Lancaster development is a fantastic example of our successful integrated approach to field architecture and project execution. This method of working transforms our subsea offering from concept to project delivery and beyond. Through early involvement with our client we can offer tailored solutions, enabling us to streamline project execution and ultimately bring down costs across the project.”
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Subsea UK News | January 2019
The integrated EPCI offering (iEPCITM) on Lancaster reduced the number of interfaces on the project for Hurricane, with TechnipFMC completing the full system design, supply, installation and commissioning for the subsea infrastructure, ultimately reducing costs to Hurricane and reducing the project timeline. The team completed an extensive offshore campaign including installation & pre-commissioning of the FPSO mounted subsea control system in Dubai, installation of XT’s and a client-supplied FPSO mooring system, diving and diverless subsea construction activities and the subsea rock installation activities. This concluded the TechnipFMC installation scope. Meanwhile, the FPSO - which will be operated by Bluewater - will travel to the field and pull-in the turret buoy mooring arrangement, following a planned stop in Rotterdam.
NSRI UPDATE
The Future of Subsea Technology – Building for the Wider ‘Blue Economy’ By Tony Laing, Director of Research and Market Acceleration at NSRI
The National Subsea Research Initiative (NSRI) as an organisation has come a long way since its launch in 2007 and its role within industry has evolved significantly, including partnering with Subsea UK in 2013. At the end of 2018, we celebrate tremendous success, delivering R&D industry initiatives with the Nippon Foundation, Wave & Tidal sectors and the Defence Solution Centre; working in partnership with trade bodies, government agencies, industry and research organisations. Building upon deep domain knowledge of the subsea sector, focusing on the identification and acceleration of research and industry technology development to ensure a strong and sustainable economy. 2019 offers exciting times ahead, building on 2018 addressing the stakeholders’ needs and UK Government industrial strategy. NSRI, as a not-for-profit, impartial, industry-led research and development organisation, identifies industry challenges and opportunities. This is achieved through direct engagement with the end user, suppliers and academic communities, facilitated by applied knowledge transfer supporting innovation, both technically and commercially to drive growth in the ‘Blue Economy’; from oil and gas, renewables to defence and aquaculture. This is delivered by focussed programmes, the NSRI MatchmakingTM facility and direct engagement – our door is always open. NSRI is not a funding organisation, however with our strong domain knowledge we offer insight to help clearly frame the opportunities, sign-post to wide range of funding sources along with introductions, and offer peer technical and business reviews to assist with the development of robust propositions. The Blue Economy offers significant growth potential for the UK and internationally, creating opportunities to enable companies to grow and transition into new markets. The global Blue Economy market is predicted to be worth £140billion by 2035. In order to unlock the full market potential, our focus must be on the transfer of experience and knowledge between the mature and developing industries for mutual benefit. In 2018 NSRI worked closely with industry, academia, government and research organisations, to drive forward a number of initiatives focused on both the established subsea oil and gas arena, and other industrial sectors within the ‘Blue Economy’. There is much to gain by recognising and addressing the common challenges in order to accelerate market development and adoption across a range of sectors. An example of this, is the triad initiative with the Defence Solution Centre, NSRI and Subsea UK, formed to establish common
Commercialisation
Technology & Innovation
research needs for subsea autonomy. This was formed to build upon the in-depth knowledge that can be transferred across the sectors initially with Defence and Oil & Gas, building a platform for common needs for research. This offers significant potential across the UK subsea supply chain and research to build upon both UK and international market opportunity. This initiative plays an important part of towards the 2019 strategy for NSRI and its fellow stakeholders. Late summer, NSRI in partnership with Offshore Renewable Catapult, launched a new industry report outlining the steps which need to be taken to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of wave and tidal energy sector. This report was supported by Scottish Enterprise, acknowledged by Scottish Government and recognised as a direction for the sector by UK Government at the International Tidal Energy Summit; NSRI presented the recommendations and findings to government and stakeholders. The report highlighted the opportunities for sector cost efficiency, along with opportunities for the developers and supply chain companies; the UK wave and tidal global industry is forecast to be worth up to £76bn by 2050. We identified the need for a dedicated taskforce, supported by industry and government to drive forward technology development, knowledge sharing and stewardship for strategic direction. This will continue being a key area of focus for us throughout 2019. In December 2018, NSRI and Subsea UK launched the second call for companies to drive forward R&D between Scotland and Japan, as part of a partnership between Subsea UK, Scottish Enterprise and the Nippon Foundation. Following the success of the first phase of this three-year initiative, which saw Scotland and Japan invest a total of £8.8million into five collaborative R&D projects sanctioned in the summer, the latest call invites organisations to step up and demonstrate how their offerings meet the needs of the evolving subsea sector under the theme of the blue economy. 2018 closed with the engagement of Professor Feargal Brannan, Director of Strathclyde University’s Offshore Engineering Institute, as a new NSRI Board member. Peter Blake, NSRI Chairman said: “This appointment will continue to bring a wider dimension to the Board. Tony and I look forward to working with him over the coming years.” Looking ahead, our attention remains firmly working with our partners within the wider ‘Blue Economy’ stimulating focussed research and development to accelerate economic growth.
NSRI
The focal point for subsea research and development in the UK
Research E: info@nsri.co.uk T: +44 (0)845 505 3535
www.nsri.co.uk
30 Abercrombie Court Prospect Road Westhill Aberdeenshire AB32 6FE
GROWTH
Strong Growth Sees Seanic Move into Bigger Premises Global subsea services company Seanic Ocean Systems Ltd, a Centurion company, has moved its UK division into new premises in the ABZ Business Park in Dyce, Aberdeen, following a positive stream of business and sustained growth. In the last 12 months, the company has seen a 26% increase in utilisation of its decommissioning equipment packages that have supported various clients across multiple campaigns throughout the year. The new facility provides a larger workshop area and improved storage space to house the company’s wide range of ROV tooling, intervention and diver tools, deck and subsea support equipment. The relocation has seen the company continue to extend its range of decommissioning support, spooling services and rental of specialist subsea packages, that includes Diver and ROV tooling to its oil and gas clients. Seanic’s capable engineering team is a great source for the repair or refurbishment of deck equipment and they excel in the design and manufacturing of bespoke subsea products.
Tom Ayars, Seanic president, said: “The
move places Seanic in a more strategic location, closer to our key clients servicing the North Sea energy industry and reinforces our commitment to providing the most efficient services to help them achieve their project goals. “In the last year, we have experienced an upsurge in inspection, maintenance and refurbishment work as companies look to get the most out of their existing equipment. The new facility’s improved workshop space means we can continue to meet these requests while also being in a stronger position to offer an increased range of standard equipment. “Seanic’s fleet management clients can also reap the benefit from the increased space where their equipment is maintained and stored in between campaigns.
Seanic UK - Workshop
J2 Subsea Cavi-Nozzle
“As well as our clients, our team has also welcomed the move to the new location. It’s business as usual as we begin 2019 with a strong order book.”
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ROVOP Developing Enhanced Digital Platform and Infrastructure
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ROVOP, the independent provider of subsea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) services, is developing an enhanced digital infrastructure and operating platform to underpin the company’s continued growth. ROVOP has long recognised the potential for digital technology to drive the efficiency of its business and offer value-adding services to customers. The company plans to further invest in tools that will provide increased operational efficiency and resource optimisation, in addition to enabling even closer collaboration of its people in a growing number of locations. A key enabler for these digital developments is the company’s continued investment in an integrated management system (IMS) – a single silo for a range of business information typically distributed over separate systems. The day-to-day data generated by the company ranges from commercial contacts to daily project reporting, as well as machine telemetry, diagnostic data and personnel competency records. New tools being developed will provide staff in all geographies a live, integrated view of personnel and asset data, on large interactive touch screens. This offers planning personnel an increasingly holistic overview and enables better informed decision making. New unified communications platforms will also allow ROVOP staff to communicate those decisions more quickly and more reliably. ROVOP’s head of technology Lee Wilson, said: “Since its inception, ROVOP has differentiated through the quality of our service and our agility. These digital initiatives seek to further enhance those things –
delivering new and continuous insight to all of our people, globally, all of the time.
“Bringing all of our data into one platform is an exciting opportunity. The visualisation and integrated views are the first step. Next we want to look at analytics and machine learning to better predict future operational and business performance. I’ve no doubt that along the way we’ll discover further uses to provide an enhanced service to our customers.” The company is also trialling new and novel ways of connecting expertise to the offshore worksite. For example, an offshore ROV technician could be mentored remotely through the use of helmetmounted cameras or augmented reality headset, resolving any issues more quickly and maximising system uptime. Lee continues: “These technology initiatives will also bring our people together - one team collaborating digitally onshore and offshore.”
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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FEATURE ARTICLE
In-Depth:
The Evolution of AOG AOG, the Australian Oil and Gas exhibition and conference, is the largest annual oil and gas event in the Southern Hemisphere, featuring 250 exhibitions, 120 speakers and attracting over 8,000 international attendees. In 2009, AOG formed a partnership with Subsea UK, Society for Underwater Technology and Subsea Energy Australia (SEA) to run a forum dedicated to the subsea industry. 10 years on, the event is the largest gathering of subsea professionals in Australia.
Subsea UK sat down with Bill Hare, Event Director at Diversified to find out what this year’s conference has in store.
When did AOG start and how has it evolved over the years? Since 1981, AOG has provided a platform to discuss and explore the latest trends, issues and developments in the Australian subsea industry. We acquired the event in 2007 and in 2009, we decided to widen the focus to represent the many growing and emerging sectors within the global oil and gas industry. AOG has evolved quite dramatically and every year we introduce something new, demonstrating our ongoing drive to ensure the event remains relevant and reflects the current and future marketplace. During the downturn, we saw a shift from development and construction to asset integrity, inspection and maintenance, so it was vital that the show adapted in line with these changes. This was a massive step for AOG and it helped to encourage growth, engagement and optimism during what was one of the toughest periods for our sector. Last year we definitely turned a corner and a sense of increased positivity was sweeping the sector. This was also reflected in
13-15 MAR 2019 / PERTH CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE
delegate numbers and the volume of leads generated at AOG. We are currently up 30% up on numbers compared with this time last year, which demonstrates that there is a real appetite ahead of our 2019 event. Digitalisation is a major theme this year. We have also seen a big increase in collaboration between operators and the supply chain which has provided a boost for the Australian oil and gas industry to develop complex and remote gas fields. For example, Woodside and Chevron are making great advances to share infrastructure, processes and resources. In terms of themes, alternative renewable energy is at the forefront, especially wave and tidal. Achieving alternative uses to gas is also a significant industry focus. Hydrogen is predicted to become a prominent source of energy as CO2 can be controlled through production.
120
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Subsea UK is offering a stand share for companies at AOG - email events@subseauk.com for more information
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Subsea UK News | January 2019
A CLOSER LOOK AT AOG
What can you tell us about the dedicated industry forums?
What sets AOG apart from other industry events?
We have four dedicated ‘zones’ this year focusing on various areas of the industry - Subsea, Asset Integrity, Instrumentation and Automation, and Drilling and Completion. Each zone will explore the opportunities and challenges in times of transformational change.
We are fortunate that AOG is held annually in Perth, the main hub of oil and gas in Australia and the largest oil and gas show in the southern hemisphere. Whilst other shows across the world focus on international participation, AOG focuses on the Australian offshore industry, and attracts major players including Woodside, Chevron, TechnipFMC, Wood, Oceaneering and Aker Solutions.
We also have three forums – Subsea, Knowledge and Collaboration. Partnering with the Society for Underwater Technology (SUT), Subsea Energy Australia (SEA) and Subsea UK, the Subsea Forum focuses on how the Australian subsea industry can adjust to the evolving market. It will explore matters specific to the subsea sector, covering engineering solutions, life extension, and the application of subsea geoscience, through keynote presentations led by industry experts. In partnership with Lloyd’s Register and Upstream Production Solutions, the Knowledge Forum aims to educate, inspire and inform by bringing specialised industry sectors together to discuss the latest techniques and technology that will enable the industry to overcome both current and future challenges. And, lastly, partnering with Woodside, Chevron, Deloitte, NERA and the Government of Western Australia, the Collaboration forum will look to tackle issues facing the oil and gas industry such as new horizons, future jobs, new energies and emerging technologies while enhancing collaboration between operators, contractors and the supply chain.
4 Dedicated Industry Zones
Subsea
Instrumentation and Automation
Asset Integrity
Drilling and Completion
We aim to be very inclusive of all operators in the ecosystem. The conference provides a platform to network, share ideas and form partnerships. Unlike many trade events, AOG offers a wealth of industry knowledge at no extra cost. This year, we will welcome more than 120 speakers from a number of companies including Woodside, Chevron and Forum, as well as representatives from the University of Western Australia. Ensuring AOG is free to attend enables everyone, from graduate engineers and start-ups, through to well-known operators and supply chain to gather and collaborate.
What are the key trends you are seeing in the Australian oil and gas industry at the moment? Currently the Australian oil and gas market and outlook is extremely positive in comparison to previous years. Prior to the economic downturn, Australia saw a 10 year construction boom, and $260 billion spent on new projects mainly in the onshore processing gas and LNG plants. The downturn was a challenging time for everyone involved, but the hard work that has been done in a bid to turn things around, is starting to pay off. Now the industry is experiencing a rapid growth spurt with multiple projects being carried out over quicker time scales. For example, Woodside has revealed plans to accelerate and expand its Scarborough gas project off north-west Australia. And, ConcoPhillips’ Barossa project aims to develop discovered hydrocarbon resources located approximately 300 kilometres north of Darwin. These are big developments, which further demonstrate the increased positivity to create successful, collaborative projects.
What do you hope will be the outcomes of this year’s show? I want attendees to walk away feeling they are representing positivity within the industry. Due to the number of new projects within the industry and increased footfall, we hope it will be an upbeat and encouraging environment.
As the Australian oil and gas market increases, we are excited for AOG to reflect industry growth and to work with local companies, enhancing our competitive advantage. Ultimately, attendees should feel they have learned something new to help develop their business or organisation further. Subsea UK News | January 2019
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GROWTH
Leading Pressure Testing Equipment Specialist Launches State-of-the-art Test Centre A new 8,000 sq ft, five-cell pressure testing centre is being opened in the North West of England by one of the world’s leading manufacturers of subsea pressure testing vessels and equipment. The test centre, based in Chorley, Lancashire, will be operated by KW Pressure Testing and gives OEMs and subsea product developers access to test facilities and equipment that will enable them to innovate more rapidly and develop new technology more easily. The centre will house five test cells which can be hired to carry out hyperbaric, hydrostatic, gas and environmental testing of all types of subsea equipment including connectors, downhole equipment, valves, sonars, cameras, actuators, buoyancy modules and materials. The facility will have the capacity to test at pressures of up to 40,000 psi, and each cell can be programmed to simulate specific environmental conditions found in subsea and other high pressure and extreme temperature applications in order to validate the performance and integrity of products before they are deployed. KW Pressure Testing was launched as an independent provider of pressure testing services by the team behind KW Designed Solutions. KW Designed Solutions designs and manufactures special purpose pressure vessels, pressure testing equipment and control systems for companies within the international offshore and energy markets who require their own product qualifying equipment. It has operated in this sector for over 14 years and supplies many of the world’s largest subsea OEMs.
The newly-formed KW Pressure Testing will operate as an external test partner, offering the subsea, oil & gas, oceanographic and materials science markets the facilities and technical expertise to carry out an extensive range of critical component and design verification tests. These include R&D trials, product approval tests and FAT (factory acceptance test) procedures. “We’re taking the knowledge and technical expertise we’ve developed over many years at the forefront of the pressure testing technology market to support companies that need an independent, external test partner,” said Mark Henderson, Commercial Director of KW Pressure Testing.
“At our state-of-the-art facility, the subsea market can access the most innovative and advanced pressure testing equipment this industry has to offer, all in a secure, purpose-designed environment where they can undertake the most demanding product and material approval tests.”
KW Pressure Testing Facility
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Subsea UK News | January 2019
GROWTH
CONSUB Launch Valve Centre of Excellence After 13 years successfully managing valve packages, valve inspection and condition monitoring services for a variety of world class projects for major North Sea and international gas transmission pipeline operators, CONSUB Ltd have launched an inhouse Valve Centre of Excellence. Inefficient prescriptive valve maintenance programmes have historically led to unnecessary valve replacements costing the operators millions annually, coupled with poor demonstration of integrity assurance of safety critical valves, leading to HSE improvement notices and the associated impact on reputation. CONSUB’s team of valve technical experts have seen this happen time and time again in both small and large flagship projects over the years and this eventually led to the creation of a best-in-class valve condition monitoring service. As part of the service, CONSUB have developed a bespoke valve condition monitoring software platform
and a valve inspection mobile app in response to a major client’s initiative to move from a prescriptive to a predictive maintenance plan for both safety critical and manual valves.
Managing director Frank Nunan said: “The benefits to our client have been significant including a 10% reduction in risk of unplanned shutdowns equating to 450 days equivalent production and valve repair duration reduced on average by 90% as we can now pre-empt and optimise repairs. Going forward this investment will allow CONSUB to support our clients to significantly reduce valve maintenance costs, reduce risk of unplanned maintenance and provide demonstratable safety critical valve performance reporting.” The development of the CONSUB Valve Centre of Excellence is part of a longer-term growth strategy for the company and follows the opening of new offices in Aberdeen and Ireland.
24 Port Fast Ethernet Switch for Subsea Use
• Comprehensive VLAN functionality • Link Aggregation (LACP)
• Optical long distance links via Dual Redundant 1Gb Single-Mode fibres
• Extensible Authentication Protocol • Non-blocking switch fabric
• Interface to SFP in COTS surface router
• Bandwidth control on ports • Traffic priority (QoS)
• Modular internal construction • Serial Data to Ethernet Interfaces • Video Digitiser Interfaces
Tel: +44 (0) 1653 602020 www.zetechtics.com Subsea UK News | January 2019
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MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Market Activity Report Q4 2018
Using the market intelligence tool, SubseaIntel, we have compiled this report covering the latest oil & gas developments worldwide.
Gulf of Mexico McDermott Awarded Conceptual and Engineering Services Contract for Zama Field
South America Stabroek Block Resource Estimate Increases to Five Billion Barrels Argentina Offshore License Round Now Open
The oil price remains relatively strong at around $60 a barrel, however the oil and gas industry continue to face new challenges in an evolving business environment. The global energy market is moving towards a lower-carbon future, and the oil and gas industry is responding positively to this new venture, putting companies in a strong position to contribute towards this transition which is crucial to a lower carbon economy. There are signs that industry confidence is beginning to improve. Many exploration companies will continue to focus on the Americas, with Central and Southern American ventures accounting for approximately a third of the worldwide prospects to be drilled in 2019. Globally, many of the wells planned for this year could open new opportunities, with discoveries made in 2019 providing an additional 15-20 billion boe of new resource.
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Subsea UK News | January 2019
UK North Sea First Floating Wind Turbine Installed at Kincardine Offshore Windfarm The first wind turbine at Cobra Wind’s Kincardine site, off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland has been installed by Bourbon Subsea Services under a contract with the Spanish construction group Cobra. The engineering phase of this turnkey project was initiated in May 2018. Bourbon also utilised the local supply chain which allowed them to fully optimise the delivery of the operational scopes which included towing the floater to Dundee, the pre-laying of the 4-leg mooring system and the installation of the fully assembled wind turbine on site. The Bourbon project management team worked in close collaboration with Cobra Wind (the main contractor), Principle Power (the designer of the semi-submersible floating foundations) and Vryhof (the mooring system provider).
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MARKET INTELLIGENCE
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Troll Field’s Unique PDO gets Go Ahead
UK North Sea First Floating Wind Turbine Installed at Kincardine Offshore Windfarm Equinor and its Partners Boosting Vigdis
West Africa New Oil Discovery Offshore Angola
Equinor and its Partners Boosting Vigdis Equinor and its Partners have made the decision to invest around NOK 1.4 billion (approximately GBP 130 million) in the boosting station for the Vigdis subsea field, which is due to come online early 2021. The boosting station will be connected to the pipeline, increasing the capacity between Vigdis and Snorre A and will assist in transporting the well stream from the subsea field up to the platform. The boosting station will also help to reduce wellhead pressure, further increasing production from the wells. Vigdis has been producing oil through the Snorre field for over 20 years, and field production will now be enhanced by nearly 11 million barrels. Recoverable resources from Vigdis are now estimated at 455 million barrels of oil. The project will also undergo modifications to Snorre A, which receives oil from the Vigdis field, and Snorre B, which will supply power to the boosting station from a new umbilical. OneSubsea were awarded the contract for delivering the boosting system, including subsea template and trawling protection. The contract value is estimated at NOK 700 million (approximately GBP 65 million). With more contracts to be awarded soon, around 500 people will be involved in delivering the Vigdis boosting station.
Norway North Sea Troll Field’s Unique PDO gets Go Ahead The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has approved the plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Troll Phase 3 development. The capital expenditures of NOK 7.8 billion (over GBP 721 million) will help increase the productive life of the Troll field beyond 2050. The Troll field is of high importance to Norway as well as a unique oil and gas field to the global market. Since Troll came on stream in 1995, it has generated an estimated NOK 1400 billion (approximately GBP 130 billion), i.e. NOK 175 million (over GBP 16 million) per day. The Troll Phase 3 development is also important for the Norwegian supply industry as around 70% of the value creation will take place in Norway. Equinor (operator) and its partners have awarded contracts within marine installations and subsea facilities to companies Nexans, Deep Ocean, IKM, Allseas and Marubeni, worth an approximate total of NOK 950 million (approximately GBP 88 million). In addition, Aker Solutions has been awarded contracts worth around NOK 2 billion (approximately GBP 185 million) for subsea facilities and the construction of a new processing module on the Troll A platform by Equinor and its partners.
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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MARKET INTELLIGENCE Gulf of Mexico McDermott Awarded Conceptual and Engineering Services Contract for Zama Field Talos Energy Inc, operator of the Zama field development project offshore Mexico, has awarded a concept and engineering services contract, which also includes follow-on preFEED, to McDermott. The contract will be executed by McDermott and io Oil and Gas Consulting (a joint venture between McDermott and BHGE), where McDermott will manage all the stages of the engineering services process, work-sharing engineers and designers in Mexico City whilst continually receiving support from io as well as input from the customer. McDermott will also provide the follow-on pre-FEED services for the Zama development, based on io’s final concept solution. Work on the concept solution has already begun and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2019.
Argentina Offshore License Round Now Open The highly anticipated offshore licence round in Argentina is now officially open, with interested parties invited to register their eligibility and submit their bids by the closing date, which is set for 14 March 2019. The acreage that is on offer has yet to see many wells drilled however the hydrocarbon system has been proven, making this opening round a very exciting opportunity in one of the last unexplored territories on the globe. The legal framework which was created in advance of this round is robust and favourable for explorers, and Argentina’s energy secretariat understands the necessity of how to attract and sustain oil company investment. The mix of constructive above-ground conditions and under-explored territory makes Argentina’s offshore acreage one of the most attractive global opportunities available in 2019.
West Africa
The Zama field was discovered in July 2017 within Block 7 of the Sureste Basin in the Gulf of Mexico with a water depth of 165 metres. Zama-1 was the first exploration well drilled offshore Mexico by a private sector operator. Talos estimates the field has 400-800 MBOE, with an estimated peak production of approximately 150 MBOE/day. Two appraisel wells are expected to be completed by mid-2019, and first oil expected by 2022.
South America Stabroek Block Resource Estimate Increases to Five Billion Barrels ExxonMobil has increased its estimate of the discovered recoverable resource for the prolific Stabroek Block to over five billion oil equivalent barrels. The previous resource estimate (more than four billion oil equivalent barrels) increased due to further assessments of prior discoveries as well as ExxonMobil making it’s 10th discovery offshore Guyana, the Pluma-1 well. The Pluma-1 well, located approximately 27 kilometres south of the Turbot-1 well, encountered around 37 metres of high-quality hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone reservoir, reaching a depth of over 5,000 metres in over 1,000 metres of water.
New Oil Discovery Offshore Angola Eni has made a new oil discovery in the Afoxé exploration prospect located in Block 15/06, offshore Angola. This latest discovery is estimated to have between 170 and 200 million barrels of oil in place. The Afoxé-1 NFW well, which led to the new oil discovery, located in the south-east area of Block 15/06 is approximately 120 km off the coast of Angola and 20 km west of the recent Kalimba-1 discovery. The well was drilled in a water depth of 780 metres, reaching a total depth of 1,723 metres. The well is still to be tested however a thorough collection of data has been carried out that indicates a production capacity of over 5,000 bopd. This latest discovery, along with the recent Kalimba discovery, amount to a potential of 400 – 500 mboe of high-quality oil in place, signifying a new cluster that can be exploited in a new development concept. Furthermore, first oil from the Vandumbu field was achieved in late November 2018, and the startup of a Subsea Multiphase Boosting System was achieved in early December 2018. The two start-ups allow Eni to move forward with their phased and clustered development strategy for Block 15/06. The Afoxé discovery reaffirms the potential still held in the southern part of Block 15/06 for oil exploration, which was previously thought to be mainly gas prone. Eni plans to drill a further four new exploration wells back to back in Block 15/06 in 2019.
Also underway within the Stabroek Block is the Liza project. Phase 1 is expected to begin producing around 120,000 bopd by early 2020, utilising the Liza Destiny FPSO. Phase 2 of the project is expected to be sanctioned in early 2019, where a second FPSO will produce up to 220,000 bopd, potentially starting up by mid-2022. A third development, Payara, could also be sanctioned in 2019 with start-up in 2023. The Stabroek Block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres) where ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Exploration and production Guyana Limited is the operator.
Further Information This market intelligence tool is free to Subsea UK members The information contained in this report was gathered using SubseaIntel For more details visit www.subseaintel.com
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Subsea UK News | January 2019
EMPOWERING
WORLD LEADER IN UNDERWATER e-ROBOTIC SYSTEMS
THE FUTURE IS ELECTRIC
GROWTH
Norbit Experiences Rapid Growth as Market Share Grows Following the rapid and significant growth experienced in 2018, NORBIT UK have continued in technology development investment and an expanding Support Structure. With excess of over 30 WBMS and iWBMS multibeam systems delivered in 2018, NORBIT UK have increased both market share and innovative sonar applications.
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As a business now in its 3rd year of trading, NORBIT UK have increased the support resources available to the wider client base, and approved plans are now in place for a new build office; training and service centre based in Scotland.
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John Fraser from NORBIT said: “We have seen significant sales now to experienced marquee multibeam users, and this is important for such a new high technology brand in the market. Whilst a lot of activity is not publicised, we are proud to serve defence and research markets as well as traditional users such as renewables and subsea inspection in a growing capacity. Our STX product line is doing well, and together with clients investing in system trials we are able to prove our unique
high-performance capability within a compact form factor package. We are also enjoying a strong uptake on autonomous remote small vehicles and vessels intergration with iWBMS systems. Such a trend will continue with further systems being delivered later in 2019 - used both by traditional terrestrial and hydrographic survey companies.” Find
Systems have been commissioned in a variety of markets ranging from UK Port and Harbour authorities and the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office to deep water AUVs on AutoSub for the National Oceanographic Centre.
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3D at Depth Expands Underwater Survey Services 3D at Depth Inc, the world’s leading expert in subsea LiDAR laser technology and 3D data visualisation solutions, has announced the expansion of several global office locations and the addition of a new portfolio of service offerings designed to enhance workflow efficiencies, support engineering and analysis, and provide insight into long-term asset and environmental integrity.
In Europe, 3D at Depth established a UK entity, 3D at Depth Ltd to support their global client base. The Norwich location is the headquarters for their European, the Middle East and Africa region sales, services, and operations. In addition, Norwich recently opened a dedicated data processing and offshore services centre. The centre provides an equipment and data processing hub located in a globally central time zone to enable better customer support with faster more efficient regional responsiveness. The company also recruited industry professional Ian Ellis to manage the Kingswell office located just outside of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. Ian brings a wealth of experience with a career that spans over 21 years’ in the offshore Oil and Gas industry. Over this period, Ian has held onshore and offshore positions with Subsea 7, UTEC Survey, Nautronix and latterly Proserv where he acted as the Survey Operations Manager. With expertise in the hydrographic survey, acoustic positioning, inertial navigation and data processing areas, Ian will also support the advancement and commercialisation of new technologies to meet the client’s needs within the region.
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Along with the new service lines, the company has continued to expand operations and recruit offshore talent to meet the growing demand for subsea LiDAR technology solutions. Last winter, 3D at Depth Inc moved their United States headquarters to Longmont,
Colorado. The larger consolidated facility supports research and development; optical design, technology fabrication and manufacturing, and corporate management and administration.
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3D at Depth’s technology and services have always been focused on providing clients with solutions that deliver a digitised 3D oil field and an optimised underwater survey campaign. Over the past few years, the company’s unique expertise in subsea LiDAR laser technology and 3D data collection and visualisation has advanced underwater survey programs by providing precise, repeatable, millimetric, 3D point clouds that allow clients to “Measure in 3D and Manage in 4D”. This new range of services will compliment 3D at Depth’s existing portfolio of client solutions and deliver additional insight to measure, analyze and manage more efficiently. Service offerings will now include terrestrial dimensional control to support subsea data collection workflows; subsea tooling design solutions; remote sensing, and real-time LiDAR data collection.
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GROWTH
EC-OG Secures New Product Development Facility To accommodate continued company growth and expansion, EC-OG recently secured workshop premises at Nevis Business Park, Bridge of Don, Aberdeen. EC-OG, an innovative R&D company focussed on the Subsea Oil & Gas and Renewable Energy markets, is in the process of fitting out the unit as a world-class product development facility.
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The Nevis Business Park unit, located nearby EC-OG’s main office at Davidson House, consolidates EC-OG’s previous operations into a single facility. Upon completion of an extensive refit, the facility will act as the EC-OG’s North Sea base and centre for product development operations.
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It is to be equipped as a state-of-the-art facility for the development of the Subsea Power Hub, a revolutionary power delivery system that is changing the economics of providing long-term and reliable electrical power for remote, offshore applications.
Paul Slorach, Business Development Manager, EC-OG said:
“We are thrilled to have secured a strategic base for the development of Subsea Power Hub system. It is a step change in our operations, allowing us to accelerate the final stages of the Subsea Power Hub development as we strive to be the leading player in the new market for subsea energy storage and remote power generation.”
Enpro Subsea’s ‘Smart Standardisation’ Poised for Further Global Growth in 2019
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FAM maximises the ultimate recovery from subsea wells by providing a differentiated subsea field development solution with significant cost reduction. It creates an enhanced production ‘USB port’ within the jumper envelope, enabling operators to use standard subsea trees and manifolds while enabling the future integration enhanced production solutions, including flow measurement, flow assurance, data acquisition and hydraulic intervention.
growth of our business is underpinned by global demand for low cost flexible subsea development solutions. Enpro is wholly aligned with this trend, the difference being FAM delivers this ‘smart standardisation’ with varied strategies for ultimate recovery through the life of the field. That FAM has reached this milestone of 50 units is a reflection of repeat orders from multiple clients who are experiencing the benefits of the technology.”
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A recently signed Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Kosmos Energy (formerly Deep Gulf Energy) resulted in a contract award for four of Enpro’s patented Flow Access Module (FAM) systems in the Gulf of Mexico. This award brought the total number of FAM systems adopted globally to more than 50 since the product was first launched in 2015/16, with key customers including BP, LLOG, Tullow. The business, which also has a presence in Houston & Ghana, has recently been engaged with potential opportunities in South America, where the enhanced production solutions were positively received at Rio Oil & Gas.
Ian Donald, Enpro Subsea CEO, said: “The
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With a recent move to larger headquarters in Aberdeen, and their team expanding to over 40 staff, production optimisation specialist Enpro Subsea is readying itself for continued growth in 2019.
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In addition to FAM success, the company has seen its Flow Intervention Services (FIS) technology deployed for multiple hydraulic intervention campaigns in West Africa and will be delivering its 15ksi deepwater FIS in early 2019 with the support of an R&D funding grant from Scottish Enterprise. Flow Access Modules ready for deployment
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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GROWTH
Infinity Announces Record Year and Plans to Double Headcount After Securing New Business Infinity, independent specialists in flow assurance and field development engineering have recorded a bright start to 2019 with multiple contract renewals and new project awards secured. The positive news comes amid forecasts of significant growth in the coming year. Infinity recently moved to larger premises in Westhill, Aberdeenshire and expect to double its headcount on the back of the project awards. To support the continued growth at Infinity, Ian Stewart was announced in the newly created position of Field Development Lead. Ian and his team will initially support one of Infinity’s key clients to deliver their subsea tie-back development which expects to achieve first oil in 2020. Infinity also added its first engineering and business management graduates to the team as part of a commitment to developing the next generation of talent.
L-R Andy MacGill, Managing Director and Ian Stewart, Developments Team Lead
Andy MacGill, Managing Director at Infinity said:
“We are delighted to see continued success for all at Infinity and the shortlisting for the Subsea UK Award for Small Company of the Year is recognition for all of the hard work and dedication the team have put in over the past year. “Our independent company status and ability to provide truly impartial solutions has contributed significantly to our growth. “We are also pleased to welcome Ian Stewart to the team. Ian is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer working as a consultant and is an industry expert with many years of proven track record. He will add greatly to our technical capability and ability to continue delivering complex field developments successfully. us on s
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“We look forward to delivering our strategy of growth, bringing together the highest calibre talent to execute projects on behalf of our clients.”
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05480 84518 To top off an impressive 2018, Infinity were delighted to learn they have been shortlisted as a finalist for the prestigious Subsea UK Award for Small Company of the Year.
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PIN.P INT.ACCURACY
SPECIALISTS IN 3D SCANNING FOR THE SUBSEA SECTOR
VISIT US ON STAND 78
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Subsea UK News | January 2019
www.viewport3.com
TECHNOLOGY System Intro Field
BHGE Launches Subsea Connect and Aptara™ TOTEX-Lite Subsea System Baker Hughes, a GE company announces the launch of its new approach to subsea development: Subsea Connect, including its Aptara™ TOTEX-lite subsea system, a suite of new lightweight, modular technologies designed for the full life of field. By combining planning and risk management, new modular deepwater technology, innovative partnerships and digital tools into a single offering, Subsea Connect can reduce the economic development point of subsea projects by an average of 30 percent and has the potential to unlock an additional 16 billion barrels of reserves globally. With its fullstream portfolio and ability to make better connections across the development process, BHGE is uniquely positioned to influence approximately 80 percent of the costs associated with offshore projects. This provides an unparalleled opportunity to lower operators’ CAPEX and OPEX requirements and transform unsanctioned projects into commercially-viable ones.
Neil Saunders, president & CEO of BHGE’s Oilfield Equipment business, said: “In recent years, our industry has made good progress in lowering the cost of subsea projects to the point where they have become more competitive with onshore developments. While the gap has narrowed, we are taking that to the next level with Subsea Connect, making long-lasting, sustainable change and driving value from concept to commissioning and over the full life of field.” Subsea Connect is a combination of four key solutions: • Project Connect: BHGE’s independent workflow begins with targeted project outcomes, offering customers independent, flexible project assessment and management. The Project Connect approach eliminates project recycle, reduces cost and project overruns, and increases speed to Final Investment Decision (FID). BHGE’s unmatched breadth and depth of capability across the value chain enables early engagement at the concept evaluation phase and greater collaboration, transforming project economics. • Reservoir to Topsides Technology Solutions: BHGE’s fullstream capability covers all aspects of a development, from the reservoir to the topside. This goes beyond the subsea scope and includes reservoir management, field development, well construction, topside
optimization and subsea engineering. BHGE’s Aptara™ TOTEXlite subsea system includes the lightweight compact tree, modular compact manifold, composite flexible risers, SFX wellhead solution, modular compact pump and subsea connection systems. These technologies are modular, structured, compact and designed to be more responsive to changing conditions across the life of field, cutting total cost of ownership by up to 50 percent. • Flexible Partnerships and Commercial Models: BHGE’s partnership model is flexible and designed to leverage relationships with the most efficient, established partners to meet customers’ needs and improve project economics. BHGE’s innovative commercial solutions, aligned with customer priorities, help to unlock additional value. • Digital Enablement: BHGE is layering critical technologies with next-generation digital solutions to drive greater uptime and enhance productivity. BHGE’s engageSubsea asset lifecycle management solution is one example, designed to optimize the planning, execution, and connectivity of subsea projects, resulting in enhanced execution and remote management of asset maintenance. engageSubsea will drive up to a 20 percent reduction in maintenance costs, and up to a 5 percent reduction in downtime through predictive analytics. Saunders added: “We’re already delivering against Subsea Connect. In addition to the introduction of new technology solutions, we have invested significantly in structuring our subsea production systems (SPS) portfolio to ensure shorter lead times – by as much as 30 percent - and quicker responses, evidenced by our comprehensive SPS Catalogue, which includes a full suite of ‘Make to Order,’ ‘Configure to Order’ and ‘Engineer to Order’ variants. We have also signed an agreement with a major operator to provide the Aptara™ lightweight compact tree for deployment next year.” Subsea Connect, the Aptara™ TOTEX-lite subsea system and BHGE’s SPS Catalogue were unveiled today to E&P customers at a launch event in Houston, USA.
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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TECHNOLOGY
Eddyfi Announces Game-changing Crack Detection Technology, the TSC Amigo2 Eddyfi Technologies is proud to bring to the market TSC Amigo2, a solution built on the foundations of ACFM and designed for evolution. With users in mind, the company engineered what will be a game-changer in the industry, enabling faster inspections and providing better data, playing a key role in asset integrity management.
“The essence of what the operators loved about ACFM and the original Amigo system is carried over to Amigo2 with Bx/Bz traces and butterfly display. We worked on the interface to offer our users a highly intuitive access to all software functions. The advanced signal acquisition and processing system enables faster data processing, better data resolution—up to 14 times that of the analog Amigo—and it increases the detectability of small defects. us on st Operators can configure inspections directly on the 131 system and generate reports in an instant.”
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A diver-portable system called CaviDyneTM had already been used widely with great success as it is effective yet does not damage the subsea asset, but J2 Subsea saw useful applications in combining it with the existing Turbo Nozzle for deployment on a WROV. By achieving the higher cavi pressure allows for cleaning with the cavi nozzle to operate effectively at greater depths where the standard 200 bar unit is limited to more shallow waters.
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The growth can add weight to structures, inhibit articulating components from moving and make any Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) or intervention work difficult to carry out. More importantly, however, some NDT inspection techniques and intervention work on a structure require marine growth removal and as such, the surfaces must be cleaned without removing the coating or surface protection. The two nozzles developed work with compatible high-pressure jetting system such as J2 Subsea’s HPW520 Jetting System for remotely operated work-class vehicle (WROV) deployment.
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J2 Subsea Offers New Cavitation Nozzle for Effective Removal of Marine Growth J2 Subsea, an Acteon Company, along with CC Ltd have developed a new Cavitation Nozzle and combined it with an existing Turbo Nozzle, with both working at a high pressure of 400bar, in response to the high demand for removing marine growth on subsea assets.
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Martin Turgeon, TSC general manager at Eddyfi Technologies, said: “When we started working on evolving the original Amigo system, we improve on a solution that customers they liked, based on the solid reputation of a technology they’ve known and used for many years, and work on bringing it to the next level with features and elements that would directly impact their day-to-day inspections,” said Martin Turgeon, TSC general manager at Eddyfi Technologies.
Eddyfi Technologies.
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Amigo2 customers will benefit from the backward compatibility with original Amigo and Pace® probes. The new equipment features a Sensu2 connector, which will be used by a new generation of ACFM probes—manual and array. Amigo2’s main focus is detecting and sizing surface-braking cracks in a variety of metal components through paint and coatings. The new self-contained design removes the need for a remote computer and cables, enhancing portability, and it gives operators versatility in their work methods, whether to control the system remotely or directly at the inspection location.
“We committed to evolve ACFM and, with Amigo2, we open the door to high-speed, largearray applications. Our engineering team led us to this turning point in the history of ACFM and we are confident in the impact it will have on the industry,” said Dr Michael Smith, technical director at
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Over its 30-year history, ACFM® technology has developed a solid reputation for accurately detecting and sizing surface-breaking cracks through paint and coatings. The original Amigo ACFM instrument has since earned a reputation for its ruggedness, reliability, and ease of use. As the industry demands better performance in speed, signal quality and portability, Eddyfi decided it was time for an evolution.
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“Cavitation cleaning technology works on the principle of producing numerous bubbles that eventually collapse,” said Christian Blinkenberg, Global Sales & BD Manager, J2 Subsea. “When these bubbles implode, they produce a shockwave that releases energy. It is this energy that works to attract, lift and remove marine growth.” “Our customers are using the ROV-mounted jetting system in conjunction with a 400bar Turbo Nozzle. The Turbo Nozzle produces a highly concentrated jet to remove any loose hanging marine growth. If it reveals a crack or imperfection in the growth cover, however, we can then introduce the CaviNozzle. This nozzle employs high pressure water to get under the marine growth, lift and remove it considerably quicker”. The Turbo Nozzle and CaviNozzle, both 400 bar devices, are located on the same HP Jetting unit. A typical work-class ROV can use a manipulator to steady the vehicle and the other to manoeuvre the new cleaning high pressure jetting tool.
Enhanced Subsea Cable Monitoring Improve LIM performance with an AGH coupling device Market proven isoHR685 LIM insulation monitor Monitor IT systems up to 1760V DC and 12kV AC
Designed for use on AC, DC or AC/DC main circuits For even earlier warning of developing insulation failure Suppresses interference from neighbouring monitoring devices Complies with IEC 61557-8
ONSHORE OFFSHORE SUBSEA
Stand 137 BENDER UK
Low Mill Business Park Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 9EE Tel: 44(0) 1229 480123 Fax: 44(0) 1229 480345 industrialsales@bender-uk.com
FEATURE ARTICLE
Setting Sights Further Afield - Key Export Markets The Department for International Trade has its sights set on a number of key export markets in the subsea and oil and gas sectors in 2019. With in-country experts and a wealth of experience and knowledge, DIT are working with UK companies to help them do business overseas. This is an overview of just some of the key export markets DIT is working in.
Mexico
Brazil
DIT is engaging with PEMEX and prime contractors in market, which now comprises over 73 different companies. To date, an increasingly successful series of 14 bidding rounds has awarded 107 blocks in onshore, shallow and deep water plays to Mexican and international oil companies. This includes significant players from the UK, including BP, Shell, Premier Oil, Ophir and Capricorn Energy, while specialist service companies such as Penspen, Whittaker Engineering, Wood Group, Petrofac and Expro are winning contracts to supply goods and services in market. As the development of deepwater plays continues following the first bidding round in 2016, UK suppliers are well placed to win significant amounts of work. Opportunities have been identified through the Mexican Oil and Gas Supply Chain Review, a joint-work between DIT and the Prosperity Fund to better understand Mexican capabilities and gaps across the whole value chain. Results show that UK capabilities can add value in areas such as advanced pipeline inspection, seismic surveys and evaluation, pre-FEED and FEED studies, offshore operations and maintenance through to EOR and decommissioning, in addition to midstream and downstream opportunities in natural gas pipeline and refinery modernisation programs.
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Petrobras’ (Brazil’s national oil company) investments in the ´pre-salt’ oil fields off the south east coast of Brazil offer significant potential opportunities for UK companies. Petrobras has earmarked ca.US$60 billion for E&P investments in its 2018-22 Business Plan (total US$ 74.5 billion). The value of contracts theoretically accessible to the UK supply chain for projects up to 2018/19, based on the UK track record of innovation and existing capability, is ca.£430m. BP, Total, Shell and Equinor also bring in significant opportunities. Recent changes in the regulatory framework and Petrobras´ Divestment Programme have helped to attract new investors such as Exxon Mobil and Perenco. 19 new production units are expected to start operation by 2022 only for Petrobras and the decommissioning of old assets will also generate opportunities. Opportunities exist in offshore engineering; offshore repair and maintenance; subsea equipment and services; EOR/IOR. The 7th edition of the “UK Energy In Brazil” conference will take place in June 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event will be a highly publicised forum of UK capability and will take oil, gas and marine business missions to Brazil. The objective is to showcase UK Companies’ expertise, promote UK excellence and consolidate our role as strategic partners for the Brazilian Energy sector.
$74.5bn £430m E&P investments earmarked
Available for UK companies
KEY EXPORT MARKETS
Subsea UK are Trade Challenge Partners with the Department for International Trade. Partners are drawn from Trade Associations, Accredited Trade Organisations and other membership organisations focused on overseas trade, and represent virtually all sectors and industries of the UK economy. Working closely with the DIT, Subsea UK aims to increase members’ exports to overseas markets.
Norway Energy continues to dominate the Norwegian economy, and it remains one of the largest offshore sectors in the world. Although first oil from the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) was over 50 years ago, there are over 30 Billion boe of proven resources still in place (90 Bcf gas and 15 Billion barrels of oil), plus a further 18 Billion boe of probable resources yet to be discovered. Much of this lies in the underexplored Barents Sea, which is attracting considerable interest and investment. After the recent long downturn activity picked up during 2018, and there is a cautious optimism which characterises the sector. The past few years have seen many changes to the NCS, with the majors moving out and new players establishing themselves and new forms of collaboration being entered into. Digital technology and solutions are being developed and introduced and there is continued standardisation and innovation which have resulted in considerable cost reductions. These measures are being maintained and the focus on costs will continue in the years ahead. For UK companies the NCS presents opportunities spanning the entire offshore lifecycle from frontier exploration to mature basin decommissioning. The proximity and similarity of the UKCS to the NCS means many UK companies possess transferable expertise and relevant world-class capability that allows them to compete effectively with Norway’s indigenous supply chain.
30bn boe
Proven resources still in place
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan’s offshore oil and gas sector is expected to exceed US$20 billion over the next 10-year period with the expansion of production from major existing fields: Azeri Chirag and the deep-water portion of Guneshli (ACG) and the Shah Deniz gas condensate field, together with the development of new fields through continuing exploration and appraisal of known prospects. BP’s signature of the extension to the PSA contract for the ACG field to 2049, has created momentum for the installation of a new platform, Azeri Central East (ACE). ACG currently produces 585,000 barrels of oil per day accounting for 75 percent of Azerbaijan’s output. Further production increases are expected based on additional billions of barrels of recoverable reserves, with an estimated investment of US$40 billion in the next 32 years. 2018 was marked with the launch of the Southern Gas Corridor project and the first gas from Shahdeniz 2. BP and SOCAR (the state oil company of Azerbaijan) are continuing E&A programmes, including ShafagAsiman, Shallow Waters of Asbheron Peninsula, and D230. Another E&A programme is implemented in the Karabakh and the adjacent fields by SOCAR and Equinor partnership. Since 2015 a Partnership Programme launched by DIT, SOCAR and BP has resulted in 45 new partnerships and £2.9 billion worth UK exports to date.
585,000 $40bn Barrels of oil per day
Investment estimated over 30+ years
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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TECHNOLOGY
How i-Tech are Taking Control of Digitalisation The pace of change in the oil and gas industry is expected to ramp up in the year ahead as companies look to squeeze costs and bolster the efficiency and profitability of services, products and processes. While it’s a natural outcome of the oil and gas cycle, the dawn of digitalisation and the synergies that big data and IT companies can bring, is fuelling a new kind of partnership. In April this year, i-Tech Services, a Subsea 7 company, and Fortune 500 company, Leidos announced a five-year digitalisation partnership agreement. This relationship will apply Leidos’s multi-sector expertise in digitalisation to enable the life-of-field specialists to significantly automate manual processes. This will use innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence and automation to reduce costs and further differentiate i-Tech Services’ integrated offerings to the market. The partnership has already identified and initiated the first two development phases for i-Tech Services’ integrity, inspection and survey services. “It’s a very interactive relationship,” said Hugh Ferguson, Strategy Director with i-Tech Services. “We’re looking at bringing in some advanced integrity engineering analysis, predictive modelling, and aggregation of multiple data sets to allow our clients to maximise uptime in their systems and reduce maintenance costs. If you combine that with Subsea 7’s EPCI design and installation capabilities, it’s a compelling proposition and a very holistic approach to intelligently manage and extend the full lifecycle of the field.” Access to accurate and real-time information is critical to allow insightful decision-making to take place. Such conclusions can ensure field life is as long and economical as possible to maximise returns for the field operators. Using tooling, surveys and vessel performance to collect, combine and disseminate visual data from ROVs on the seafloor can be challenging and expensive. The use of artificial intelligence and automation can remove risk, cut costs and increase accuracy to create real value for customers. It can also contribute to the relocation of personnel currently working offshore to onshore roles in the safer and more costeffective confines of a land-based control centre. “When we started off, for every hour of data acquisition, there was six hours of processing to get a report out to the client. What we’re aiming for is one hour for acquisition and one hour for processing,” explained Ferguson.
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“The autonomous systems that we’re bringing in for inspection and intervention is going to reduce the dependency on vessels and the costs of the current ROV systems. These elements need to be done right, first time.” Leidos, which has more than 1,000 employees working in the UK, will bring its experience working with the Defence and Aerospace markets, to the partnership. “A lot of the insight that clients are looking for is buried in data. It’s now manually impossible to analyse all that data meaningfully,” said Matt Gordon, Business Development Manager, Leidos Energy. “We don’t want to create a data lake or big repository of data. We have proprietary technologies which enable data to remain in its source location but can be accessed in nearreal-time, called upon, combined, transformed, and visualised to provide that information.” i-Tech Services is currently transforming the gathering and analysis of its image and video bank from a manual to an automated process in which the machine itself can learn and recognise specific issues, faults and areas of interest, creating a ‘data vault’. Such a speedier and streamlined process is paving the way for deeper and more accurate insight into field developments globally. “We can then work with clients to analyse the data, make predictions, work out trends and integrity issues as well as estimations of the time and cost needed to solve the problem,” added Ferguson. In terms of efficiency, i-Tech Services assert this can deliver a 75% reduction in survey and inspection data processing time and a 50% increase in ‘right first time’ data quality. Collaboration and trusted relationships in this game-changing methodology is crucial. “Using the expertise of an independent partner gives the operator that confidence that the insight being presented is true. If we’re able to bring efficiencies into the industry, then we all benefit from it.”
TECHNOLOGY
New Tech from EIP to Deliver Cost-effective Solution for Subsea Construction EIP’s new technology, the Ambient Lifter, is a safe, robust and highly controllable subsea lifting solution for a range of operations such as subsea construction, subsea removal and redeployment of subsea equipment. The Ambient Lifter solution offers a cost-effective alternative to the use of surface-lift vessels. The system can be used either standalone or as part of an end-to-end solution for subsea operations. The patented design for the Ambient Lifter is based on Archimedes Principle. In simplified terms, it is a coil of stiff plastic pipe, housed in a metal frame, the pipe is filled with water and air which are separated by a specialist gel pig, by increasing/decreasing volume of water neutral buoyancy can be achieved, thereby lifting subsea objects. Designed and engineered for subsea lifting, the Ambient Lifter can be deployed with remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) to multiply the lift capability by a factor of 20, or deployed in different configurations to lift hundreds or thousands of tonnes.
them to carry out subsea construction, delivering significant cost savings which will transform returns from marginal fields. The Ambient Lifter can be launched from a low-cost anchor handler or towed to site by tug, negating the requirement for costly crane or heavy lift vessels. It can also work in conjunction with vessel cranes to increase their lift capacity, enabling the use of more readily available and cheaper crane vessels. The main crane vessel can offload subsea construction items for ‘wet storage’ on the seabed, the Ambient Lifter and ROV/ AUV can then manoeuvre the wet-stored items to carry out the subsea construction scope whilst the vessel crane performs other operations.
The Ambient Lifter, supported by an ROV/AUV, can be configured for use in high current areas. Surface weather conditions do not impinge on the Ambient Lifter and subsea lifting can continue in a wide range of weather conditions. A range of subsea items can be lifted, shifted or connected including bundles, trees, manifolds, pipelines, spool pieces, subsea isolation valves (SSIV) and umbilical cables. Marginal developments can sometimes prove uneconomical, which can be attributed to the high cost of subsea field construction. With the Ambient Lifter Operators have an effective solution that will enable
Face Lift for Schoolhill Engineering’s High Flow QEV Following unexpected design requirements, Schoolhill Engineering were tasked with modifying a valve supplied to BP in an extremely compressed timescale. Schoolhill Engineering’s SIL3 rated Hi-Flow Quick Exhaust Valve (QEV) Model SH2060 was developed in conjunction with BP over a five-year period and was first delivered in 2015. This critical shutdown valve was selected to be a part of their Global Subsea Hardware portfolio of “standard” subsea products. The first batch of valves was destined for the high-pressure pipeline Emergency Shutdown System (HIPPS) on the Shah Deniz II project. The valve exceeded all the technical specifications it was designed to meet, and passed all its extensive testing, including over 30,000 endurance cycle testing. However, it was found in service that the performance of the system fell outside its original design criteria. This proved to be an issue for BP as it was found that some valves defaulted to an undesirable potential interflow position. Initially it was believed that the QEV was not operating correctly and was sticking in an interflow position. Some valves were returned to Schoolhill to investigate this but after extensive further testing no fault could be found in the returned valves. Subsequently this problem was determined to be due to an unexpected residual back pressure from other components within the HIPPS system, which could not be reduced and prevented the QEV from operating as had been anticipated. After deliberation by BP and its contractors, Schoolhill were made aware of this situation and discussions took place on how to replicate what was thought to be happening in the system. Then subsequently, to determine whether it might be possible to carry out some sort of modification to the existing valves to provide additional comfort to the customer. Several modification proposals were discussed with BP’s technology team and it was decided to develop one of those with a view to
modifying the existing valves. This modification sought to increase the valves resilience to the back pressure generated within the control system and still operate successfully as required. Of critical importance was the timescale involved for Schoolhill to prove the modification, carry out the additional requalification work and also demonstrate that these changes would not invalidate the valves’ SIL certification. TUV were consulted and a further test program was agreed to satisfy this. A modified valve was manufactured and tested within a very limited timescale. The modified valve delivered excellent results and provided the customer with the confidence to modify all the currently available valves. This project has recently been completed in a greatly accelerated timeframe and initial modified valves have now been refitted to the original equipment. “Feedback so far has been extremely positive,” said Ronald Whyte, Managing Director at Schoolhill Engineering. The team are delighted with the outcome and we look forward to receiving enquiries for these valves from other potential customers currently developing HIPPS systems.” Ronald Whyte, Managing Director of Schoolhill Engineering
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TECHNOLOGY
C-Kore InLine DigiTRON Diver Plug 3-4 View
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Greg Smith, General Manager for C-Kore Systems said: “We saw how our customers struggled testing older subsea equipment where access is tight. Working with jumper cables added time to testing process and reduced the measurement certainty that C-Kore normally provides. With this in mind, we developed the new in-line units, with a new body shape for hard to access connectors.
“Now our customers can always connect directly onto the equipment when testing subsea, shortening testing time and saving them money on the whole operation.”
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First Field Trial for TenzorGEO’s Transformational Technology
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Chris Inglis, Subsea Intervention Engineer for Shell said: “Working on older subsea fields can be challenging, especially when the distribution assemblies don’t have enough room to connect the testing equipment into. Using the new in-line testing tools we were able to complete the testing in a shorter timeframe.”
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The new in-line testing tools were developed after gaining experience with customers on several deployment in the North Sea. With some of the subsea equipment over 20 years old, access issues made it difficult for divers and ROV operators to perform their work. Often small jumper cables are used to access the tight connectors; not only do these jumper cables slow down the testing process while they are deployed and handled, they can also affect the readings of the testing tools, adding uncertainty to the test results.
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C-Kore Systems recently celebrated their first deployment of the new ‘inline’ style of their Subsea Cable Monitor tools on Shell’s Pierce field in the North Sea for a fault-finding operation. Using the newly shaped tool allowed C-Kore to measure directly onto the subsea equipment, even in locations with difficult access.
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C-Kore Deploys New In-line Testing Tools to Solve Customer Problems
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An oil super major has shown faith in TenzorGEO’s transformational technology by offering a field trial to show the step-change it can achieve in pinpointing oil and gas deposits. The trial is scheduled for the North Sea in February and has come as a result of TenzorGEO being one of the first companies to graduate from the Oil and Gas Technology Centre’s (OGTC) inaugural TechX Pioneer accelerator programme. TenzorGEO uses unique software and environmentally friendly passive seismic data acquisition to almost treble the chance of drilling a successful first well and make small pools more economic. As a result of the 16 intensive weeks of TechX the company has not only secured a field trial involving the major operator and a major services company but has pre-confirmed interest from two major venture capital firms. “I could never have dreamt we would come so far so quickly,” said TenzorGEO chief executive Ivan Starostin, a former investment banker. “Without the OGTC and TechX I don’t think we would be much further on than we were six months ago. “The energy industry is naturally sceptical and doesn’t readily jump on promising technology but the OGTC gave me an opportunity to talk to senior executives who I might never otherwise have reached. The technology can pinpoint exactly where to drill and should increase the success rate from one appraisal well in four to nine in 10. That opens up huge opportunities because for many marginal fields if the first well is unsuccessful it is no longer viable to drill a second. “All the senior executives were very enthusiastic about the technology because of its potential. Their geophysicists took more convincing but that was achieved by Professor Evgenii Birialtcev. He is an academic from the Russian Republic of Tartarstan and chief science advisor to the government. He developed the software which analyses the information from existing vertical seismic data and from our own microseismic data acquired using our ocean bottom seismometers.”
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“The success which TechX has brought has been truly astonishing and I can’t thank my mentors who have been there for me to talk to throughout this whole process.” TenzorGEO is now based in the Elevator HUB and it is hoped that the technology will be verified and available in quarter three this year.
Fugro Generates £5.7m Cost Saving with Award-winning ROV Deployment Technique Fugro’s innovative use of platform deployed ROV (PDROV) technology has demonstrated substantial reductions in the costs of subsea jacket inspections and significant operational improvements.
LIGHTWEIGHT. LOW FRICTION. CORROSION RESISTANT. CUSTOM MADE.
Recognised recently by an Engineering Excellence Award from Woodside Subsea Academy, Fugro’s novel PDROV for subsea jacket inspections at Australia’s largest oil and gas development reduced Woodside’s costs by around AUD 10 million (£5.7 million) per inspection cycle. Last year Fugro began a nine-month inspection campaign of Woodside’s offshore facilities on the Australian North West Shelf. “Very early in the project we identified an alternative to traditional vessel-launched ROV operations which would deliver cost-saving benefits for our client as well as operational improvements,” said Paul Mullins, IRM/Remote Operations Manager.
“For a more effective approach to inspection and cleaning tasks we engineered a solution which involved a modified ROV and the design of an innovative launch and recovery system (LARS) enabling the PDROV to be deployed from individual platforms.” During the development of the new system the project team overcame a number of challenges including limited space and structural capacity on the platforms, platform crane weight and reach limitations, electrical supply and restrictions on welding and drilling.
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Fugro’s innovative technique resulted in substantial cost savings as well as significant risk reduction, achieved through reduced requirements for vessels, personnel and equipment. The new system delivers additional benefits including access to previously inaccessible areas of oil platform jackets and an improved operating window due to the absence of heave and drift-on restrictions associated with vessel-based ROVs.
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Fugro’s award-winning PDROV technology delivers substantial costsavings and operational improvements.
HOW CAN NYLACAST PRODUCTS ENHANCE YOUR PROJECTS? SPEAK TO OUR SALES & ENGINEERING TEAM +44 (0) 116 276 8558 offshore@nylacast.com www.nylacast.com
TECHNOLOGY
Subsea Scanning Start-up Viewport3 Reveals Substantial Savings to the Sector An Aberdeen-headquartered technology start-up which provides reactive subsea scanning services to the underwater sector has revealed it has saved operators a seven-figure sum over the past year.
Ultimately, Viewport3’s innovation guarantees considerable cost savings for their clients, helping their businesses face the future with confidence. The bulk of these savings arises from the reduced requirement for marine services, not only during the capture sessions themselves, but also during the follow-up marine engineering phase. Such is the accuracy of Viewport3’s photogrammetry technique that on-site rework is minimised, and even eliminated in many cases. Some of the projects where Viewport3 have been able to make substantial savings for operators over the past year include: Hull scanning for cofferdam manufacture; legacy video scanning of a wellhead, riser clamp and an XMT; archaeological recording of historic marine sites; In-Hawse capture of mooring links; and capture and assessment of mooring links. Chris Harvey, one of the directors of Viewport 3, said: “2018 has been a fantastic year for us, with turnover and growth exceeding all expectations. Over the course of the year our reputation for retrieving forensically accurate 3d data via an efficient and cost-effective process, has grown considerably.
of the main reasons we save people money is because we’re not putting anything new or untested into the water. All ROVs have cameras, and we just use them in a different way, so there aren’t any integration costs or trialling to be done. “Thanks to our experience in the subsea sector, we understand the projects our clients are undertaking and can very much hit the ground running. What’s more, photogrammetry is all that we do – we are true specialists in the field, and we understand that every pixel matters to the accuracy of the output. It’s this first-hand understanding of the subsea sector’s challenges that drives our passion for underwater 3d photogrammetry.”
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“This year has far exceeded any of our projections. Our breakthrough project earlier in the year gave us the opportunity to prove our claims, and the engagement we’ve had from the North Sea and beyond has seen us working on more and more projects in all of the world’s major oil-producing regions. We are already building on our success with investment in a project which uses us on st bespoke artificial intelligence to make our processes even more efficient.” 78 at
“While photogrammetry is not unique, our ability to retrieve technical grade data with proven accuracies under 1mm is what keeps the phone ringing.”
Fellow director and co-founder, Richard Drennan, added: “One
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Viewport3’s system uses existing equipment, namely divers, ROVs and their cameras, saving clients from having to buy or hire any additional hardware, such as laser systems. These also take far longer to retrieve 3d data from subsea, and as such incur significant additional costs.
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By integrating their high accuracy photogrammetry process into the work flow that has already been planned, Viewport3 minimise project disruption and risk, helping to eradicate the need for additional hardware, logistics and bed space.
“As a result, we have increased our floor-space and expanded our team. In addition to myself and fellow director, Richard Drennan, we also now employ a project co-ordinator and two engineers, with further scaling plans in place. One of our core aims is to offer local employment opportunities, taking advantage of the rich pool of talent we have here in the North-east, and we’re delighted to now be in a position to do that.”
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Viewport3, who specialise in using ROV-mounted cameras to capture 3D subsea data, announced savings of around £6.6 million to operators in 2018.
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TECHNOLOGY
Astrimar Develops STEM-flow Model for Predicting Long-term Integrity of Well Barriers Astrimar have developed STEM-flow, an advanced modelling approach to assess the life and reliability of plugs used to seal, suspended or abandoned wells, and to support the growing need for industry tools to assess and provide risk based well integrity assurance.
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Well plugging and abandonment poses significant long-term risks for well owners and the industry as a whole. New materials and plugging technologies, are being developed to replace or supplement conventional cement plugs. These have potential to create high integrity seals while reducing deployment costs, benefitting the thousands of wells (onshore and offshore) to be plugged and abandoned in the coming decade. Current Oil and Gas UK guidance, however, requires all new plug materials to be qualified for the application and demonstrate a minimum life of 3000 years. This creates a huge obstacle to the adoption of new plugging technologies.
based on fundamental understanding on materials and sealing science combined with experimental data. The experimental data are obtained through qualification testing, from field performance, where available, and from published data.
STEM-flow has been developed to support the qualification of new plugging materials and to assess the life of plugs and the well overall. It employs advanced predictive algorithms to model barrier material properties for plugs, casing, cement and geological formations. Time dependent degradation is modelled together with fluid flows expected through and around installed plugs and well barriers. Within STEM-flow, the models predict how leak paths and leak rates change with time. It calculates the time to initiate leakage either to the sea or to another permeable formation, or the time to exceed a specified leak rate.
Astrimar have developed models for Bismuth alloy plugs through collaboration with RawWater Engineering Ltd, who are developing high integrity Bi alloy seals and plugs for the industry. We are actively seeking wider opportunities to demonstrate its benefit to a range of plug materials and well plug designs.
A key element of STEM-flow is the use of Monte Carlo Simulation enabling assessment of uncertainties in material degradation, uncertain barrier conditions and the impact of uncertainty on plug and well life. For example, STEM-flow typically outputs the likelihood that a plug will achieve a particular life, as illustrated in the figure. So far, Astrimar have developed well barrier models for rock-to-rock and casing plug materials, casing, and annulus cement, together with respective material degradation. The models are developed
Annulus Plug
Reservoir
John Strutt, Astrimar Technical Director said: “We believe this risk-based predictive approach to modelling the reliability and life of plugs for suspended and abandoned wells has the ability to transform the process of qualifying new plugging materials and technologies and how well P&A designs are assessed.�
Parkburn Reaching New Depths with Fibre Rope Parkburn delivers revolutionary fibre rope capstan to MacGregor for their new FibreTrac1500 series crane capable of delivering surface payload to 4,000m water depth. Synthetic fibre rope has long been recognised for many advantages over steel wire. Key benefits include weightlessness in water, no corrosion, ease of handling and the ability to be spliced in the field to either add extra rope or remove worn sections. The challenge to date has been how to winch the fibre rope using a simple compact machine designed to maximise rope life.
The Parkburn capstan is the result of studying current winching solutions including drum and traction winch systems over many years and identifying the limits of each technology. Strategies were developed to ensure the new system: maximised the potential of the chosen fibre rope; included the benefits of low-tension storage, but; avoided the burden of multiple system bends and the complex, large footprint of traction winches. The benefits of drum winch compactness were harnessed without the weight penalties or the fatigue challenges of spooling rope at high tension over multiple rope layers. Included within the supply to MacGregor is a fully automatic lift line management system which captures and maps the work done by the rope. This system continuously delivers real time rope condition data directly to the crane operator. It uses an adaptive data base that captures information from the crane control system as well as third-party supplied sensing technologies. These include: a 3D automatic visual monitoring system supplied by VisionTek, and; a rope lifetime prediction algorithm developed by DSM specifically for their latest DM20 XBO material that was used by Lankhorst to produce the rope.
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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TECHNOLOGY
Crondall Energy: Making Significant Advances in Deepwater Pipeline Design Deepwater pipelines present a unique challenge to pipeline engineers because, being laid on the seabed and being heated and cooled, they tend to move in unexpected ways. Crondall Energy is tackling the two most common challenges associated with predicting and controlling pipelines that move: lateral buckling and pipeline walking. Crondall Energy believes that the obvious way to overcome this design challenge is to manage this significant uncertainty within a probabilistic framework. To simplify lateral buckling, Crondall Energy have developed the PROBE computer program, which performs a full structural reliability analysis, of a pipeline undergoing lateral buckling. The probabilistic approach provides a wealth of information that can be used to optimise the design solution and has already been used to justify significant savings on several projects. When it comes to pipeline walking Crondall Energy believes that, for the majority of pipelines, a more logical approach is to do nothing prior to operation, but instead carefully monitor the pipeline behaviour and intervene if excessive levels of walking are observed in operation. To address this, Crondall Energy launched the Joint Industry Project “APT” (Anchoring Pipeline Technology) to overcome the design challenges associated with pipeline walking. The JIP aims to provide a framework for the “wait and see” approach to walking, where the expectation for walking is uncertain. An essential part of APT is to develop and test simpler anchoring systems that can easily be retrofitted at low cost and to develop better ways of monitoring pipeline walking based on the development of existing technology.
Crondall Energy are bringing these advances in deepwater pipeline design to the industry following significant time spent specialising in this area of subsea engineering. They have found that for their clients the costs associated with mitigation of pipeline lateral buckling and walking in deepwater can be enormous. In many cases, these costs are due to uncertainty in the design process rather than being a necessary solution. Crondall Energy believe these costs can be reduced by investing in intelligent application of modern analysis techniques, embedded in PROBE and the APT JIP, and by developing a more flexible approach to uncertain behaviour. They recognise that the industry is starting to think this way, but there is much work still required to get full acceptance of these ideas and realisation of the benefits they bring.
David Bruton, director subsea at Crondall Energy, explains how
in deep-water are normally laid on the seabed. Being long slender structures, exposed to high pressures and temperatures, they develop large compressive forces that can lead to lateral buckling. Cyclic loading can also cause pipelines to walk. Pipeline walking is a ratcheting phenomenon in which the whole pipeline is gradually displaced along its axis, due to periodic changes in operating conditions.”
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lateral buckling and pipeline walking can occur: “Pipelines
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TECHNOLOGY
Webtool Develops Environmentally Friendly, Chevron Subsea Pipeline Decommissioning Tool
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“Our design team has considerable experience of working on new product developments for companies tackling demanding applications where hydraulic cutting and gripping is involved.”
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“We are delighted to have been awarded the contract to develop Chevron’s Fast Intervention Tool,” said Keith Elliot, managing director, Allspeeds Ltd.
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The Fast Intervention Tool (FIT) is a modular design which combines lifting, crimping, injection and cutting in a single lifting and deployment frame which also contains the hydraulic control system. Webtool has completed FIT conceptual design and in-house development and testing. It is now preparing a working prototype for hyperbaric and sea trials.
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Hydraulic subsea tools specialist, Webtool, is developing a Fast Intervention Tool for subsea pipeline decommissioning in conjunction with Chevron Energy Technology Company. The tool will crimp, seal, and cut the pipe reducing the potential for contamination of the marine environment, potentially removing the requirement for a containment dome during pipeline cutting, and minimising diver intervention.
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Webtool - Chevron Fast Intervention Tool
Webtool is the UK’s leading supplier of hydraulic subsea cutting tools for ROVs and Intervention Control and Workover Systems (IWOCS) and other applications. The Webtool range of high performance cutting tools is designed and manufactured exclusively by Allspeeds Ltd in the UK.
Subsea UK News | January 2019
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TECHNOLOGY
TUV SUD NEL Advance into the Digital Oilfield Digital devices used in the oil and gas industry are capable of outputting vast quantities of data over fieldbus networks. This can take the form of process values relating to the device’s primary function e.g. fluid flow measurement from a flow meter or secondary diagnostic information relating to device performance e.g. processor temperature.
TUV SUD NEL’s Digital Services team consists of industry experienced Control and Instrumentation engineers, mathematicians and data scientists. The team are also beginning the process of analysing the 20+ years of historical data sets within TUV SUD NEL’s databases to further understand the physics of operation surrounding their facilities.
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Tritech’s Diver Mounted Display is Making Waves in Diver Safety and Target Location
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This is a key function of what is broadly referred to as ‘Digital Oilfield’. The aim of which is to optimise facility operation, provide intelligent diagnostics that support decision making and ultimately enhance business processes and procedures. The function of an individual ‘Digital Oilfield’ system is inherently facility specific and by extension sensor specific. When a system is commissioned, it will be go through multiple tuning iterations that requires an in depth understanding of the facility operation, the underlying science behind any of the processes and crucially how these processes correlate with the digital data logged by the system.
The UK’s national standard for flow measurement operated by TUV SUD NEL is undertaking a 3-year research project to help end users interpret their digital data sets and most importantly understand the factors that can affect the reliability of said data. Using their flow laboratories, TUV SUD NEL aim to develop definitive correlations between the digital diagnostic data output from modern flow meters and their physical environment e.g. flow conditions within the pipe, ambient conditions of the surrounding facility and the physical condition of the meters. To ensure that the research is representative of industry conditions, the digital services team at TUV SUD NEL, have partnered with a leading meter manufacturer who have committed to providing unrestricted access to propriety information relating to the meter design and operation.
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There are specific software packages produced by the individual device manufacturers, which can display this information to the user in a format that is easy to digest. However due to high operation and maintenance costs, end users are becoming increasingly interested in accessing these digital values directly and centralising the logging of the data to customised software designed to automatically interpret device performance and perform diagnostic analytics on the big data sets produced to infer the wider system performance.
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Tritech International have designed and produced the Diver Mounted Display, which offers divers vision in low-visibility water, and helps to ensure both diver safety and the success of subsea missions. The system has evolved from the Helmet Mounted Display and is compatible with both helmets and diver face masks. The Tritech Gemini 720ik multibeam sonar integrates with the Diver Mounted Display when mounted to the diver’s mask. The sonar sits just above eye level and can identify targets up to 120m away. This information is then presented back to the diver through the monocle eye piece mounted on the front of the diver’s face mask. The diving supervisor has the option of controlling the sonar from the surface, allowing the diver to perform tasks without the need to operate any of the equipment.
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A prototype of the product was recently used in a successful trial by DAIVTEHNOSERVISS LTD in Latvia and this allowed the diver to locate a shipwreck in near zero visibility conditions from over 30m away. The diver was able to avoid potentially hazardous obstacles on the approach to the wreck while the system also allowed the diver to identify the wreck’s location significantly more efficiently than would have been possible otherwise. This solution has been used extensively across the USA and Canada in search and recovery operations and an upgraded version will be available for purchase and hire later this year.
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JB Valves Tackle Life 60 Extension of Legacy Assets with Plug and Play Approach to Infrastructure sea E
In response to the recurring challenge from major end users and solution providers to supply products and systems categorised as obsolete or unavailable, JB Valves have developed and manufactured a suite of compatible products and systems that have been successfully utilised in emergency rectification campaigns, asset life extension, expansion and upgrade works. “For hydraulic couplings, legacy products can produce many unknown entities. But our industry has an endless and insightful engineering resource base containing knowledge that allows for the re-engineering of the obsolete, breathing life back into ageing but viable assets,” said Jonathan Balmforth, Managing Director at JB Valves. Working with Canadian Natural Resources, known issues with specific obsolete diver mono coupling drove the development of a GO NO-GO interface gauge. This facilitated a successful implementation and deployment of one of JB Valve’s compatible coupler models on a critical BP distribution manifold. Decommissioning and shutdown of such assets have been commonplace, but with cost reduction and efficiency drives, JB Valves’ legacy experience has allowed for existing equipment to be re-purposed and upgraded. Extensive R&D investment has also allowed the company to develop an extensive track record with major end users utilising its equipment. Plug and play methodologies can allow legacy assets with obsolete equipment to be utilised through legacy compatible and interface solutions. Jonathan said: “Using existing infrastructure, our flexible, modular approach to valve design allows for the development of products that harmonise interfaces, effectively mating previously incompatible systems. This may be from uncommon to common connections, or upgraded specifications from single isolation to double block and bleed valves.” Legacy compatible solutions can be utilised to extended field life through the implementation of refurbished infrastructure or modernisation and enhancement of existing infrastructure. Potential marginal fields and small pools require efficient usage of simplified and refurbished assets. Legacy compatible valves and couplings greatly improve efficiency and improve economic viability.
Jonathan continued: “We believe that the future of our industry will depend on solutions that are both smart and flexible. To this end, R&D is a fundamental ingredient of who we are at JB Valves, and our dedicated R&D facilities investigate technologies both new and old.”
A Leading Force in Hydraulic Engineering
AGING SUBSEA WELLS? • VALVE ACTUATOR PROBLEMS? • STRUGGLING TO MAINTAIN PRODUCTION? • UNECONOMICAL TO PULL THE TREE?
WE CAN HELP YOU! Schoolhill has a number of low cost subsea solutions for these problems, to help you continue producing through the tree, with addition of some special tooling at minimal intervention costs. These Schoolhill Tools (LAOT – Linear Actuator Override Tools) can be supplied for short or long-term applications on subsea or topside trees. For subsea use they can be diver or ROV fitted and locked in place, or recovered to the surface after use. They are available for rental or purchase. Schoolhill’s engineering team have specialist knowledge of hydraulic cylinders for deepwater applications, Gripper Cylinders for TRT’s and LRP’s, high capacity cylinders for Vertical and Horizontal Connectors as well as an extensive range of QEVs for Shallow Water Tiebacks and ESD systems. For more information on these and other Schoolhill products contact:
Schoolhill Hydraulic Engineering Ltd Greenbank Place, East Tullos Aberdeen AB12 3RT T: 01224 871086
www.schoolhillengineering.com
ACHIEVEMENT
30 Years and 3,000 Mechanical Connections Later, Hydratight Celebrates Major Milestones Hydratight sold its first MORGRIP mechanical connector in 1988, today the company is about to supply its 3,000th connector. Much has changed in the industry over the past 30 years, Paul Hughes, Product Line Director within the new Pipeline Center of Excellence at Enerpac, reflects on the way in which the connector’s applications have evolved making it more relevant than ever. Hydratight sold its first MORGRIP mechanical connector in 1988, and now the company is about to supply its 3,000th connector. “It was originally developed as a means to replace the need for welding on critical hydrocarbon topside and onshore applications, the connector implemented a unique graphite sealing system that could withstand hydrocarbon fires in access of 1000degC. The MORGRIP also employed a patented ‘ball and taper’ gripping system to provide a high strength connection onto the pipe,” explains Paul Hughes. The connector’s external bolting activated the radial gripping and also the graphite seal generating a robust high seal stress. It offered some major performance advantages – high pressure capability, resistance to thermal cycling, resistance to hydrogen ingress (preventing explosive decompression in gas applications) and an increased operating parameter on pipe outer diameters. This early success was soon followed by an enquiry from Statoil (later Equinor) who recognised the potential value of MORGRIP technology for use in subsea applications. Hughes said: “About this time the company was taking the lead in ensuring that all its subsea assets could be repaired remotely – without the need for diver intervention and in water depths up to 650m, and later 1000m. Statoil was looking for a mechanical connector that could be approved to the industry’s most astringent design requirements.” In 1991, Statoil assisted in funding the DNV GL Type Approval of the MORGRIP Mechanical Connector, leading to eight years of design, development, testing and qualification. Adherence with the original DNV-OS-F101 and associated RP-F113 ensured the product is approved as a permanent repair solution, designed with the overall integrity management of the system involved and to the safety philosophy. As part of the continuing product development this was later reviewed to ensure compliance to the newDNVGL-ST-F101 Standard. With increasing awareness of the risks arising from pipeline faults, and the growing perception of the North Sea as the test bed for subsea technologies, the MORGRIP connector was soon propelled onto the agenda of the leading global oil and gas Operators. “With increasing demand, in 1993 we introduced the Emergency Pipelines
Repair System Club – spearheaded by Shell UK - this was a way for Operators to share long lead materials, detailed designs and qualified manufacturing routes to enable the expedited delivery of mechanical connectors should an emergency occur. To date we have 11 Operator Members covering 188 individual pipelines globally,” Hughes said. 30 years on Hydratight has successfully delivered its 3000th unit and maintains a 100% leak free in-service record. It is still the only mechanical connector to fit a graphite seal as standard enabling the highest pressure and temperature repairs, and the only mechanical connector to be installed vertically at the base of a hybrid riser at 1350m water depth. The DNV GL Type Approval has been extended and now encompasses 1/2” to 44” topside, subsea and remote connectors, up to ANSI Class 2500 rating, in carbon steel, stainless steel and duplex materials as standard. Paul Hughes looks to the future with confidence.
“Over time the need for MORGRIP subsea connectors has grown to include diver safety, lost production and environmental concerns, with increasingly ageing pipelines and the rationalisation of pipeline networks. Within Enerpac we’ll continue to strive to be the global leader in pipeline integrity assurance, focusing on ongoing New Product Development activities aimed at lowering the operational costs for our customers across multiple vertical markets both off and on-shore.”
Notable subsea project successes have included: 1996
World’s first Remote Connector Installation – 16in Remote coupling
2002
1000th connector for Technip, 10in 1500lb rated Subsea Flange Adaptor
2006
New pressure record, 10,000psi 3in Topside connector for BP
2008
2000th connector for Talisman Energy, 24in 900 rated Subsea Flange Adaptor
2015
New diameter record, 44” remote subsea flange adaptor for Chevron
2015
World’s highest pressure remote connector installed – 389 Barg. Hydratight Morgrip
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PEOPLE
Leading Decommissioning Company Well-Safe Solutions Announce Appointment of Key Executive Team Member Leading decommissioning company Well-Safe Solutions is delighted to announce the appointment of a key position within the Executive Team. Matt Jenkins is to become Chief Operating Officer of Aberdeen-based Well-Safe Solutions with immediate effect with a promotion from his current position as Director of Well Abandonment within the organisation. Joining Well-Safe in 2017 with 15 years of experience at ConocoPhillips, Matt led UK P&A Engineering and Strategy where he was responsible for the decommissioning of over 50 wells since 2014.
Alasdair Locke Charmian commented: “We are delighted to offer this promotion to Matt. He has demonstrated great leadership and understanding of our business and commercial offering and seeing such talent being rewarded with such a key position fits very well within the tremendous business ethos Well-Safe Solutions strive to achieve.”
Matt Jenkins, COO
The company now has more than 35 personnel working for a string of clients and aims to employ more than 400 people within the next three years.
Rotech Subsea Appoints New Business Development Manager in Response to Rising Demand from European Oil & Gas and Decommissioning Markets
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Speaking about the appointment of Bews, Rotech Director of Subsea, Steve Cochrane said: “We are delighted to get a Business Development Manager of Anthony’s calibre on board. It’s an exciting time for the company, which is expanding its operations not just in Europe but also in Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. This has seen the establishment of permanent service bases in the Middle East and Asia, where we also have a business development team.
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Bews has joined Rotech Subsea having spent five years working in the business development team at Bibby Offshore as Senior Client Account Manager. Prior to this he worked in a similar role at Proserv.
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Subsea excavation pioneer Rotech Subsea Ltd. has announced the appointment of Anthony Bews as Europe Business Development Manager. In his new role Bews will focus on the continued growth of Rotech’s Oil & Gas and Decommissioning business in Europe, building on the impressive track record the contractor has built in the renewables sector s on
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“Anthony’s appointment will enable me to focus on the global strategy and business development opportunities to help meet the growing demand for Rotech’s next generation ‘RS’ range of Controlled Flow Excavation (CFE) tools. It has been a whirlwind few years since emerging from a non-compete period in 2015 with the more powerful, precise, and efficient RS range. Our in-house R&D team continues to develop cutting-edge tools which are in demand in the market so it’s the perfect time to strengthen of our business development team in Europe.” Anthony Bews and Steve Cochrane
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