Public confidence in technologies being used in deepwater will be one of the key components to the success of the Subsea Systems Institute (SSI), according to its director.
The institution was set up earlier this year with funding from the RESTORE Act on the back of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
The federal statute was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2012 after the incident which killed 11 workers and caused significant environmental, ecological and economic damage in the
Gulf of Mexico.
Mexico needs to attract significant interest to salvage a bidding round hampered by delays and low oil prices according to research carried out by consulting firm GlobalData.
As if to spice debate at this year’s OTC (Offshore Technology Conference), the US Department of the Interior has told the oil companies and their supply chain that it’s about to get tough on well control.
The decision wasn’t unexpected, but the timing is neat, especially given the Mexican offshore tragedy on April Fool’s day in which four workers perished and more than 40 were injured as a result of a platform, part of the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc offshore field complex, blowing up.
While the cause is not yet clear, it would appear that it is not well-related as operator Pemex restored production in large part from the field within days, recovering some 80% of output shortly thereafter.
Nonetheless, the very fact that there has been another dangerous offshore incident within the Gulf of Mexico region, moreover one originating from a company with a poor safety track record, suggests that the US will now be ultra-twitchy about the HSE record of any oil & gas installation or its operator in waters adjacent to its own patch.
Energy consultancy Douglas Westwood said deepwater expenditure will increase by 69% between now and 2019.
The figure comes despite a number of companies suspending high-cost projects in the wake of the low oil prices.
The company estimated the total cost could be as high as $210billion in its report, ‘World Deepwater Market Forecast 2015-2019’.
The report author Mark Adeosun said development of deepwater reserves has become increasingly vital, particularly to the world’s oil majors.
BP has challenged a federal judge’s ruling that the company’s exploration unit acted with gross negligence in causing the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a decision that exposed the UK-based energy company to as much as $18 billion in fines under US law.
This is BP’s first appeal of US District Judge Carl Barbier’s September decision that the company was 67% responsible for causing the worst offshore spill in US history.
The judge determined rig-owner Transocean Ltd. (RIG) was 30 percent liable and cement-services provider Halliburton 3% responsible for the disaster, which killed 11 workers.
A pipeline services specialist successfully isolated hydrocarbon pressure for 79 days while a gas valve upgrade project was carried out in the Gulf of Mexico.
TD Williamson (TDW) was originally asked by a major oil company to isolate a 16-inch gas riser, which was connected to a major subsea gas pipeline network in order to replace a valve in 2012.
However the network operator then asked for three additional valves to be installed, and a launcher extension was added to help facilitate inline inspection tool runs.
The boss of an independent oil and gas company said deep water production of oil and gas could triple by 2040.
Jarand Rystad, managing director of Rystad Energy, was speaking at the Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (DOT) about rising costs in finding energy resources.
