OTC 2010 – See you there!

28th April 2010 by Crew

Less than a week away until the 2010 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC 2010) in Houston, Texas kicks off. With approximately 65,000 offshore E&P professionals from 120 different countries expected to attend it’s the largest offshore technology conference in the world.

This time last year we were in the midst of a global economic recession with a potential swine flu epidemic looming over us. This year there is a feeling of optimism as the green shoots of recovery are tentatively appearing in the offshore oil and gas industry. OTC 2010 will no doubt prove to be an ideal forum for oil and gas professionals to be able to view the latest in technology and innovation as well as hearing industry professional’s experiences of the last 12-18 months and their views going forwards.

Are you attending? If so get in touch and we’ll see you there!

Posted in Derrick Offshore, Oil & Gas, Subsea, Vessels | Leave a comment »

Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Sinks

23rd April 2010 by Crew

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the 11 crew members still missing after an explosion on the offshore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.

Despite efforts to bring it under control the rig collapsed and sank yesterday after being engulfed by a fire that had blazed for more than 36 hours.

The blast occurred on Tuesday at around 22:00 hours on Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible drilling rig. Although the majority of the 126 workers on board escaped unharmed 17 were injured and fears are now growing for the safety of the 11 workers still missing.

At the time of the incident the Deepwater Horizon was drilling for BP on part of the Mississippi Canyon Block 252 known as the Macondo prospect, in 1,500m (5,000ft) of water. Last night a team of engineers, using an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV), were struggling to cut off the uncontrolled flow of oil which is being fed by an estimated 13,000 gallons of oil and gas pumping every hour from a pipe running up from the oil reservoir more than 2 miles (3km) beneath the seabed.

BP and US officials are now tackling what could be a major pollution incident using booms and dispersant chemicals.

Posted in Oil & Gas, Subsea, Vessels | 1 Comment »

“You May be Missing a Few Inches”

14th April 2010 by Crew

An Antony Gormley figure and a Tall Ship flank the Burbo Bank windfarm. Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Certainly not the news you want to hear if you’re a windfarm developer. A fault, believed to be caused by the concrete used to fix some turbines to their steel foundation wearing away, has caused some wind turbines to drop a few inches. The fault was first discovered at the Egmond aan Zee wind farm in the Netherlands last Autumn and affects those with single cylinder foundations.

Energy company engineers are now urgently investigating to what extent the flaw may affect their offshore wind farms. Centrica, which owns British Gas and Dong Energy, have already identified potential problems with three of its wind farms including Gunfleet Sands off the Essex coast and Burbo Bank in Liverpool Bay.

Renewables UK (former BWEA) have been quoted as saying that it could cost in the region of £50million to fix Britain’s 336 turbines thought to be at risk and this news is now casting concern over the 175 turbines due for installation on the London Array project, in which Dong Energy and E.ON are partners.

Industry design standards will no doubt be carefully scrutinised before the next round of wind farm construction and the utility companies will certainly be consulting their lawyers looking to apportion blame…

Posted in Renewables | Leave a comment »

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