Basics Offshore Oil and Gas Industry

[j.sabourn]

As recently there has been complaints about abbreviations for certain terms, it struck me that many may not be aware of other specialized ships. So my experience re. Supply and Anchor handling vessels is as follows. In 1978 my first indoctrination into the industry it was the usual form to drop an Anchor 2 to 3 cables off, approach the rig turn around and receive 2 mooring lines from the installation to make fast on each quarter. Tighten up on your anchor and if held there you were. What some might call a Meditteranean Moor. However later due to the pipelines and wellheads on seabed this was a no no, and vessels had to what they called snatch that was to hold the vessel in one position for anything up to 18 hours, on the engines rudders and usually an underpowered bowthruster, not an easy job at times especially weatherwise. The Scandanavian vessels were always superior tonnage to the British and were more custom built for the job. What John said in a previous post about being given the heave ho by the OIM applied to the ships as well as if you did not perform to his liking you were put off hire and stood to lose your job, All these Safety Issues that were brought up after the Cullen Enquiry take with a pinch of salt if it comes from the Oil Sector. As regards towing we were always struggling with ships of about 4000 H.P. when I left in 1991 the oil companys would not accept less than 15000 H.P. which I believe is now 20000 H.P. Other vessel such as SBS and other tonnage is a different story again. However in 1991 I took up a position on an achor handling supply vessel as master in Australia. This was a pleasure as the oil companys did not hold the sword of dismissal over your head, the seamen through the Union said what was safe and not what the oil companys said. Seamen were treated accordingly with respect , a totally different situation than the N.Sea that I remember. Regards John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Diving Support Vessel. Some might visualize frogmen slipping over the siide of a small launch. A modern D,S.V. is an extremely costly and sophisticated vessel. I served on one for 4 years, luckily she was on contract to the M.O.D. (Ministry of Defence for those not up on their abbreviations). The Diving Bell was lowered through what was called the moonpool which had a steel hatch which was opened or closed as required. The Bell usually accomodated 3 divers as usually 2 left the bell at the required depth and the 3rd. remained as back up man for emergencies. Then the max. depth was 300 metres (1000 feet) They wore suits which had hot water pumped through them to counteract the feezing temps at greater depths. They also lived on the ship sometimes for days in specially constructed chambers with an air lock for passing through food etc. They breathed a mixture of Oxygen and helium maybe other types now, to bring them down to the depth they were going to be working at. They were passed via an air lock into the bell before being lowered into the water. The reversal on their return. They were called saturation divers. The after effect of saturation diving had at the time I mention not then been interpletated but most expected to at least suffer a lot of arthritus in later life. We took the place of the HMS Reclaim which at the time was the oldest commissioned ship in the RN (apart from Victory) She lowered her bell from a swinging derrick. Both vessels were replaced in later years by HMS Challenger I believe, which unfortuanetly was built with a lot of Aliminium in her, which was found after the Falklands war to be very combustible, so she didnt last long. I should imagine the Navy nowadays would hire a vessel from the commercial market if required, especially with all the cutbacks. There are others who would know all this, this is just basic stuff for those not aware of what D.S.V. stood for. Commercial sat. divers in the N.Sea were paid by the minute and usually only spent 2 months of the year working as the pay was that good, it must have taken them a long time to spend. Their medical affects in later time however it would be interesting to know. Regards John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Stand By Safety vessel The offshore Regulations stipulate that there must be within 5 miles a vessel able to accomodate all persons on the installation. For this purpose many ex trawlers were used which had seen better days. The fish room was used to accomodate any guests and seating had to be supplied with blankets and towels for whatever class the ship was put at e.g 100 200 or 300 class survivor. Safety should not be taken too literally, one boat I was on finished up 120 miles south of location, another was lucky to make port as all bottom ends went on main engine. They were the worse paid, worse conditions of any offshore employment, however at the time was that or the dole. If you asked any crew member what they were there for he would probably say to pick up any daft bugger who falls off the rig, for which purpose a FRC was carried the crew of which were on call 24 hours a day. It was almost a daily occurence that drills were carried out and the dummy had to be recovered within 3 minutes or else further drills occurred. Also ship was fitted with booms either side for using oil dispersant in case of an oil discharge. However permission had to be granted from the shore for this to be used and was seldom given. The ship was also a secondary radio station for any silence periods the rig had, when they were fiddling on with explosives or whatever. The people who man these vessels are probably mainly there the same reason as I was that or the dole. Make no mistakes these ships were in a lot of cases the pits. A lot of the crews are ex fishermen first class boat handlers in their own right, and ships is the only thing they know in their lives and are quite willing to go out there for 4 or 5 weeks come ashore for 2 or 3 days and out again. When that breed finally dies off there will be no replacement willing to do the job under the same conditions believe me. Regards John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

The offshore oil and gas industry goes through the following stages to finding and marketing.
1. The government or whoever has jurisdiction, sell the right of looking for minerals as such to the Oil Company or whoever with the proviso that work has to commence on exploration, say as an arbitary figure within 10 years.
2. The first tentative exploration is seismic this type of shipping has advanced tremendously in the past 20 years or so and from a single seismic cable being towed, it is not unusual to see 16 or 20 cables being towed abreast for a distance of 3 miles or so.
3. The data and information collected via computer graphs etc. is very sensative information and worth a lot of money, as master I was never informed of any results. If a private Company was doing this exploration this would be sold to the highest bidder in the oil world.
4. The next step is the drill ship, which takes core samples and may go to quite a depth.
5. The next step is the oil rig as people know. I am sure a lot of people think the rig is producing the oil. One of the first signs of success is
when you see the rig flaring off, as you know they have reached at least the gas which they have to burn off before capping the well.
6. It is then up to the egg heads to discuss with the info. they have and have a good idea how many barrels that particular well will hold
whether to go ahead and build a production platform or any other method that may be available to them.
I should imagine the Royaltys that the government, or whoever leased the block, will stand to receive good revenues from the oil company for the life of the well. It would be nice to know what the British Government has made out of the North Sea alone. Regards John Sabourn.

[j.sabourn]

MODU Mobile offshore Drilling Unit. Cheers John Sabourn