Tuesday Morning
Tuesday, 1 May, 0930 to Noon
Room 306
PANEL: STORM WARNINGS
| Moderators: | Alan S. Brown, ASME John G. Bomba, Technip |
In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita acted like brooms to sweep away 115 production platforms, damage more than 50 others, and capsize, damage, or carry away numerous drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. While most of the platforms were old, perhaps as many as 20 % of the platforms and most of the rigs were new and built to the most modern specifications. In addition, the hurricanes devastated the underwater pipeline system that ties platforms to shore. Ten months after the 2005 hurricane season began, 12 % of Gulf oil production and 9 % of its gas production remained out of commission. By April 2006, industry and government organizations had rushed new benchmarks for offshore construction through standards-setting organizations. Although the 2006 hurricane season did not challenge these new standards, severe hurricanes are a certainty in the future. Our panel includes key members of standards-setting committees, who will provide a high-level review of Gulf Coast readiness to weather another severe hurricane season. They will assess data from the latest hurricane season, project the effectiveness of the new rules, discuss how the industry has used the time bought by the weak 2006 hurricane season, and talk about the next wave of proposals. |
| Panelists: | Alex Alvarado, Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico Region Frank Puskar, President, Energo Engineering Allen Verret, Offshore Operators Committee Shawn Firenza, National Oilwell Varco Inc. Pat O'Connor, Senior Advisor, BP America Inc. (EPT) James Stear, Chevron |
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| 0930 | 19108 | Storm Warnings A.S. Brown, ASME, J.G. Bomba, Technip |
Moderator Profiles
Alan S. Brown, ASME
Alan S. Brown is an associate editor at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Mechanical Engineer magazine. He joined ASME as an associate editor in 2005 after more than 26 years as a freelance writer. His work analyzes engineering trends as well as how engineering impacts the larger economy. In addition to offshore technology, he has covered topics as diverse as semiconductor production, superconductors, advanced materials and coatings, aerospace, microelectromechanical systems, chemical processing, advanced security systems, and bioterrorism.
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John G. Bomba, Technip
John G. Bomba is a project manager for Technip. He began his offshore career while still in high school, working as a deck hand on a construction vessel driving wooden piling around gas wells in Matagorda Bay. He was told the next summer that he was too young to be working offshore. His first project after graduation from Texas A&M University was as a field engineer on a Niagara River crossing 5 miles below the falls. He has worked as a pipeline engineer, designing and building onshore and offshore pipelines on every continent except the Antarctic. He began his career with Collins Construction Company, then Williams Brothers, and RJ Brown in Holland, Singapore and Houston. He was involved with the installation of the first pipeline in the US deeper than 300 feet, deeper than 400 feet and deeper than 600 feet. He is currently involved in a Gulf of Mexico project in water depths ranging from approximately 4000 feet to approximately 8800 feet.
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Panelist Profiles
Alex Alvarado, Dept. of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico Region
Alex P. Alvarado is the chief of the pipeline section for Minerals Management Service (MMS) in its Gulf of Mexico regional office. He has worked for MMS for 28 years in several positions. Alvarado’s current responsibilities include oversight of the MMS Gulf of Mexico regulatory program to assure safe and environmentally sound transportation of hydrocarbons by pipeline. He is also responsible for the review and approval of all Outer Continental Shelf pipeline permits for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic region, and for developing regulations to assure safety in design, construction, testing, operation, maintenance and repairs of offshore pipelines. He has served on committees of various organizations, including the American Petroleum Institute and the US Department of Transportation. Alvarado attended the University of Texas at Arlington and obtained a BSEE degree in 1977.
Frank Puskar, President, Energo Engineering
Frank Puskar is president of Energo Engineering, Inc., in Houston, Texas. He has 25 years of experience in the offshore industry and is a recognized expert in the structural assessment of existing fixed platforms. He has been involved in post-hurricane studies of fixed platforms for hurricanes Andrew, Lili, Ivan, Katrina and Rita. Puskar served on the original Section 17 American Petroleum Institute (API) committee for platform assessment and is the chair of the 2007 API workgroup developing interim guidelines for existing offshore facilities. He was awarded a 2007 Minerals Management Service Corporate Leadership Award for outstanding achievements in assessing the lessons from hurricanes and planning for future storm events. Puskar has an ME degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Allen Verret, Offshore Operators Committee
Allen J. Verret is the executive director of the Offshore Operators Committee, an industry trade association located in New Orleans. He is a 30-year veteran of Texaco’s offshore Gulf of Mexico operations and has held engineering, management and engineering advisor positions within Texaco’s field, district and division offices. He also has worked in engineering, construction, field operations, production and drilling, workover operations, and marine technology development. Verret has been an active participant in Texaco’s oil spill response organization and has over 15 years of actual response experience in near shore and offshore spills. He served as the offshore division alternate incident commander and as the Texaco Regional Response Team’s operations section leader before his retirement in 1999. Verret has been active in the DeepStar project since its inception in 1992, and he served as Texaco’s senior advisor on the management panel and as chairman of the regulatory committee for many of the earlier phases. Verret has served as technical advisor to the regulatory subcommittee for DeepStar Phases V–VIII. He is currently the technical advisor to the DeepStar CTR 8100 Regulatory Subcommittee. Verret received a BS degree in civil engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
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Shawn Firenza, National Oilwell Varco Inc.
Shawn D. Firenza is the product line manager of drilling structures for National Oilwell Varco. He joined the company in 1997 as an associate design engineer. Since that time, Firenza has served in various capacities including design engineering, quality assurance and engineering management. Since 2002, Firenza has worked with the American Petroleum Institute (API) task group dealing with standards for drilling and well servicing structures, API SC08/TG1. Firenza is a licensed engineer in Texas and holds master's and bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering from Texas Tech University.
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Pat O'Connor, Senior Advisor, BP America Inc. (EPT)
Patrick O’Connor is a senior advisor for structural and offshore engineering at BP in Houston, where he specializes in worldwide structural integrity management. He has over 38 years of industry experience, of which 30 years have been in the oil industry. O’Connor first worked in the bridge department at British Rail in London and then moved into the North Sea oil industry sector in 1975. He worked four years in a contractor’s office, McDermott’s. He joined Amoco UK in 1979 and moved to Amoco Houston in 1989. Chapman has chaired numerous technical joint industry projects associated with structural integrity, including for the International Organization for Standardization and the American Petroleum Institute (API). He is currently the chairperson for the API Subcommittee on Offshore Structures. He also was recently appointed to the National Academies Marine Board, which is part of the National Academies Transportation Research Board in Washington, DC.
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James Stear, Chevron
James Stear is an ocean engineer with Chevron. During his nine years at Chevron, he has primarily worked as a metocean specialist, performing or leading design basis studies for dozens of offshore and coastal sites around the world. Stear joined Chevron in 1998 while still completing his doctoral dissertation at the University of California (UC) at Berkeley. While at Berkeley, his research focused on the analysis of fixed platforms subject to storm and earthquake loads; during his time there, he helped develop the Template Offshore Platform Capacity Assessment Tools suite of structural assessment programs that was later commercialized by Engineering Dynamics, Inc. In recent years, he has devoted much time to hurricane and Loop Current criteria issues in the Gulf of Mexico. He has served as coadministrator of the climatology and simulation of eddies (CASE) joint industry project, now run by Chevron, since 2004. He presently serves as both chairman of the American Petroleum Institute (API) Metocean Resource Group and leader of the API Hurricane Evaluation and Assessment Team’s metocean workgroup. Stear graduated from UC Berkeley with a PhD in civil and environmental engineering in 1999.
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Tuesday, 1 May, 0930 to Noon
Room 604
FPSO GULF OF MEXICO ASSESSMENT
| Session Chairpersons: | Jean‑Francois Saint‑Marcoux, Acergy Gustavo Castro, Petrobras |
| 0930 | 18529 | Investigation of Interference Between Upstream and Downstream Cylinders in a Current for the HRTs and Jumpers With FPSO Application R.D. Blevins, M. Wu, Acergy |
| 0952 | 18906 | Second-Order Roll Motions for FPSOs Operating in Severe Environmental Conditions F.C. Rezende, X. Chen, Bureau Veritas; M.D. Ferreira, Petrobras |
| 1014 | 18487 | Disconnectable FPSO: Technology To Reduce Risk in the Gulf of Mexico V. Aanesland, J.P. Kaalstad, A. Bech, APL; A. Holm, Nexus Floating Production |
| 1036 | 18560 | The Development of an FPSO for Deepwater Gulf of Mexico J. Wodehouse, B. George, Y. Luo, SBM Imodco |
| 1058 | 18649 | Compliance for FPSO: Gulf of Mexico and Speculative Builds C. Colby, S. Matos, S. Kumar Mony, DNV Energy |
Tuesday, 1 May, 0930 to Noon
Room 602
INDEPENDENCE TRAIL
| Session Chairpersons: | Rick Hill, EWI Microalloying L.P. Mike Stark, Enterprise Products Partners L.P. |
Keynote:
Independence Trail Project Overview: Mike Stark, Enterprise Products Partners L.P.
| 0952 | 19056 | Independence Trail: Pipeline Design Considerations M.M. Al-Sharif, Helix Energy Solutions |
| 1014 | 19057 | Independence Trail: Steel Catenary Riser Design and Materials C.D. Galvin, MCS; R. Hill, EWI Microalloying L.P. |
| 1036 | 19059 | Modifications to the Pipelay Vessel Solitaire for the Independence Trail Project A. Steenhuis, T. van Norden, J. Regelink, M. Krutzen, Allseas Engineering B.V. |
| 1058 | 19060 | Installation Challenges, SCR, Inline Tees F. Kluwen, Allseas U.S.A.; P. Rijneveld, Allseas Engineering B.V. |
| 1120 | 19061 | Installation Challenges Lifting and Pull-In of the 20-in. SCR J. Bouwman, Heerema Marine Contractors Nederland B.V. |
| 1142 | 19062 | Pipeline Hydrotesting, Dewatering and Commissioning B. Mappus, Weatherford Intl.; A.G. Torstrick, Cronus Technology/Enterprise Field Services |
Tuesday, 1 May, 0930 to Noon
Room 312
CONVENTIONAL AND NONCONVENTIONAL DRILLING APPLICATIONS: OVERCOMING CHALLENGES WITH SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS
| Session Chairpersons: | Stephen Edwards, BP Andrew Kirkwood, Baker Hughes |
| 0930 | 18514 | The Successful Application of Underbalanced Drilling Technology for Reservoir Evaluation and Drilling Performance Improvement in Kuwait P. Vieira, Weatherford Intl.; F. Larroque, A.M. Al-Saleh, H. Ismael, Kuwait Oil Co.; H.H. Qutob, J.R. Chopty, Weatherford Intl. |
| 0952 | 18754 | Characterization of Cement Systems To Ensure Cement-Sheath Integrity A. Garnier, B. Fraboulet, J. Saint-Marc, Total; A. Bois, Curistec |
| 1014 | 18521 | Optimizing Powered Rotary Steering Through Better Understanding of the Downhole Environment F.A. Al-Bani, N. Galindez, P.G. Carpen, Saudi Aramco; F. Mounzer, D.G. Kent, Baker Hughes Inteq |
| 1036 | 18839 | Reverse-Circulation Cementing To Seal a Tight Liner Lap T.W. Marriott, S. Chase, I. Khallad, Halliburton; R. Bolt, P. Whelan, Devon Canada Corp. |
| 1058 | 18480 | Improving Well-Position Accuracy for More-Effective Resource Exploitation B. Landry, ConocoPhillips; B. Poedjono, G. Akinniranye, Schlumberger; M.L. Hollis, Chesapeake |
| 1120 | 18526 | Field Development Optimization in Giant Oil Field in Azerbaijan and Mature Oil Field in North Sea M.L. Litvak, B.R. Gane, L.S. McMurray, R.C. Skinner, BP |
Tuesday, 1 May, 0930 to Noon
Room 610
CNG AND OTHER LNG ALTERNATIVES
| Session Chairpersons: | George Montgomery, J. Ray McDermott Engineering Skipper Strong, J. Ray McDermott Engineering |
| 0930 | 18677 | Marine CNG: Technically Sound, Commercially Viable, and Imminent C.H. Young, Centre for Marine CNG |
| 0952 | 18999 | ABS Development of a Guide for Compressed Natural Gas Carrier P.G. Rynn, H.N. Patel, C. Serratella, ABS |
| 1014 | 18702 | CNG Marine Gas Transport Solution: Tested and Ready P.S. Britton, J.P. Dunlop, EnerSea Transport |
| 1036 | 18630 | Pressurized Natural Gas: Next-Generation Marine Gas Transport Solution P. Lothe, N.K. Stroem, Knutsen OAS Shipping |
| 1058 | 19003 | The Certification of FRP Pressure Vessels Intended for Marine CNG Transportation S.C. Campbell, Transocean Gas |
Tuesday, 1 May, 0930 to Noon
Room 606
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON GEOHAZARDS I
| Session Chairpersons: | Linda Harvik, NGI Anders Solheim, NGI |
Tuesday, 1 May, 0930 to Noon
Room 600
EXPANDABLE TECHNOLOGY
| Session Chairpersons: | Robert Saucedo, Stratford Lane Consulting Services Barbara Thompson, Acergy |
| 0930 | 19008 | Mitigating Subsalt Rubble Zones Using High-Collapse, Cost-Effective Solid-Expandable Monobore Systems E.J. Cruz, R.V. Baker, BP; P. York, L. Ring, Weatherford |
| 0952 | 18484 | A Combination of Expandable Sand Screens and Intelligent Control Systems in the Okwori Completions Offshore Nigeria J. Stevenson, (formerly), Addax Petroleum; R.D. Lacy, J. Neumann, G. Tough, Weatherford |
| 1014 | 18458 | Redefining the OCTG Fatigue: A Theoretical Approach C. Teodoriu, J. Schubert, Texas A&M U. |
| 1036 | 18730 | Development of an Expandable Liner-Hanger System To Improve Reliability of Conventional Liner Installations S.A. Walvekar, A.T. Jackson, Halliburton Energy Services |
| 1058 | 18647 | Solid Expandable Tubulars Enable Practical Well Re-Entry in Mature Fields F. Itoua-Konga, G. Coluccia, Eni Congo; V.D. Felix, Enventure Global Technology |