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12 SPOTLIGHT & NEWSTHEPRESSAND JOURNAL

February 2013 Energy THEPRESSAND JOURNALFebruary 2013Energy

Dont let complacency creepintoyour subsea campaigns

HSEQ Essentials

BrianMinty

Vroon orderssupport vesselVroon Offshore Services has ordered a

subsea support vessel (SSV) at FujianSoutheast Shipyard in China, with an

option for a second vessel. This follows

the two SSVs built at the shipyard in

2012, VOS Shine and VOS Sweet.

The company described the new ves-

sel, to be named VOS Sugar, as a mod-

ern SSV with retractable thruster and

super silent tunnel thruster, providing

a high standard of comfort for bothpassengers and crew.The 68m vessel is scheduled for de-

livery in early 2015 and will be oper-

ated by Vroon Offshore Services in Den

Helder, The Netherlands.

ExxonMobilsanctionsHebron fieldThe Hebron field development off-

shore Newfoundland and Labrador inthe Canadian North Atlantic has been

sanctioned by operator ExxonMobil

and co-venturers in the project.

Located some 350km offshore

Newfoundland, the Hebron platform

will be a concrete gravity-based

structure (GBS) standing in 95m

water depth.

The field is estimated to hold

700million barrels of recoverable oil.

Fabricom opensTyneacademyFabricom, a GDF Suez Energy Services

company with a significant presence in

Aberdeen, has launched its skills and

development academy on Tyneside as

an investment in the next generation

of talent required to sustain North Sea

prosperity.

The facility has been developed by

engineers for engineers to provide a

fully-integrated training, learning anddevelopment set of programmes aimed

at graduates, apprentices and people

looking to upgrade or diversify skills.

More than 30 are already undergo-

ing apprenticeships, graduate training

programmes and professional develop-

ment schemes with another intake ofaround 12 expected this year.

As operators face the dual challenge

of sustaining their production levels

in mature regions while effectively

exploiting the uncapped reserves in

growth areas, the potential for sub-

sea capital expenditure for the re-

mainder of the decade has in-creased dramatically.

However, with this increased de-

mand and requirement to meet pro-

ject deadlines, while utilising more

complex technologies, comes oppor-

tunity for complacency to creep in

related to the management of

health and safety in addition to the

vast complexity of operations, logis-

tics and the coordination of multi-ple activities.

Advances in technology are in-

creasingly being tested and de-

ployed in response to the offshore

industry's demand for solutions to

challenges; deeper waters, sustain-

ing production rates in mature de-

velopments, boosting flow rates in

low pressure reservoirs, accommo-dating a larger number of fields tiedback to host facilities and ensuring

the energy and cost efficiency of a

project.

But thats just the hydrocarbons

extraction sector. What about other

subsea projects, such as windfarms

with cable tie-ins and pil-

ing activities, sea-bed

mining for miner-

als and potentialgas hydrates to

name just a

few.

Operators

are being

forced to de-

liver in remote

and harsher

locations, their

projects requir-

ing sophisti-

cated and expensive equipment and

services that can cost significantly

more than the standard equivalent.

Gaining efficiency (monetary) can

only be achieved by careful evalua-

tion, selection and management of

the multitude of service providers

required to deliver these projects.

Given all of the above and thecurrent challenges within the indus-try to meet the demand for experi-

enced subsea competent personnel,

health and safety becomes a pre-

dominant factor in supplier selec-

tion.

Apart from the risk to people, as-

sets and the environment, delays

caused by unplanned events can re-

sult in severe financial implica-

tions to everyone involved inthe project.

These often complex sub-

sea developments commonly

use multiple services at the

same time; diving, platform

normal supply, entry in to

the exclusion zone, trenching

and ROV operations to name

but a few, thus requiring con-

trol of simultaneous operations(SIMOPS).

However, in many cases,

nearby day-to-day

asset operations

and activities

continue as well

as other lesser

known activities adding to the

complex nature and management of

these high-risk operations.

Supply chain selection and evalu-

ation, risk management, interface

management who does what,

when and how, are all crucial along

with the negative implications of us-

ing the wrong control system at thewrong time.Primacy of systems is the single

most appropriate control measure

to be defined at the outset of a pro-

ject and correct management and

delivery against this throughout the

project is fundamental.

Achieving this with effective due

diligence and management must be

the primary focus of any subsea

management system and as such,the priority of any operator carrying

out these activities.

At FQM we have many years ex-

perience in the design, implementa-

tion and management of supply

chain selection and the criticality of

both interface development and on-

going management.

We are therefore well placed to

help you make sure that compla-cency is not a feature of your subsea

campaigns.

Brian Minty is an associate director

with HSEQ consultancy and training

organisation FQM, previously known

as Facilitators Quality Management

and part of Facilitators InternationalLLP

Saudi Aramco is preparing to

launch into a record exploration

and development campaign tar-

geting unconventional gas while

continuing to drill for oil in order

to sustain its potential productioncapacityataround12.5millionbar-

rels per day.It h a s b een report ed t h a t

Aramcointendsto addanother30

rigstoits fleetthisyear,whichwill

raise its total land rig count to

more than 170.

Thisisdespitethecompanycut-

ting current oil output to accom-

modate the present oversupply

around the globe.A knock-on benefit of the cur-

rent oil situation is that Aramco

willbeableto focusitsexploration

a n d developm en t effort on

prospectingforunconventionals. .

. primarily in the north-western

part of the country.

There are two further prospec-

tive areas of interest . . . in the

Ghawar area and Rub Al-Khali.Ghawaris thelargestoilfield in

Saudi Arabia. However, South

Ghawaris seenasa tight-gassand

opportunity.Theareais closetoin-

frastructure and there is a large

amount of geological data avail-

able from the development of the

oil field, which can be used to de-

fine the tight-gas sands.RubAl-Khaliis locatedin south-ern Saudi Arabia where shale and

condensateplaysare beginningto

capture interest.

Company sources have indi-

cated that some of the additional

rigs will be used for field mainte-

nancesuchasdrillingforinjection

water and sustaini ng present

wells.

Sinceitlauncheditsgasproduc-t ion push in 2009 - 10, Sa udi

Aramco has seen its estimated

conventional gas reserves rise to

approximately 283trillion cu.ft

(2011 estimate).

The company has hinted that

SaudiA rabiasunconventional gas

resources may exceed that.

Early last year, US oilfield ser-

vices giant Baker Hughes andAramco opened a joint research

centreatDharhan whichis focused

on understanding and developing

unconventional resources.

The Dhahran facility offers re-

searchopportunitiesinareasrang-

ingfrompetrophysics,drilling,ge-

omechanics,fluids andproductiontechnology.

SaudiAramco setto ramp uprig fleet to170 units

BrianMinty

INCREASEDDEMAND:Complexsubseadevelopmentscommonlyusemultipleservicesatthesametime

Reducing Risk

through Robust

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