World's Offshore Research Articles

Assessing the potential for seaweed cultivation in EU seas through an integrated modelling approach

The potential of large-scale seaweed cultivation to contribute to achieving ambitious EU-wide objectives, such as food security, energy independence, carbon neutrality and ecosystems restoration, is widely recognized. However, there is a lack of information on the suitability of EU marine regions for the installation of floating macro-algae cultivation infrastructures. In this study, we utilize the World Offshore Macro Algae Production Potential (WOMAPP) model in conjunction with state-of-the-art coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical models, to assess the environmental suitability of EU marine regions for seaweed cultivation. Our analysis reveals that the EU Atlantic regions are the most suitable areas for seaweed cultivation, particularly for cold-water and intermediate-water species. The potential cultivation area is extensive, spanning over 1 million km2, and even taking a precautionary approach by occupying only 1% of that area could yield a yearly production of over 30 million tonnes dry weight. Adding logistical constraints (water depth and distance to coast) further limit the potential production to 5 million tonnes per year, only considering EU member states' waters. Furthermore, we discuss the opportunity to use integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), to increase the potential for seaweed cultivation.

Can seaweeds feed the world? Modelling world offshore seaweed production potential

Pressure on the terrestrial ecosystems is large and big concerns exist regarding whether a growing world population can be fed from the land. Little is known about if and how much these concerns could be alleviated by harvesting more from the oceans. We modelled the biophysical production potential of seaweeds, and their current and possible future contribution to world food supply. We estimate seaweeds currently provide up to 0.13% of global food energy supply. Seaweed production is increasing more rapidly than terrestrial production. At current rates of increase we estimate seaweed energy contribution of 0.25% in 2050. Production potential of seaweeds could contribute up to 2 to 14% of global food supply if farming 1% of the modelled suitable space within the Exclusive Economic Zone. We show this large potential contribution to world food supply will only be achieved with unprecedented increases in seaweed production, while offshore seaweed cultivation is still in its infancy. The study shows large uncertainties that warrant further research. Modelling shows vast areas of world oceans are unsuitable because of being too far out of shore, having too low nutrient concentrations or having too high waves. Only 2–9% of world oceans and 6–25% of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) was shown to be suitable for seaweed production. Identifying suitable sites for offshore seaweed cultivation is therefore important. Site suitability maps reported for the 3 model species can be useful for private companies and policy makers expanding seaweed in new high potential production areas around the world.

Risk Analysis and Emergency Response to Marine Oil Spill Environmental Pollution

The offshore petroleum industry operates in a harsh environment, which poses a great safety risk and accident rescue difficulty. With the increasing volume of world offshore oil transportation and the vigorous development of the offshore oil exploration and development business, the number of marine oil spill accidents has increased significantly, which will cause huge pollution to the marine ecological environment and also attract widespread attention from the media and the public. This paper mainly analyzes the risk of marine oil spill pollution accidents in terms of causes, characteristics and hazards, and proposes specific measures and accident prevention and emergency disposal plans in accordance with relevant standards.

Risk Analysis on Modified Offloading System of LNG FSRU

Electricity needs in various islands that are difficult to reach, prompting PT X to assist PT PLN in supplying natural gas fuel for power generation, using LNG technology. Small LNG carriers are designed to reach shallow water. Due to the height difference in the LNG carrier manifold being designed with the West Java FSRU manifold, it is not possible to carry out the loading and unloading process. Therefore the modification of loading and unloading equipment is needed. The modification of the West Java FSRU loading and unloading system was done to add the loading arm range to the small LNG carrier manifold. In 2013 WOAD (world Offshore Accident Data) stated, 9 accidents occurred during the process of loading and unloading liquid and 7 accidents that ended in fire. This study discusses a risk analysis on the loading and unloading system of West Java FSRU after modification. This study begins with hazard identification using. HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Study) method by analyzing the P&ID of modified loading and unloading system. Frequency analysis is done in to calculate an annual frequency of identified hazards and done using FTA (Fault Tree Analysis) and ETA (Event Tree Analysis) methods.

Learning from failures: Accidents of marine structures on Norwegian continental shelf over 40 years time period

This paper investigates accidents, major accidents and disasters which occurred on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) over a period of more than 40 years time (1972-2013). An accident investigation based on the system life-cycle was applied on the data provided by the World Offshore Accident Database (WOAD) where the operation (in-service) stage of the life-cycle was found to be the stage with 96% and the installation stage with 4% of accident occurrences. The marine operations linked to both installation and the operation (in-service) stages are identified to be where 13% of accidents had occurred. In terms of structural types, jackets and semi-submersibles are identified with the highest number of accidents, while the highest rate of accidents per marine structure type is linked to the concrete structures where in average 5.5 accidents per each concrete structures were recorded. 1980 was the year with the highest number of fatalities on NCS within 40 years time span with the occurrence of Alexander L. Kielland disaster. There has been a reduction of number of fatalities over the years, but injuries had always been present. It was found that possible correlations can be established among occurrence of accidents and environmental loads for some months. The results and discussions contributes to learning from the 40 years accidents on the NCS with the aim of risk reduction in operation of marine structures. The predictive and preventive maintenance strategy and condition monitoring during operation (in-service) stage for each individual marine structure is promoted. However, the uncertainty is still present and risk can never be reduced to zero.

Российская заявка на расширение шельфа Арктики в современных условиях развития мировой морской добычи углеводородов

Российская заявка на расширение шельфа Арктики в современных условиях развития мировой морской добычи углеводородов

Lessons learned from offshore oil and gas incidents in the Arctic and other ice-prone seas

Specific risks to offshore oil and gas operations manifest in the Arctic and other harsh environments. Such extreme operating conditions can disrupt the offshore infrastructure and cause major accidents, posing a great challenge to operators. A thorough investigation of past incidents helps to learn lessons to ensure that a recurrence of serious accidents affecting workers and the environment can be prevented.The analysis of past incidents is divided into two parts. First, we offer a statistical analysis of offshore incidents triggered by natural events in the Arctic and in similar harsh environments. The analysis, organised by location, cause, and type of damage, failure mechanisms, and consequences, is based on data from the World Offshore Accident Database (WOAD). Second, we analyse a selection of accidents that occurred in the recent past in ice-prone seas, with particular attention to potential deficiencies in safety measures, design requirements and design methodologies, operations planning and component reliability.Based on the analysis, important lessons were identified which stress the need for further efforts to ensure the safety of workers and of assets and to get all actors involved in offshore operations engaged towards achieving a safer future for the exploitation of oil and gas resources.

Comments: Offshore Makes a Comeback

Editor's column All eyes in the upstream continue to be on the growth in unconventional production, particularly in the US. But the offshore arena may be making a quiet comeback, at least in the near term. The US Gulf of Mexico, North Sea, Latin America, and other spots have seen renewed interest of late, as operators enforce capital discipline to make these expensive projects feasible given the current price climate. Many offshore megaprojects were cut or scaled back when oil prices began to drop sharply in 2014 and, while global offshore output has been steady, it has not grabbed the head-lines that surging shale production has. World offshore output has remained about 27 million B/D over the past decade. US Gulf of Mexico production, which is rising, made up a quarter of US output in the early 2000s but captures only 16% of the total now with the rise in unconventionals. US Gulf of Mexico production in 2017 rose to 1.65 million B/D, the highest annual level on record, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). It is expected to increase this year and in 2019, maintaining record highs. Output will creep to 1.7 million B/D in 2018 and then to 1.8 million B/D in 2018, according to the EIA. This is due mainly to projects that were sanctioned before the price downturn and went forward in 2016 and 2017. The EIA says that seven deepwater fields will start production this year and another three will start up the following year. Shell will begin production from three fields over the period—Gotcha, Rydberg, and Kaikias. Hess and LLOG both will start up two fields, and Stone Energy and Apache will bring one field each online. An offshore auction by the US government in March, the largest for drilling prospects off the US Gulf Coast in history, attracted only modest interest from operators, proving that they are still wary of market conditions. The bidding was for 77 million acres of deep- and shallow-water tracts. Interest offshore Mexico and Brazil remains high. Brazil’s offshore auction in late March brought winning bids from ExxonMobil, Wintershall, Chevron, Shell, BP, Statoil, and Qatar Petroleum. Several operators said their break-even price for offshore projects is now under $50/bbl, well below where prices were trading in mid-April. The success of Brazil’s auction was not only because of rising oil prices and better capital discipline among operators, but also changes in Brazil regulatory laws that made the projects more attractive. That followed a deepwater auction in Mexico earlier this year that saw aggressive winning bids from Shell, which snatched up nine blocks, as well as Petronas and Qatar Petroleum. But offshore production will not catch US onshore output, which continues to outpace expectations despite fears of infrastructure bottlenecks and people shortages. Total US production will reach 11 million B/D this year, a whole year earlier than projected in March, the EIA said in April. Output is averaging 10.2 million B/D so far this year. The EIA expects US production to reach 11.18 million B/D next year.

INVESTIGATION OF HYDROCARBON COMPOSITION INFLUENCE ON STRAIT DIAMETER OF OIL PRODUCTS ON WATER SURFACE

Background. The development and production of hydrocarbons on the sea shelf in the World Ocean have a long history. Currently, about 35 % of the world's hydrocarbon production is produced in the offshore area. The dynamics of the growth of oil production in the sea is now more than 5 times higher than the dynamics of the growth of production on land. The construction and operation of offshore platforms are associated with high risks of both technogenic and economic characters. According to the World Offshore Accident Dataset (WOAD), more than 200 accidents on offshore platforms occur each year, or about 4 % of accidents in the total number of accidents at sea facilities in the world. Since the average cost of drilling rigs in the sea is 3-5 times greater than on land, ensuring their safety and analyzing the hazard risk for this type of facility is a priority. Currently, the use of existing methods of hazard analysis and risk assessment for offshore drilling platforms is hindered by the fact that there are no methods for determining the extent of accidents on the water surface. The problem of estimating the parameters of the strait of hazardous substances during their passage to the water surface remains unexplored. Aims and Objectives. Investigation of the influence of the hydrocarbon composition of petroleum products (on the example of kerosene TS-1) on the parameters of the spill of fire-hazardous liquids during spills on the water surface. Methods. In the work, experimental research methods were used, which consisted in observing the behavior of petroleum products (on the kerosene TS-1 as an example) during their passage to the water surface. Results. The key effect of naphthenic hydrocarbons on the change in the area of the oil spill across the water surface is proved.

Knowledge-Based System for Environmental Monitoring of Contract Areas in the Caspian Sea

The paper presents a system of environmental monitoring (EM) of Contract Areas, which allows to differentiating the impact caused by the activities of the operator of Contract Area, and the impact caused by extraneous sources of pollution (adjacent oil fields development, industrial, agricultural and municipal discharges, mud volcanoes, dumping, etc.). As impact indicators used benthic communities (motionless infauna), widely used in world offshore practice. System refers to category of knowledge-based support tools of EM. System of this category opens up additional opportunities to improve the adequacy and effectiveness of the EM in the difficult conditions of the Caspian Sea, exacerbated by the “new oil bum” on the Caspian shelf and geopolitical situation prevailing in region after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Marine World Heritage: creating a globally more balanced and representative list

ABSTRACTThe World Heritage Convention provides the potential for a comprehensive policy framework that allows for identification, management, governance, and protection of the world ́s most outstanding natural marine areas.Benefits of World Heritage (WH) listing include increased international attention and technical cooperation, governmental support and improvements to management, and enhanced funding opportunities.There are currently only 46 (of 981 or 4.7%) World Heritage Sites (WHS) that have been inscribed for their outstanding marine values, and these marine WHS (mWHS) represent predominantly tropical as opposed to temperate and polar ecosystems.Forty‐seven (76%) of the world's 62 nearshore biogeographic provinces do not contain any mWHS or contain a low (<1%) coverage that is unlikely to capture the full range of values and features present in these provinces. A large proportion of the world's offshore provinces, representing 40% of the global ocean, do not contain any mWHS.To fulfill the World Heritage Committee's Global Strategy for a Representative, Balanced and Credible World Heritage List, States are encouraged to increase efforts to identify and nominate marine sites of potential Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), especially in biogeographic regions that are not yet represented, or underrepresented, on the WH List.However, as the criteria and guidance for the Convention are based primarily on terrestrial systems, further guidance on using them in the marine context is provided here. It is proposed that physical oceanographic features be considered under criterion (viii) ‘geology and oceanography’, while biological oceanographic features be considered under criterion (ix) ‘ecological and biological processes’. Use of criteria (vii) ‘superlative phenomena’ and (x) ‘species’ can follow current guidance for terrestrial systems.Potential approaches that can help address gaps in biogeographic representation of marine WHS and create a more balanced and representative marine World Heritage List are outlined here. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A multi-criteria decision approach to decommissioning of offshore oil and gas infrastructure

Thousands of the world's offshore oil and gas structures are approaching obsolescence and will require decommissioning within the next decade. Many nations have blanket regulations requiring obsolete structures to be removed, yet this option is unlikely to yield optimal environmental, societal and economic outcomes in all situations. We propose that nations adopt a flexible approach that allows decommissioning options to be selected from the full range of alternatives (including ‘rigs-to-reefs’ options) on a case-by-case basis. We outline a method of multi-criteria decision analysis (Multi-criteria Approval, MA) for evaluating and comparing alternative decommissioning options across key selection criteria, including environmental, financial, socioeconomic, and health and safety considerations. The MA approach structures the decision problem, forces explicit consideration of trade-offs and directly involves stakeholder groups in the decision process. We identify major decommissioning options and provide a generic list of selection criteria for inclusion in the MA decision process. To deal with knowledge gaps concerning environmental impacts of decommissioning, we suggest that expert opinion feed into the MA approach until sufficient data become available. We conducted a limited trial of the MA decision approach to demonstrate its application to a complex and controversial decommissioning scenario; Platform Grace in southern California. The approach indicated, for this example, that the option ‘leave in place intact’ would likely provide best environmental outcomes in the event of future decommissioning. In summary, the MA approach will allow the environmental, social, and economic impacts of decommissioning decisions to be assessed simultaneously in a transparent manner.

Internationally - legal facilities of functioning of offshore financial centers

In the article investigated problems that can generate offshore financial centers and events sent to adjusting of activity of such centers. Essence, terms of activity, classification of world offshore financial centers, is considered. Drawn conclusion that Ukraine also must set forth the legal position through this question.

Modelling service vessel activity in the Outer Continental Shelf Gulf of Mexico

Supply vessels transport goods and provide services to support oil and gas exploration, development and production activity throughout the world's offshore basins. The Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico is one of the oldest and largest offshore hydrocarbon producing regions in the world and is supported by an extensive offshore industry. The purpose of this paper is to model the activity level and spatial distribution of supply vessels operating in the Gulf's coastal regions in support of the oil and gas industry. The logistics network is modelled as a linear time-invariant deterministic system and implemented using an input–output model across 19 shorebases and 52 offshore area blocks. Historic activity levels and empirical data on vessel utilisation and shorebase allocation are used to parameterise the model. We estimate that about 80,000 trips per year are required to support the offshore industry with approximately 80% of trips in support of shallow water operations and 60% for production activity. Sensitivity analysis and model limitations are summarised.

Transforming nanostructured chitin from crustacean waste into beneficial health products: a must for our society.

Chitin, obtained principally from crustacean waste, is a sugar-like polymer that is available at low cost. It has been shown to be bio- and ecocompatible, and has a very low level of toxicity. Recently, it has become possible to industrially produce pure chitin crystals, named "chitin nanofibrils" (CN) for their needle-like shape and nanostructured average size (240 × 5 × 7 nm). Due to their specific chemical and physical characteristics, CN may have a range of industrial applications, from its use in biomedical products and biomimetic cosmetics, to biotextiles and health foods. At present, world offshore disposal of this natural waste material is around 250 billion tons per year. It is an underutilized resource and has the potential to supply a wide range of useful products if suitably recycled, thus contributing to sustainable growth and a greener economy.

The use of gravity anomaly data for offshore continental margin demarcation

Analysis of gravity anomaly data can be an effective and economical means of demarcating the world's offshore continental margins.

World offshore energy loss statistics

Offshore operations present a unique set of environmental conditions and adverse exposure not observed in a land environment taking place in a confined space in a hostile environment under the constant danger of catastrophe and loss. It is possible to engineer some risks to a very low threshold of probability, but losses and unforeseen events can never be entirely eliminated because of cost considerations, the human factor, and environmental uncertainty. Risk events occur infrequently but have the potential of generating large losses, as evident by the 2005 hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico, which was the most destructive and costliest natural disaster in the history of offshore production. The purpose of this paper is to provide a statistical assessment of energy losses in offshore basins using the Willis Energy Loss database. A description of the loss categories and causes of property damage are provided, followed by a statistical assessment of damage and loss broken out by region, cause, and loss category for the time horizon 1970–2004. The impact of the 2004–2005 hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico is summarized.

Evaluation of deepwater gas-hydrate systems

The world's offshore continental margins contain vast reserves of gas hydrate, a frozen form of natural gas that is embedded in cold, near-seafloor strata. Published estimates suggest that the energy represented by gas hydrate may exceed the energy available from conventional fossil fuel by a factor of 2 or more. Understanding marine hydrate systems has become critical for long-term worldwide energy planning. Groups in several nations are attempting to evaluate the resource and to define seafloor stability problems across hydrate accumulations.

Using the HyMap airborne hyperspectral sensor for offshore seepage mapping

The HyMap airborne spectrometer is an airborne remote sensing instrument collecting data in 126 spectral channels from the visible (VIS) to the shortwave infrared (SWIR) wavelength regions. Applications are wide spanned ranging from mineral exploration to environmental monitoring. Offshore seepage mapping has always been a potential application, but not many open file reports can be found in freely accessible literature though oil&gas exploration companies are known to use the technology.As part of a 2003 airborne survey campaign in the USA, HyVista Corporation collected airborne HyMap data over one of the most active natural oil seeps in the world offshore Santa Barbara, California. These seeps are just off Coal Oil Point and spread over an area of 10’s of sqkm. UCSB has been studying this seepage for many years and slick distribution and flow rates are monitored regularly. A production platform called ‘Holly’ is also located in the seep area and can be clearly identified on the imagery.Airborne hyperspectral seep mapping offers a new possibility of characterising seeps in an exploration area of interest. It offers the advantage of allowing spectral discrimination of seep components which may not be separable with conventional techniques like radar. HyMap’s capability to sense in the SWIR offers the additional possibility of properly separating an effect called ’sunglint’ from any data over open water, since water will absorb radiation almost 100 % at these wavelengths. Due to the same effect it is also possible to discriminate seepage with a strong surface expression from others, which is not possible with sensors having no SWIR spectral region.The Santa Barbara oils seeps were surveyed with 4 parallel HyMap lines covering the major seepage and migration path of the slicks at the time. Different spectral components in the open water as well as the seep area are identified and mapped. Seamless data products are produced using advanced mapping techniques and utilising the hyperspectral nature of the data. Results of these different processing steps will be presented.

Ocean power: Wave and tidal energy review

The last 12 months have been an interesting period for wave and tidal energy. A number of key devices have been installed at a prototype level, and the interest in the sectors has grown immeasurably. Adam Westwood of energy industry analysts Douglas-Westwood Limited, using data from a forthcoming study The World Offshore Renewable Energy Report 2004-2008, examines recent developments, highlights some of the key technologies and provides market forecasts for the 2004-2008 period.