Macondo – Lessons and implications for the North Sea

10 October 2012 Aberdeen Evening meeting

Chairman Neil Gordon, Chairman, Subsea UK

 

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Overview

The Macondo Deep Water Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico provided a salutary reminder of the dangers involved in deep water drilling, and the far reaching implication for personnel, the environment and future operations which result from such incidents. While the ramifications of Macondo, and the legal battle will continue to run, the industry has been quick to react and learn the lessons for its future operations. This event will look at the legal lesson and implications, as well as one of the practical responses, the OSPRAG Capping device.

 

Presentations

Contractual Lessons from Deepwater Horizon 1
Contractual Lessons from Deepwater Horizon 2

Uisdean Vass and Euan Palmer, Partners, Maclay Murray & Spens LLP

1. Overview of events to date re. Deepwater Horizon and the related litigations;
2. A look at the arguments of BP and Transocean in their proceedings;
3. A look at the arguments of BP and Halliburton in their proceedings;
4. Analysis;
5. Lesson ‐ (a) negligence in offshore operations (b) willful misconduct in offshore operations; (c) public policy; (d) knock for knock regimes; (e) damages: (f) risk allocation.

 

The OSPRAG Capping Device

Brian Kinkead, Consultant and lead on OSPRAG, Technical Review Group

The OSPRAG Capping Device was an industry fast‐track project designed to provide a contingency capability to cap a UKCS subsea oil well. The presentation will focus on the technical, operational and organisational challenges of delivering such a project and address some of the issues that operators are required to have considered prior to commencing operations.

 

Aberdeen Branch AGM and Dinner

12 December 2012 Aberdeen UK

 

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The 2012 Aberdeen Branch AGM and annual dinner was held on 12 December at the Marcliffe at Pitfodels. We were delighted to see a very strong attendance of 258 members and guests.

The event was generously sponsored by Apache, Framo Engineering, Kongsberg, Petrex, Subsea7, Technip and Wood Group Kenny. Following last year’s format, the sponsors provided video footage, which was shown on video screens during the dinner.

The evening was coordinated by a local master of ceremonies, Stuart MacBride, who controlled the flow of the evening with authority and good humour. The attendees enjoyed a drinks reception in the ballroom before the meal. Branch chairman David Kaye welcomed everyone to their tables, including special welcomes for the SUT guests and for the representatives and guests of our sponsors, and then presented the branch report. The summary included a number of successful branch events this year, including the recent Christmas lectures for local schoolchildren and the launch of the new branch group for developing professionals, SUT+. David ended by reporting that, after three years as branch committee chairman, he would stand down after the AGM and hand over to the new chairman, Chris Milner.

Following a very enjoyable meal, Stuart MacBride hosted the regular ‘Heads and Tails’ game, supported by SUT Chief Executive, Bob Allwood. The lucky winner left standing at the end was Stefi Hooft Van Huysduynen of BP who received a prize of £250. More importantly, a very generous sum of £3120 was raised for the SUT’s Education Support Fund, which will support students studying undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in marine science and technology.

A number of awards were announced after the Heads and Tails game. The first of these was the Martin Richmond Award. The award was set up between the SUT and J P Kenny in memory of Martin Richmond who sadly died from cancer in 2006 while chairman of the Aberdeen Branch committee and employed by J P Kenny. The award is made to a postgraduate student studying a subsea-related course under demanding and mitigating personal circumstances. The winner of this year’s award was Sameer Chapgaon, a recent graduate from the Subsea Engineering MSc programme at Aberdeen University. Sameer arrived in Aberdeen in September 2011 and completed his course while working night shifts to help fund his studies. Sameer graduated this summer with distinction, and is now employed at Wood Group MCS Kenny.

Sameer’s prize for the Martin Richmond Award comes from a related competition, for an original piece of artwork from a student at Robert Gordon University Gray’s School of Art. The winning artist was Laura Mullen, a third year student in the painting programme at Gray’s School of Art. Laura’s painting was on display throughout the evening.
The final award of the night was the SUT Aberdeen Branch Award of Merit. This award is made to an individual who, at the discretion of the branch committee, has made an outstanding contribution to branch activities, underwater technology, the underwater industry and the aims and objectives of the Society. This year’s winner of the award was Dave Smith of the National Hyperbaric Centre. Dave has had a very successful career in the development and sales of diving equipment, combined with his business achievements in the growth of the world’s largest diving equipment supplier, Divex, the Professional Diving Academy, and more recently with the National Hyperbaric Centre.
The final entertainment of the evening was provided by our after dinner speaker, John Simonett. John is a former schoolmaster and top level rugby player, who left teaching in 1985 to become a professional speaker and presenter. John gave a very individual, varied and extremely entertaining talk combining stories from the rugby world and his childhood in Scotland with some remarkable feats of memory and some astonishing magic tricks; reflecting his membership of the Magic Circle.

The evening closed with thanks to our sponsors, John Simonett, Stuart MacBride, Bob Allwood, the Marcliffe Hotel and Spa, and a special thanks and flowers for Kirsty Webster and Dawn Geddes of the SUT who worked hard to ensure that the evening was such a success. A highly successful AGM and annual dinner ended with much discussion of John Simonett’s entertainment as many satisfied diners stayed into the late hours.

 

AGM and Members’ Dinner

6 December 2012 London, UK

 

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SUT award winners 2012

The SUT held its AGM, annual awards ceremony and members’ dinner at the impressive location of Trinity House, London (situated overlooking the Tower of London and River Thames) on 6 December 2012. The AGM began at 6.00 pm, followed by the annual SUT awards ceremony honouring those who have made exceptional contributions to underwater technology.

During the awards ceremony, SUT Fellowships were awarded to Prof Menglan Duan, Mr Geir Evensen, Mr Iain Knight, Mr Thomas Thiis, Dr Zenon Medina-Cetina and Mr Toby Powell (who unfortunately was unable to attend the ceremony). Honorary Fellowship was awarded to Prof David Denison, who was unable to attend the awards ceremony. His granddaughter, Francesca Cavallaro, accepted the award on his behalf. The Society wishes him many congratulations on his award.

The Houlder Cup for outstanding contribution to underwater operations was awarded to Mr Michael Cocks for his support to professional divers and their families over many years. Following twenty years as a London stockbroker and eight years trying to get into Parliament for the SDP, Michael found a new challenge in commercial diving. He soon began working for the Professional Divers trade union and with the support of the late Cdr Jackie Warner, Dr John King and Dr John Bevan, launched onto his crusade to ensure there were the same controls for onshore diving as in the North Sea. In 1994 he began writing on diving safety issues for the Commercial Diver magazine, the forerunner of Underwater Contractor International, and is now a regular contributor to the latter. He continues his international diving school visits and advises divers and their families in their fights for compensation following accidents. Michael is a strong campaigner for the facts of diving accidents and incidents to be made public so that lessons can be learned. The SUT wishes Michael many congratulations on his award.

The SUT Oceanography Award was awarded to Dr Neville Smith in recognition of his contribution to the field of oceanography. Neville was appointed to the position of the Deputy Director (Research and Systems) of the Bureau of Meteorology, an executive agency of the Australian Government, in January 2008. He was previously Chief Scientist and head of the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, prior to the creation of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research. As a scientist, Neville played a key role in the development of ocean and climate prediction systems and has worked with the international community in the development of ocean observing systems for climate. He initiated and led the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment. Neville is a member of the Australian Integrated Marine Observing System Advisory Board, the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, and the National Computing Infrastructure Steering Committee. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2005. Neville is currently the National Delegate to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. He was elected to the IPCC Bureau as vice-chair of Working Group 2 in September 2008 and was a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council WG on Climate Change Regional Impacts and Adaptation (report presented June 2007). He was also a member of the Review Panel for the World Climate Research Programme, 2007–2008. Unfortunately, Neville was unable to attend the awards ceremony in person; however, the Society wishes him many congratulations on his award.

The David Partridge Underwater Technology Award was awarded to Mr Peter Foden. Peter studied at Liverpool John Moores University where he obtained a BSc in Applied Physics. He joined the Cartwright Group in 1977 and since then he has developed, with a small number of colleagues, a series of deeper, longer-deployed and specialised devices for the measurement of tides and non-tidal signals in bottom pressure – the latter for ocean circulation studies. Peter has personally made or supervised over 200 deployments around the world including deployments in the Drake Passage in order to monitor the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Peter currently leads a small team who operate tide gauges at eight sites in the South Atlantic and Antarctica, which provide the UK contribution to the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS). In addition, he has worked in recent years with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and others to establish tide gauges throughout Africa and at sites in the western Indian Ocean to form part of the international tsunami warning system. The SUT wishes Peter many congratulations on his award.

The SUT President’s Award was awarded to Dr Colin Grant in recognition of his enormous contribution over many years to the development of oceanographic research and for services to the Society. Colin was awarded his PhD on “Satellite Meteorology of the UK” by Bristol University in 1979. In 1984, after seven years with Imcos Marine Ltd as a Weather Forecaster and Metocean Specialist, he joined BP and is now the Metocean Advisor for offshore facilities at BP Exploration. He advises on real-time metocean problems, on climate aspects, and on design and operational conditions such as the 100-year return value of wave height for offshore locations throughout the world. He has written and presented many technical conference papers during his time with BP, including a paper co-authored by Chris Shaw on the “Operational Oceanographic needs for the Offshore Oil & Gas Industry”, which was published by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO in 2001. However, Colin’s greatest contribution over the years to the wider Metocean community has been his enthusiastic role as a bridge between scientists and offshore designers and operators, facilitating the transfer of knowledge and the transfer of data. He has served on the Council of the Royal Metrological Society, on NERC’s Autosub Scientific Steering Committee and on the Senior Advisory Panel of the EC ‘Maxwave’ Project. He was chairman of the UKOAA Metocean Committee for 11 years, and has been chairman of the North West Approaches Group since 1989. He is currently a member of numerous committees, including the International Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) Metocean Committee, the UK Marine Information Council, and the IACMST Environmental Data Action Group. He is a Chartered Scientist, a Chartered Marine Scientist and Vice-President (and Fellow) of the IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering Science & Technology). He has also served on the Education and Training Committee of the SUT for many years. For his many achievements and leadership, it gave SUT great pleasure to award Colin the SUT President’s Award for 2012.

The AGM and awards ceremony was followed by a drinks reception and then dinner, attended by around 75 members and guests. After dinner, a game of ‘Heads and Tails’ was led by Ian Gallett. The game raised a fantastic sum of £560 for the Education Support Fund, and all participants were thanked for their contributions.

 

The Case for One Atmosphere Diving

29 November 2012 London Evening Meeting

Dr Phil Nuytten, Inventor, entrepreneur, explorer, President and founder of Nuytco Research Ltd and Can–Dive Services Ltd

 

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Overview

Phil Nuytten has spent over forty years developing undersea systems that have the safety of the diving technician as their common theme. His goal has been to provide scientific, technical, military, and sport divers full access to continental shelf depths without the hazards of decompression, so that humans can explore, learn about, and – ultimately – protect the world’s oceans. Through his companies, Nuytco and Can–Dive, Nuytten has developed the technology to allow longer–length diving expeditions with increased safety. Nuytten’s one–atmosphere systems – the hard–suits ‘Newtsuit’ and ‘Exosuit’, and his deep–diving “DeepWorker” submersibles – are renowned internationally. This deep diving equipment, along with Nuytten’s military submarine rescue system (designated ‘Remora’ by the Royal Australian Navy and ‘PRMS’ by the US Navy), is standard in nearly a dozen of the world’s navies. Contract work has taken him to oilfields, submarine construction sites and sunken wrecks around the world, including the Breadalbane, the northern–most known shipwreck, where his record dives through icy Arctic waters earned him a place on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in 1984. Nuytten was one of the forces behind the ‘Sustainable Seas Expeditions’ in the 1990’s, a five–year initiative by the National Geographic Society and NOAA to study deep ocean environmental impact. During this project, DeepWorker microsubs were used to explore and monitor National marine sanctuaries. The findings from this expedition have contributed significantly to scientists’ understanding of underwater ecology, habitats, and biodiversity.

Nuytten and his team are currently training astronauts from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to pilot the DeepWorker Submersibles for the NASA Extreme Environment Operations (NEEMO) project, a multi–year research project. NEEMO presents an opportunity to advance the long–term objective of human exploration of near–earth asteroids by combining research on life in extreme environments with high fidelity training in an underwater, remote field setting. The information gained from this analogue project will help to improve the knowledge base, tools and techniques for future human space exploration.

Presentation

During the evening Dr Nuytten was presented, by Dr John Bevan (Chairman of the SUT’s Diving and Unmanned Submersibles Committee), with a certificate for the Award of the Houlder Cup for Outstanding Contributions to Underwater Operations 2009.

 

Renewables (Installations)

28 November 2012 Aberdeen Evening Meeting

Chairman: David Kaye, Aquamarine Power

 

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Overview

The construction of offshore wind farms provides steadily increasing work for the subsea construction industry. Business prospects are positive as the industry looks towards the UK Round 3 offshore wind developments. This meeting will look at various aspects of installation of offshore wind turbines and associated infrastructure, including wind turbine installation methods, new developments in cable and foundation installation, and closing with a project overview from the perspective of an offshore wind developer

Presentations

Installation of Cables and Foundations

Paul Davidson and Clive Adshead, SMD

Overview of Wind Turbine Generator Installation Methods Glen Mitchell, Wood Group Kenny 4271 Providing adequate production for interconnecting and export cable on offshore wind, tidal or wave installations is a vital component to ensure reliability of supply for the life of the installation. The presentation will provide an in–depth review of the latest generations of cable trenching systems designed specifically for the renewables market and real–world performance of these machines in the field. SMD will also expand on its latest JV with BORD engineering, allowing offshore renewable installations to consider subsea piling as an economical and safe fixation method for offshore renewables devices.

Overview to Offshore Wind Farm Developments

Nick Rey, Wood Group Kenny

The turbines in existing UK Round 1 and Round 2 offshore wind farms have principally been installed using technologies and methodologies developed from onshore experience. However, to meet the increasing logistical demands associated with the planned UK Round 3 and Scottish Territorial Waters Sites, wind turbine installation methodologies are being further developed and optimised. The presentation will provide an overview to the principal methods of wind turbine installation undertaken offshore and highlight the opportunities for time and cost reduction during installation operations.

An Overview of the Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm Development

Richard Copeland, Repsol Nuevas Energías UK

The proposed Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm is a 1GW development in Scottish Territorial Waters located off the Angus Coast being developed by a joint venture between Repsol Nuevas Energías UK (51%) and EDPR UK (49%). The presentation will give an overview of the project development process for a real offshore wind farm project including the site characteristics, consenting, conceptual design and all of the issues that an offshore wind developer is presented with.