Image courtesy of DOF Subsea

The Society for Underwater Technology invite you to the April 2023 Evening Technical Meeting:

Theme: Our floating future in Offshore Renewables – Australian Developments, Geotech & Floating Technology

Date: Wednesday, 5 April 2023

Time: 5.30 – 8.30pm AWST

Venue: Parmelia Hilton Perth

The evening will focus on the following three topics and one case study:

1. OFFSHORE WIND – PROPOSED BUNBURY WIND PARK

by Andy Evans – Oceanex

Abstract TBC

2. FIELD & MOORING LAYOUT OPTIMISATION FOR FLOATING OFFSHORE WIND – A LIFE OF FIELD TECHNO/ECONOMIC APPROACH

Sean Van Steel – CoreMarine

Floating offshore wind is at the cusp of becoming a commercial market. The optimisation of the wind field layout is critical for a cost effective project in both fixed and floating wind. However, the parameters for field optimisation in floating wind are significantly more complex than those in the mature, fixed wind industry.

We argue that this is primarily driven by the introduction of a mooring and dynamic cabling system.

How these additional variables alter the layout and the key CAPEX effects will be discussed.

We will present a techno/economic approach to the development of the mooring system layout for the optimisation of yield and wake losses.

3. PLANNING FOR GEOTECHNICAL RISKS IN OFFSHORE WIND

by Damon Sunderland – Arup

Offshore wind developments must consider geotechnical risks at offshore wind turbine generators and offshore sub-stations, in the vicinity of offshore cabling, at shore crossings and at ports for construction and load-out. Australia presents some common and some unique geotechnical risks. These are often understood by local offshore oil and gas practitioners but on occasion are new to international wind practitioners establishing themselves in Australia. These geo risks shall be discussed in Damon’s presentation along with selected case studies and guidance on the planning and execution of offshore ground investigations.

4. FLOATING WIND – HYWIND TAMPEN FLOATING WIND PROJECT

Case Study by Norman Mackay – DOF Subsea

Equinor’s Hywind Tampen is the world’s first renewable power source for an offshore oil and gas facility and has a system capacity of 88 MW and is currently the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm. Located 140kms off the Norwegian coast in 260 – 300m water depth, it will consist of 11 wind turbines which are installed on floating concrete structures with a shared anchoring system which are tied back to the oil and gas facilities via an inter cable array to provide renewable power.

Click HERE for event flyer

Thank you to our event sponsors:

2023 ETM SPONSORSHIP PACKAGES

For sponsorship and event enquiries, please contact:
SUT Perth Branch. Tel: +61 (0) 8 9481 0999
Email: Events Team ([email protected])

The Society for Underwater Technology invite you attend our February Evening Technical Meeting:

DECOMMISSIONING 

Image: Violetta J. Brosig, Blue Media, Exmouth

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Wednesday, 8 February 2023

Time: 5.30 – 8.30pm AWST

Venue: Parmelia Hilton Perth

The evening will focus on the following three topics:

1. ROV BASED WELLHEAD ANNULAR ABANDONMENT

by Iain Wylie – Oceaneering

Developed and manufactured in Perth for export, a Vessel-based Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) methodology and suite of equipment was created to gain access to the multiple annular spaces of subsea wellheads for testing and remediation prior to wellhead severance. Conventionally, annular abandonment is conducted by rigs through the wellhead connector using a snubbing unit and perforation equipment to get cement into the annular spaces. Alternatively, saturation divers have used manual multi-string hot tapping units for the same task. Our method was four times faster than a jack-up rig, and an order of magnitude less expensive than a saturation diving campaign without the risk of divers in the water. This presentation will review the objectives, development of the methodology, the equipment and summarize the offshore campaign

2. RETIRING THEVENARD ISLANDS OFFSHORE PLATFORMS

Grant Brunsdon– Chevron

Given aging assets and increased focus on decommissioning in the local O&G industry it is important to learn from challenges faced by the early decommissioning projects.

The Thevenard Island (TVI) facilities, off the coast of Onslow, consisted of an oil and gas processing plant, accommodation and wells on Thevenard Island with nine offshore wellhead platforms, associated subsea pipelines and a tanker loading area. The asset ceased operations in 2014 and has been on a pathway to decommissioning across all facets (wells, onshore plant, offshore platforms and subsea pipelines) since.

The project has completed various Regulatory approvals, cessation of production cleaning, onshore well P&A, offshore well P&A, Onshore facilities decommissioning and island remediation. Current activities include planning for platform removals, planning for pipeline retirement and island landform rehabilitation. There have been many challenges along the journey this is an opportunity to share and discuss some of the experiences.

The presentation will provide an overview of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and sonar technologies and how they can be used in Defence applications such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), mine countermeasures, seabed survey and inspection / monitoring of critical infrastructure.

3. ‘KING OF THE REEFS – THE ENHANCEMENT & RETENTION OF REPURPOSED ASSETS TO CREATE PRODUCTIVE MARINE ECOSYSTEMS’

by Tim Grose & James Florisson – Recfishwest

King Reef became Australia’s first integrated artificial reef in 2018 repurposing steel structures donated by BHP from the Griffin Field augmented with purpose-built concrete reef modules. The reef was a result of a five-year community vision, which was expanded due to the formation of a consortium including the state government, academia, petroleum industry, engineers and Recfishwest). King Reef experienced rapid colonisation post deployment, exceeding the abundance, species diversity and biomass of fishes observed at natural reef and sand habitats in the Exmouth Gulf, in fact over 100 species of fish were observed through community monitoring in the first four years. As expected, (but not scientifically proven until now) the repurposed steel structures had the highest mean fish abundance, species diversity and biomass of all the reef structures.

The reef is now championed by the local recreational fishing community, supported by funded reef monitoring and citizen science projects from BHP and now Woodside Energy and is a pioneer of successful marine habitat enhancement utilising repurposed assets from the Petroleum Industry. Since King Reef’s success, Recfishwest and partners have been leading the way in exploring how the recreational fishing community (as WA’s largest aquatic user group) can enjoy, champion and advocate for the creation, enhancement and retention of more integrated reefs, especially amongst WA’s offshore oil and gas landscape. This is not just an engineer’s world anymore, the fishing community arguably get more excitement from subsea structures than anyone else on the environment.

REGISTER NOW

Click HERE for event flyer

Thank you to our sponsors:

Contact: SUT (08) 9481 0999 or email [email protected]

The Society for Underwater Technology invite you to the:

OSIGp Geo-Insights & Field Experiences on Offshore Subsea Decommissioning

The evening will focus on the following three topics:

1. External dredging of jacket platforms in preparation for decommissioning

   Ercan Kökden, Senior Geotechnical Engineer / Field Engineer, Allseas

   During the recent decommissioning of jacket platform structures in the North Sea, Allseas designed and operated its own pile dredging spread. This presentation presents challenges and outcomes encountered during the development and first commercial use of the pile dredging spread.

2. Subsurface Information for Well Abandonment

   Sheila Mackay, Principal Geophysicist (Geohazards) | GeoScience, Woodside

   Once a well has fulfilled its purpose, be that exploration, appraisal or development it needs to be permanently abandoned. Barriers are designed such that individual pressure compartments in the subsurface are isolated from each other and seabed. The subsurface information required to identify the pressure compartments requires numerous datasets and a multi-disciplined team. This talk discusses the workflow implemented by subsurface specialists at Woodside Energy when planning the permanent abandonment of wells.

3. Some Geotechnical Considerations for Decommissioning Offshore Infrastructure

   Prof. Susan Gourvenec, Professor of Offshore Geotechnical Engineering, University of Southampton

   This presentation will explore some geotechnical considerations for decommissioning offshore infrastructure considering both retrieval and in situ decommissioning. Research outcomes of the changing properties of the seabed over the life of the structure, and the impact on recovery loads or the in-place stability of infrastructure that is decommissioned in situ will be presented.

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Tuesday, 25th October 2022

Venue: The Melbourne Hotel (Karingal 2 Rm), 33 Milligan Street, Perth

Schedule:

• 5.30pm: Registration
• 6.00pm – 7.00pm: Presentations
• 7.00pm – 8.00pm: Networking including drinks and finger food

To view the flyer, please click here

REGISTER NOW

For further enquiries, please contact OSIGp directly by emailing: Manuel Herduin ([email protected])

Thank you to our event sponsor:

The SUT invite you to the YES! University Career Panel Event

EVENT INFO

Date: Wednesday, 5th October 2022

Venue: CURTIN UNIVERSITY – Kent Street, Bentley, W.A. 6102

Location: Bldg 204 ; Room 233:LT – Shilbury Lecture Theatre (located in the School of Mines) – Map Ref Grid O-12

Please refer to Curtin University Campus Map or Shilbury Lecture Theatre Info

SCHEDULE

• 5.30pm – 6pm: registration
• 6pm – 7pm: presentations
• 7pm – 8.30pm: networking session with food/drinks

*NOTE: This event can also be attended remotely(via TEAMS).

TICKET PRICE: $5

To view the flyer, please click here

REGISTER

Thank you to our event sponsor:

For more info, please contact: SUT (08) 9481 0999 or [email protected]

Main Image by Wan San Yip on Unsplash