Advances in Global Industry Response Capability for Source Control

ABSTRACT Within a two-year period from 2009 through 2010, two major loss of containment incidents were experienced by the industry - Montara and Deepwater Horizon/Macondo. The reputation of the industry and its ability to self-regulate were questioned. Proposing a relief well as the primary recovery option was challenged, and after the failures of initial recovery efforts at Macondo, the US Dept. of Interior imposed a drilling moratorium to allow for the development of more effective response technologies. Several operator-led initiatives were commissioned: ExxonMobil initiated the establishment of the Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) with Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips as founding members. MWCC was initially configured for large companies with multi-disciplined resources to support a full-scale response.Noble Energy and other operators, together with Helix Energy Solution Group (HESG), established an alternate option to MWCC that was built around the mutual aid model. Helix Well Containment Group (HWCG, and later just HWCG, LLC) was better adapted to the needs of small to mid-sized companies.The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) established the Global Industry Response Group (GIRG), consisting of its worldwide membership of oil and gas producers, and tasked it with developing a plan to address the response deficiencies discovered during the Macondo incident. The initial GIRG report (May 2011) launched the Subsea Well Response Project (SWRP), which was charged with developing a design basis for subsea capping and containment systems.The GIRG report also founded the Wells Experts Committee and its Subsea Well Source Control Response Sub-committee which now acts as an industry center for knowledge and sharing.The SWRP was founded and led by nine of the world's largest oil & gas operators and upon project completion, Oil Spill Response, Ltd. (OSRL), was selected to manage the capping and containment equipment.In addition, some operators and multiple well control organizations developed a variety of additional capping stacks and debris removal equipment packages. During development, response equipment and systems were risk-assessed and tested via tabletop exercises. Knowledge was shared across the industry, and as the new equipment packages became physically available, a range of full-scale exercises were conducted which included physically loading aircraft and vessels and deploying equipment on abandoned wells. This paper steps back through the careful forethought in the development of these systems and shares some insights and strategic thinking behind the rationale of different response options and how they are strategically located to provide a global response.

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International standardisation driving global competitiveness and sustainability of the oil and gas and future energy industries

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj20156 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 61 (2) ◽

pp. 408

Author(s):

Matt Keys ◽

Miranda Taylor

Keyword(s):

Oil And Gas ◽

International Association ◽

American Petroleum Institute ◽

International Standards ◽

Global Competitiveness ◽

Global Industry ◽

New Energy ◽

Australian Standard ◽

Working Groups ◽

World Economic

The World Economic Forum has identified that the oil and gas (O&G) industry must lead the process of its own transformation by innovation and multistakeholder collaboration. The Capital Project Complexity initiative is an industry-wide, noncompetitive collaboration on standardisation and use of procurement specifications. Australia is now a major contributor to this collaboration which has brought together all the major O&G operators through the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) network and the standardisation bodies including International Organization for Standardization (ISO), American Petroleum Institute Standards, European Committee for Standardization, Gulf Cooperation Council Standardization Organization, Standardization Administration of China, Standards Australia (SA) and many more. The focus is on developing common international standards through an IOGP Standards-ISO/TC67 link and standardised equipment specifications linking to these standards through IOGP-JIP33. Australia contributes via SA’s mirror committee ME-92, which is now fully established with direct involvement in the ISO/TC67 9 subcommittee areas and 13 working groups covering 261 current and developing standards. In September 2020, the first of these standards, AS ISO 29001, was identically adopted as an Australian standard. With the Australian experts now ensuring ISO Standards will incorporate Australian industry expertise, knowledge and regulatory requirements where possible future revisions will enable them to be adopted as the next revision of the Australian standard. This industry-wide collaboration will ensure future project costs are optimised and safety enhanced through use of the global industry knowledge while also reducing the need to write local standards. This study describes Australia’s strategy being pursued to align with the global industry. It also provides information on how this network is supporting the development of knowledge transfer to the decommissioning and new energy industries that will form Australia’s future.

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Remote Sensing of Oil In and Under Ice in a Climate-Controlled Test Basin

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2017.1.1836 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 (1) ◽

pp. 1836-1856

Author(s):

Nathan J. Lamie ◽

Leonard J. Zabilansky

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Sea Ice ◽

Oil Spill ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

International Association ◽

Ice Cores ◽

Ct Scanning ◽

Full Description ◽

Effective Response ◽

Ice Melt

Abstract (2017-111) The ability to rapidly detect and delineate an oil spill in an Arctic environment is critical for efficient and effective response. The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOSP), Arctic Oil Spill Response Technology – Joint Industry Programme (JIP) funded a novel controlled laboratory experiment to assess the relative efficacy of a variety of remote sensing instruments. This unbiased evaluation of existing and emerging technologies was recently conducted in the Ice Engineering Test Basin at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. CRREL provided the unique testing environment for sensor evaluation using the 120 ft. long by 30 ft. wide by 8 ft. deep Test Basin. The refrigerated Test Basin was filled with a manufactured saltwater solution and an 80 cm sea ice sheet was grown with fifteen individual containment hoops. Within the individual containment hoops, oil volumes were injected at predetermined ice thicknesses leading to oil encapsulation at differing ice depths. The Prince William Sound Oil Spill Recovery Institute assembled a team of remote sensing experts to select, operate and interpret sensors to examine and validate oil detection capabilities in level sea ice. Testing covered the full ice cycle from fresh oil and encapsulated oil in growing ice to migrating oil during ice melt out. Five aerial sensors were attached to a cantilevered boom on a motorized carriage operating above the ice surface, while at the bottom of the tank were nine subsea sensors installed on a computer-controlled traveling underwater platform Ice cores were obtained outside the hoops during ice growth and in designated hoops during the melt-out phase, with the objective of characterizing ice structure and oil migration using crystallography and CT scanning. Environmental measurements that would affect sensor performance such as resistivity, acoustics, air, ice and water temperatures were also recorded. This experiment provided a comprehensive side-by comparison of the sensors evaluated, while correlating measurements with the ice properties. The paper will provide a full description of the hoop layout plan, the oil injection process, and the measurements schedule that minimized sensor interference.

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Optimising Subsea Well Source Control Timeframes

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2021.1.686202 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Andrew Best ◽

Patrick Brenan

Keyword(s):

Response Time ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Critical Path ◽

Project Planning ◽

Source Control ◽

Mutual Aid ◽

Time Model ◽

Response Planning ◽

Response Time Model ◽

Common Understanding

ABSTRACT In response to the Montara and Macondo subsea well incidents in 2009–10, the industry's knowledge of and ability to respond to a subsea source control (SSC) event has greatly improved. Industry has invested heavily in its response capabilities and established best practices to resolve future incidents that may arise in the offshore oil and gas operations. The investment has driven rapid advancements in science, engineering, and new technological equipment developments to establish a higher standard for SSC preparedness and readiness. The industry now has a high confidence in its ability to deal with a subsea well release. The growth in capability has led to many variations in equipment and response plans, which has led to complexity in an already highly technical field. To reduce the complexity, common understanding is required of all the actions that comprise a SSC response, the linkages and dependencies between all the actions, and the critical path items that influence the overall timeframes of regaining control of the well. With a common understanding of the response plan comes enhanced industry, regulator and community confidence in the ability of the oil and gas industry to appropriately manage its environmental and social impacts. To help with this effort, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) has produced reports 592, 594 and 595. Report 594 is a guideline that can be used to support subsea source control response planning and Report 595 addresses capping stack design and operational reliability. IOGP Report 592 - Subsea Capping Response Time Model Toolkit User Guide, was completed in December 2019. It was jointly developed by IOGP and the Australian National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Authority (NOPSEMA). This report involved the creation of a digital subsea response time model that is freely available with a number of different software templates. The objective was to create a common standardized document that described the processes for preparing and implementing a subsea well blowout response in a timeline format, and in doing so, identify and communicate critical path activities, areas that can be prioritised pre-response, be easily transferrable to other parties to support mutual aid activities and, should the need arise, be used as an actual response project planning tool. This paper informs readers of these resources and explains the reasoning behind their creation.

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Eliminating fatalities from the upstream oil and gas industry

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj18279 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 59 (2) ◽

pp. 601

Author(s):

Chris Hawkes

Keyword(s):

Oil And Gas ◽

Motor Vehicle ◽

International Association ◽

Safety Data ◽

Oil And Gas Industry ◽

Individual Member ◽

Process Safety ◽

Gas Industry ◽

Global Industry ◽

Oil And Gas Producers

The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) is a global forum in which member companies identify and share best practices to achieve improvements in areas such as health, safety, the environment, security, social responsibility and operations. IOGP members collectively produce 40% of the world’s oil and gas. IOGP has been collecting annual safety data from its members since 1985: this database has grown to be the largest in the oil and gas industry, representing 2999 million workhours and operations in 104 countries in 2017. Having this large database of information and standardised reporting allows trending and analysis on a scale that is not possible for any individual member company. This is particularly true for deriving trends for fatal, and major process safety events that individual companies may only see infrequently. In the 5 years leading up to 2015 there were 85 fatalities reported by IOGP members per year on average, but none of these incidents were ‘new’ and we recognise the causes of most of them. Started in 2016, after 2 consecutive years of an increase in the fatal accident rate, IOGP’s Project Safira aims to provide clear solutions to prevent fatalities due to process safety events, aviation incidents and motor vehicle crashes. A fourth project area is industry wide implementation of a single, common, standardised set of ‘Life-Saving Rules’. We want to make sure that never again shall we read of a fatal incident and feel like we have seen it before. We also want to learn together, as the global industry that we are, and eliminate fatalities from occurring.

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Ten Years of Advances in Oil Spill Preparedness and Response: A Summary of Key International Industry Programs

International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings ◽

10.7901/2169-3358-2021.1.688526 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (1) ◽

Author(s):

R. Santner ◽

M. Cramer

Keyword(s):

Oil Spill ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Task Force ◽

International Association ◽

Good Practice ◽

Oil And Gas Industry ◽

Incident Management ◽

Response Options ◽

Oil And Gas Producers ◽

International Industry

ABSTRACT In light of the Deepwater Horizon accident, the oil and gas industry has undertaken various national and global initiatives to advance our knowledge, understanding and approach to oil spill preparedness and response. Notable amongst these, are the IPIECAIOGP (International Association of Oil and Gas Producers) Oil Spill Response Joint Industry Project (OSR-JIP) and the American Petroleum Institute's Joint Industry Task Force (APIJITF). These alone represent million dollars of investment and the collective contribution of hundreds of subject matter experts from around the world. The above two initiatives have produced numerous technical reports, good practice guides and recommended practices that have offered significant advances in industry's oil spill preparedness and response capabilities. Additionally, the various research projects conducted primarily by API have greatly enhanced the understanding of the efficacy and fate and effects of selected response options with a focus on subsea dispersant injection. This paper provides an overview and assessment of the key outcomes of these programs as well as highlighting some of the key breakthrough projects including spill impact mitigation assessment (SIMA), incident management, tiered provision of response capability, wildlife response and dispersants. The authors also describe briefly how the industry has continued this legacy through ongoing API and IPIECA/IOGP programs, together with a brief exploration of the full extent of value which may be derived from these kinds of initiatives.

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How Brazil Operators and Regulators Implemented, Audited and Learned from COVID-19

10.4043/31255-ms ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Nathan Biddle ◽

Jorge Siqueira ◽

Anne Guedes ◽

Mariana França ◽

Nayara Ferreira ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Response ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Service Providers ◽

Gas Production ◽

Hazard Identification ◽

Positive Outcomes ◽

Worst Case ◽

Effective Response ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Exploration And Production

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it the potential risk for personnel abandonment of various oil and gas installations that was unprecedented in the industry. Uncertainties on how to implement and monitor these processes was a significant challenge. This pandemic scenario required that operators and regulators work together to reformulate their normal way of working to decrease the risk of virus exposure to personnel, while still ensuring critical elements were implemented for safe operations. Regulators were required to act quickly to implement and adjust regulations to meet the new demands for safe operations during the global pandemic. Through joint discussions with industry associations and an understanding of the situation, the Brazilian oil and gas industry regulator, ANP, was able to immediately implement tracking requirements and, within less than one month after formal declaration of a state of emergency, issued new regulations for the restart and operations of installations. These measures assisted in a better understanding of the COVID-19 situation onboard offshore installations and in disseminating learnings across Exploration and Production (E&P) industry. Operators across Brazil all implemented modified emergency response plans, new hazard identification measures and means to reduce the risks of these identified hazards in response to COVID-19. The ANP worked to oversee the manner in which these measures were conducted, while successfully assisting in reducing demands on offshore work during the pandemic by migrating to a fully-remote means of regulatory enforcement and auditing. Regulators and operators all worked across five key areas and within the joint efforts significantly mitigated the impacts which COVID-19 had on the industry in Brazil. These key areas were: Operational Safety Documentation, procedures within the regulations and management system to cope with the pandemic scenario; Tracking of COVID-19 cases and effective response measures/learnings across industry; Hazard Identification related to the operational conditions impacted by the COVID-19 crisis; Risk Assessment for the identified hazards because of the pandemic; and Emergency Response plans for response to the worst-case operational scenario during a pandemic. Although severe outbreaks did occur on several installations, causing temporary shutdowns, there have to date been no major operational accidents as a result of COVID-19 personnel evacuations or procedures. Additionally, the total oil and gas production levels for Brazil have been maintained or increased across the sector. These high-level performance indicators demonstrate that through the efforts of the ANP, operators, service providers and other regulators, the pandemic situation is being managed successfully while the industry also continues meet the necessary energy demands of the country. Although the global pandemic has been a sobering and dark period in history for all, there have been positive outcomes for the oil and gas exploration and production industry. The three most apparent positive outcomes are: Ability of regulators and operators to adapt together; A focus by all players on the safety of the workforce and environment;. Effectively operating under adverse conditions with reduced and essential workforce.

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Natural Frequencies and Damping of a Full-Scale Pipe Loop in Air and Water

Volume 4: Fluid-Structure Interaction ◽

10.1115/pvp2017-65402 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Hugh Goyder

Keyword(s):

Oil And Gas ◽

Natural Frequencies ◽

Damping Ratio ◽

Full Scale ◽

Surrounding Water ◽

Sea Floor ◽

Dry Conditions ◽

Vibration Tests ◽

Complex Manner ◽

Submerged Conditions

A full scale pipework system, typical of oil and gas installations located on the sea floor, was subjected to vibration tests in both dry and submerged conditions. The frequency range examined covered 10 Hz to 500 Hz. The objective of the tests was to provide experimental data so that computer simulations could be developed and validated. The method used to determine the vibration properties was that of an experimental modal analysis using an impact hammer. The hammer was modified for underwater use. In dry conditions the damping was found to be very small (damping ratio less than 0.0002) despite the construction being typical. When submerged the effect of the surrounding water was significant. The changes in the natural frequencies from the dry case to the wet case occurred in such a complex manner that it was not possible to identify a simple shift between wet and dry vibration modes. It was necessary to include appropriate added mass coefficients in the computer simulation for both the pipe and the support system. The effect of the surrounding water on the damping was measured but found to be insignificant. It was concluded that immersion in water does not add significant damping to oil and gas pipework.

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Sustainable partnerships: the art of high-performing alliances and joint ventures

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj15064 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 558

Author(s):

Amita Riksen ◽

Nick Chipman

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Strategic Alliances ◽

Joint Ventures ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Oil And Gas Industry ◽

Business Environment ◽

Strategic Objectives ◽

High Performing ◽

Industry Response

In the increasingly transparent, real-time, digital business environment, the degree of collaboration required to succeed is rapidly expanding. Interdependencies created among diverse market participants, prospective partners and stakeholders is dramatically altering who actively participates in the oil and gas industry and how much influence they can yield. An industry deeply premised on technical innovation and excellence must evolve to broaden the value proposition and address the complex, expanded stakeholder groups. Traditional value drivers need to be extended to effectively leveragemulti-party joint ventures (JVs) to address the principles of license to operate and deliver the required capabilities. PwC hypothesises that risk-averse, technical, legal and quantitative biases drive joint venturing agreements to narrow obligations and sub-optimal outcomes. This is because narrow agreements ignore the behavioural, organisational and critical relationship-driven outcomes in contracting, venturing and alliance configurations. By widening the lens of JV agreements and strategic alliances, the authors look briefly at real case studies and undertake critical observations of the emerging industry behaviour, in identifying the following range of factors industry participants need to confront: the power and agility of social media driving industry response; the role of subjective, human factors in realising strategic objectives; the perceived rights of JV parties as the reality; the role of emotion in decision making and misalignments of culture/style/behaviours among stakeholders; the balance of diversity versus control requirements in governance management; the enablers for co-creating, high-performing ventures and contracting for co-operation alongside risk management; using the letter of the contract to facilitate rather than dictate behaviour; and, the power of influence to enable decision making. The shared experiences of the authors identify an attribution framework underpinning the contractual frame and extends into the effective planning and execution traits of high-performing, co-operative JVs.

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Design of the Full Scale Experiments for the Testing of the Tensile Strain Capacity of X52 Pipes With Girth Weld Flaws Under Internal Pressure and Tensile Displacement

Volume 4: Production Pipelines and Flowlines; Project Management; Facilities Integrity Management; Operations and Maintenance; Pipelining in Northern and Offshore Environments; Strain-Based Design; Standards and Regulations ◽

10.1115/ipc2014-33225 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Celal Cakiroglu ◽

Samer Adeeb ◽

J. J. Roger Cheng ◽

Millan Sen

Keyword(s):

Finite Element Analysis ◽

Finite Element ◽

Internal Pressure ◽

Tensile Strain ◽

Oil And Gas ◽

Full Scale ◽

Element Analysis ◽

Simultaneous Application ◽

Strain Capacity ◽

Tensile Strain Capacity

Pipelines can be subjected to significant amounts of tensile forces due to geotechnical movements like slope instabilities and seismic activities as well as due to frost heave and thaw cycles in arctic regions. The tensile strain capacity εtcrit of pipelines is crucial in the prediction of rupture and loss of containment capability in these load cases. Currently the Oil and Gas Pipeline Systems code CSA Z662-11 0 contains equations for the prediction of εtcrit as a function of geometry and material properties of the pipeline. These equations resulted from extensive experimental and numerical studies carried out by Wang et al [2]–[6] using curved wide plate tests on pipes having grades X65 and higher. Verstraete et al 0 conducted curved wide plate tests at the University of Ghent which also resulted in tensile strain capacity prediction methods and girth weld flaw acceptability criteria. These criteria are included in the European Pipeline Research Group (EPRG) Tier 2 guidelines. Furthermore Verstrate et al 0 introduced a pressure correction factor of 0.5 in order to include the effect of internal pressure in the tensile strain capacity predictions in a conservative way. Further research by Wang et al with full scale pipes having an internal pressure factor of 0.72 also showed that εtcrit decreases in the presence of internal pressure [10]–[15]. In their work, Wang et al presented a clear methodology for the design of full scale experiments and numerical simulations to study the effect of internal pressure on the tensile strain capacity of pipes with girth weld flaws [10]–[15]. However, there has been limited testing to enable a precise understanding of the tensile strain capacity of pipes with grades less than X65 as a function of girth weld flaw sizes and the internal pressure. In this paper the experimental setup for the testing of grade X52 full scale specimens with 12″ diameter and ¼″ wall thickness is demonstrated. In the scope of this research 8 full scale specimens will be tested and the results will be used to formulate the tensile strain capacity of X52 pipes under internal pressure. The specimens are designed for the simultaneous application of displacement controlled tensile loading and the internal pressure. Finite element analysis is applied in the optimization process for the sizes of end plates and connection elements. Also the lengths of the full scale specimens are determined based on the results from finite element analysis. The appropriate lengths are chosen in such a way that between the location of the girth weld flaw and the end plates uniform strain zones could be obtained. The internal pressure in these experiments is ranging between pressure values causing 80% SMYS and 30% SMYS hoop stress. The end plates and connection elements of the specimens are designed in such a way that the tensile displacement load is applied with an eccentricity of 10% of the pipe diameter with the purpose of increasing the magnitude of tensile strains at the girth weld flaw location. The results of two full scale experiments of this research program are presented. The structural response from the experiments is compared to the finite element simulation. The remote strain values of the experiment are found to be higher than the εtcrit values predicted by the equations in 0.

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