The Role of Political Parties on Women’s Participation and Representation: International IDEA Technical Paper 4/2021

‘Leave no one behind’ (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, SDG 5—‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’—is an intrinsic enabler for sustainable development and representative democracy for each country and the world at large. The SDG 5 stipulates the requisite collective action for transformation and creating conducive environments towards substantive equality for all women and girls. In order to take on the challenge of translating SDG 5 into reality for women and girls across the world, it is fundamental to address the key areas of gender inequality, such as gender-based discrimination in law and in practice, violence against women and girls, the lack of and unequal access to and ownership of economic resources, and women’s unequal participation and representation in both private and public decision-making positions. This Technical Paper focuses on political parties’ responsibilities on achieving gender equality in politics and women’s political empowerment, particularly women’s participation and representation in positions of power and decision making at all levels.

Installation of Conductor Supported Platform CSP at X Field

This technical paper presents the offshore installation execution work of Conductor Supported Platforms (CSP) at ‘X’ field. The knowledge sharing was based on the successful installation of three (3) numbers of CSP for ‘X’ development project. The platforms were installed at approximately of 70m water depth and encountered technical challenges during offshore execution. ‘X’ field is located about approximately 45km North West of Miri, Sarawak. The CSPs were installed by Derrick Barge (DB) via double blocks crane upending method for the substructures and conventional lifting method for the topsides. The CSP was designed for 70 meters water depth with four (4) numbers of vertical legs, four (4) numbers of skirt piles, and one (1) number of pin pile. The weight of the topside was about 600MT, meanwhile the substructure was about 1100MT respectively. These CSPs marked as a pioneer in the installation of its kinds at 70m water depth in COMPANY. The concept required high accuracy of detailed offshore installation engineering. This configuration however had caused some challenges during installation. Among the major challenges were issues on the pin-pile verticality, substructure levelness and upending activities via double blocks crane upending method. The effective strategies were adopted to improve the on-bottom stability by installing pin pile prior to substructure set down. The pin pile was installed by utilizing Subsea Fast Frame (SFF), in order to achieve pin pile's verticality. The crucial part during pin pile installation was to ensure meeting the verticality accuracy and minimum tolerance may high potentially impact the substructure install ability and meeting level requirement. However, due to a big annulus gap at pin pile sleeve of the substructure had caused prolong in levelling operation. In order to improve subsequent platforms levelling operations, a set of centralizers were introduced and installed after confirming the pin pile verticality result, in order to reduce the annulus gap. Despite all the challenges aforementioned, the installation of CSPs were completed successfully and most importantly with Zero Lost Time Injury (LTI).

HVDC Interference on MGL Pipelines

Mahanagar Gas is a City Gas Distribution Company engaged in the distribution of Natural Gas in and around Mumbai City. MGL has around 415 km of commissioned steel pipeline network which is being protected by ICCP. These pipelines are coated with three layer polyethylene coatings. Rectifying the external interferences on pipeline network is a major challenge for pipeline operating personnel in order to maintain safety and integrity of their pipeline. This technical paper is based on study of one of such external interference which posed a threat to MGL’s steel pipeline network. High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) is a system for transmission of electricity over long distances. This system uses Direct Current (DC) for bulk transmission of electricity in contrast with the more common Alternating Current (AC) systems. HVDC is considered to be more effective to increase power grid delivery capabilities. A part of MGL’s pipeline network is currently facing interference due to a HVDC power substation on the outskirts of Mumbai. This substation is being operated by State Government and is affecting around 145 kms of MGL’s steel pipeline network during its monopolar operation for transmission of electricity. This interference is creating multiple anodic and cathodic areas on pipeline network with the help of a high magnitude current entering and exiting from pipeline at multiple locations which are difficult to predict and rectify. This technical paper will elaborate the concept of HVDC interference on steel pipelines. It will give a brief overview on the methodology adopted for identifying, monitoring and analyzing this interference phenomenon and will comment on the results of this analysis. It will throw light on a variety of technical challenges faced in dealing with this interference while operating a city gas distribution network in particular. And finally, it will discuss about possible remedial measures available and their effectiveness to curb this interference.

The April 2021 issue

This April 2021 issue contains one technical paper as well as five editorial notes.

Communicating with Data

Communicating with Data: The Art of Writing for Data Science aims to help students and researchers write about their data insights in a way that is both compelling and faithful to the data. This book aims to be both a resource for students who want to learn how to write about scientific findings both formally and for broader audiences and a textbook for instructors who are teaching science communication. In addition, a researcher who is looking for help with writing can use this book to self-train. The book consists of five parts. Part I helps the novice learn to write by reading the work of others. Part II delves into the specifics of how to describe data at a level appropriate for publication, create informative and effective visualizations, and communicate an analysis pipeline through well-written, reproducible code. Part III demonstrates how to reduce a data analysis to a compelling story and organize and write the first draft of a technical paper. Part IV addresses revision; this includes advice on writing about statistical findings in a clear and accurate way, general writing advice, and strategies for proof-reading and revising. Finally, Part V gives advice about communication strategies beyond the witten page, which includes giving talks, building a professional network, and participating in online communities. This part also contains 22 “portfolio prompts” aimed at building upon the guidance and examples in the earlier parts of the book and building a writer’s portfolio of data communication.

Notes on a common beat

The following essay would like to elaborate on a possible “philosophy of efficiency” connected to the “Engineering of a toy model of the universe based on information and memory from an ICT perspective” (a more technical paper from the same author proposing a framework for Quantum Gravity). The insights derived from the interpretation of spacetime considered focus on causality, free will and efficiency, and promote collaboration, empathy and trust. Even if some of the concepts presented are common to several human cultures at different level of conceptual abstraction, this paper does not pretend to have scientific value nor suppose any reference to religion. The scope is just to draft a high level parallel between the description of the Universe proposed in the scientific contribution and a more philosophical interpretation of life, inspired by efficiency and based on the memory of a common beat.

Comments: JPT’s New Website

I hope that, by now, most of you have seen our new magazines website, which launched on 1 February. Beyond a clean, modern design that is mobile friendly, our goal was to make our content even more accessible and valuable to you. If you have not visited the new site, I would encourage you to do so at jpt.spe.org. SPE has been working on transforming our digital presence, and this new website is a big step forward in that journey. We have made it easier for you to find content that is valuable to you. JPT and our other magazines generate a lot of articles beyond those in the monthly JPT issue—technical content that crosses all disciplines, along with news to help you stay up to date with what is happening in our industry. By bringing all our magazines together in a single site, we have made it possible for content from the different publications to be combined easily, allowing you to find everything we have published on a subject of interest. The website is organized broadly by discipline but also by topics within those disciplines, giving you the choice of scanning articles broadly or in a more focused manner. Each article has topics and more specific tags at the bottom of the page. These are clickable to allow you to find even more related content. The site has a terrific search engine, so whether you’re searching for information on human factors, discoveries off Guyana and Suriname, or electric submersible pumps, it will direct you to our most relevant content. If you log in and you have given SPE your primary and secondary disciplines, there is a section of the homepage that will recommend relevant recent content that you may have missed. The homepage also includes a sampling of discipline-specific content at the bottom of the page, a couple of topical focus areas that will change periodically, sponsored content, and the most recent 2 months of technical paper synopses. Another change you may notice is locked content, starting with the technical paper synopses. This is content that we develop specifically for you—our members—and we want to ensure that it is the member benefit that it was intended to be. We are still making the full-length technical papers available to members for down-load. You will find them at the end of each related synopsis, as well as in the issue article on the homepage (right column, about halfway down). Bookmark our new website (jpt.spe.org) and visit regularly to stay up to date. You can share any feedback at [email protected].