Challenges and Lessons Learnt on Waste Management and Disposal from Mauritania Deepwater Abandonment and Decommissioning Campaign

Abandonment and decommissioning activities of oil and gas assets had been on the increasing trend. As an activity of minimal to no economic value return, the investment into Abandonment and Decommissioning (A&D) should be properly strategized to ensure all objectives are met safely within available time and resources. This paper will discuss Operator's strategy in planning and handling waste from A&D activities of fifteen (15) deepwater subsea wells in Mauritania, West Africa. The approach of this A&D project at a remote location was done in two separate campaign instead of a single campaign based on technical and commercial evaluations performed by Operator. Subsea structures, Christmas trees, tubulars and others are expected to be retrieved and disposed according to local and international standard. In general, Operator are expecting two (2) type of waste which are non-hazardous waste and hazardous waste due to hydrocarbon or naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) contamination. Due to the limitation of capable hazardous waste handling and disposal in country, Operator decided to export waste to identified facilities outside of country at the end of the project via sea-freight. Operator appointed one contractor to provide a full-service related to the waste management and disposal that covers field services and onshore services that includes radiological monitoring to identify NORM waste, labelling, packaging at offshore, onshore storage, transportation and logistics that include Trans-Frontier Shipment (TFS). The strategy of appointing one contractor for full service of waste management and disposal has promoted a single – point accountability to the contractor and this has enabled the objective been delivered effectively. COVID-19 pandemic posed a great challenge on cross-border logistic planning due to additional measure been imposed by receiving country. Furthermore, the new development of United Kingdom exiting European Union (BREXIT) also posed some level of uncertainty to the contractor to obtain relevant approvals for waste export. To reduce the amount of waste to be export, Operator continuously looking for and successfully found a local recycling facility that able to handle the non-hazardous waste while meeting local regulation, Operator's and industrial standard. All outlined strategy was proven to be effective for waste management in remote location, uncertainty on cross-border waste export challenge, as well as capitalizing on the limited local resources available.

Challenges and Lessons Learnt Operating During Covid19 Pandemic in Remote Location: A Success Story of Mauritania Deepwater Abandonment and Decommissioning Campaign

Operator's Wells Abandonment & Decommissioning campaign consists of 15 Deepwater subsea wells in Field "C" offshore West Africa. Discovered in 2001, the field is located approximately 80 km west of coastline and about 90 km from Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania. Field "C" is a deepwater field in water depth ranging from 730m to 830m. The field was developed using subsea wells, Hinged Over Subsea Templates (HOST), manifolds, flexible flowlines, umbilicals, and risers tied back to a permanently moored FPSO. In total, the field consists of nine (9) oil producer wells and five (5) water injection wells. During the development stage, one (1) gas injection well was drilled and completed at adjacent Field "B" about 17 km Northeast of Field "C". The water depth at this gas injection well location is approximately 280m. Field "C" reached maturity in 2016. Due to high operating costs, declining production coupled with declining oil prices, the decision was made to cease production, plug and abandon (P&A) and decommission the field. Two phases strategy was engaged by the Operator in order to complete the decommissioning and abandonment of Field "C". In Phase 1, which was executed back in the year of 2017-2018, all the 15 deep water subsea wells were temporarily suspended with two (2) barriers in place. The Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit was decommissioned and disconnected. In line with the strategy of dividing the project into two phases, the information on well integrity and conditions acquired during the Phase 1 Temporary Wells Suspension (TWS) was used by the Operator in planning for Phase 2 – Wells Plug and Abandonment (P&A). The operator made full use of temporary well suspension period between Phase 1 and Phase 2 for engineering, procurement, and operations preparation. The same drillship was utilized for the project in both phases. Multiple optimizations and modifications were done on the drillship based on lessons learned in Phase 1 and to cater for the subsea Xmas Tree and subsea structures retrieval in Phase 2. Due to the nature of the remote location and no existing oil & gas operations support base, all equipment required in this project was sent to Mauritania early. Equipment inspection and acceptance were carried out in Mauritania as part of the strategy in ensuring the availability of good quality equipment for offshore operations. The operations on Wells Plug & Abandonment commenced in December 2019. In March 2020, upon declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, operator was faced with difficulty of continuing operation as the Host Country activated border lockdown. The operator managed to continue operations for remaining well and demobilized drillship and personnel safely. Operator has successfully retrieved three (3) subsea Xmas Trees, P&A three (3) wells and intervened six (6) other wells for tubing cutting before operations was suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic. Operator used the suspension phase to devise a methodology to resume operation in the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic situation. The challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the steps taken for resumption are highlighted in this paper. It is expected that this paper will serve as guidance in highlighting challenges and efforts taken to resume operation in the event of unforeseen suspension due to any reasons. It is also hoped that the details shared in this paper can assist other Operators in better operation planning for remote locations.

Research on effects and influence by presenting information on priority order and oncoming vehicle to operators for teleoperation of multiple autonomous vehicles

With self-driving vehicles, it is possible to manage multiple vehicles from a remote location even if one observer does not have a driver in the driver’s seat. Therefore, demonstration experiments are being conducted in various places to remotely monitor two autonomous vehicles and operate them as needed. However, when one observer manages multiple vehicles, the amount of information that can be processed is limited. If we can assist with an appropriate amount of information, we may be able to manage more vehicles. In this study, we perform an experiment in which the priority and the type of assist information are changed and presented to the observer in the overtaking scene of a parked vehicle using a simulator. Focusing on the burden on the observer during remote management of multiple units, the purpose is to identify the information required for monitoring and reduce the burden from changes depending on the type of information to be assisted.

Wikipetcia Atikamekw Nehiromowin: Wikipedia in Indigenous Languages

This presentation is to present the "Atikamekw Project" led in Canada with the Atikamekw First Nation to create the Wikipetcia Atikamekw Nehiromowin, the Wikipedia in Atikamekw language, as well as improving the presence of the Atikamekw knowledge, culture and language on Wikimedia projects by uploading photographs, archives, and videos on Wikimedia Commons, using Lingua Libre to add Atikamekw words in the Wiktionaries, etc. This project is led by the Atikamekw community with the support of Wikimedia Canada. The Metapeckeka WikiClub, the WikiClub of the Atikamekw Community of Manawan, is one of the most active WikiClubs in Canada despite being in a remote location and having a small population. We will share how Wikimedia Canada is supporting the project to empower the Atikamekw community in creating and growing the Wikipedia in their language.

How does the viability of bone-restricted osteocytes regulate bone atrophy?

How does the viability of bone-restricted osteocytes regulate bone atrophy? Osteocyte death is amplified in many bone diseases and is ubiquitous upon ageing. To date, the impact of osteocyte death on pathological bone loss is poorly studied due to the remote location of osteocytes. Within the ERC Starting Grant project “Unknown functions of Osteocyte DEath (ODE)” we will make use of new imaging and omics technologies to unravel this question.

Independent PRF Generation and Control for Frequency Phase Calibration on Mono-pulse Radar at a Remote Location

This paper presents a method of independent pulse repetition frequency(PRF) generation and control for frequency phase calibration on mono-pulse radar at a remote location. In order to generate an independent PRF signal of 320[Hz], pulse width modulation(PWM) of 16-bit timer/counter was applied. For a precision control of PRF signal, 16-bit timer/counter interrupt was changed for each period. Therefore, average frequency of PRF could be controlled by 0.0001[Hz]. To calibrate a frequency phase of mono-pulse radar at a remote location, the proposed PRF generator with a precision control of frequency was used regardless of receiving PRF signal from a radar. For the verification of the proposed PRF generator, theoretical analysis and experimental results are included.

The Implementation of Offshore Safety Program OSP in Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry- A Performance Assessment

The Offshore Safety Permit (OSP) Program is the Personnel Accountability System, being utilized by the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Regulator, in line with global best practices to manage the details of over 40,000 oil workers registered to work on offshore and swamp facilities and track their movements to-and-fro such facilities. The Program was introduced in 2012 to standardize requirement for personnel travel to offshore and swamp locations and to eliminate issues such as: non-compliance with mandatory competency and safety training; non-compliance with medical fitness to work requirement; unauthorized extended stay on facilities at offshore/remote location; inaccurate documentation of personnel movement to-and-fro facilities at offshore/remote location leading to delayed/wrong incident reporting. This paper examines, through the review of the OSP policy, Guidelines and database, the value addition of the program since its inception., detailed and insightful discussions are made on the importance and potentials of the OSP program as a simple but integral policy and planning tool in managing risks, enhancing collaboration and improving safety and emergency services in Nigeria's oil and gas industry.

Design and Analysis of Electric Crane with 500Kg Material Handling Capacity

In industry material handling is very important. For that purpose efficient machine is needed. In modern days the electric crane plays important role to fulfil that requirement. It is economical, effective, less time consuming, more safety, and flexible for uses. In industry the safety is most important factor for any material handling machine which deals with the heavy load depending on the capacity. In electric crane the safety keeps on first priority. In this paper we design the electric crane which is more economical, less time consumable, with more safety and the easy to operate. It has two control units, one is at crane frame and one is at the remote location. This crane is able to operate by the single operator far from the crane and also can operate directly from the crane frame itself. Its lifting capacity is up to 500kg. according to load we carried out the load calculations for the crane frame or body & we created a 3D CAD model. Every component should able to deal with that load. To ensure that we carried out the analysis of the whole assembly in ANSYS 19.2. In analysis we found that the whole assembly is able to handle the load which we suppose to apply on it. We implement the pulley reduction to reduce the load on motor and gearbox as well. We tried to keep crane more compact in size so that it consume less space in industry.