Alignment Error Modelling, Analysis and Experiment of the Deep-Water Bolt Flange Automatic Connection Tool

A deep-water bolt flange automatic connection tool plays a very important role in the process of offshore oil exploitation and transportation. In the connection process, the alignment error of bolts and nuts is the key factor to ensure the connection process is successful. Using the kinematics modeling method, this paper created the alignment error model of the deep-water bolt flange automatic connection tool and analyzed the influence of manufacturing accuracy on the alignment error of bolts and nuts through computer simulation software. Based on the error matching design method, the manufacturing accuracy of parts were optimized with a part-size-based priority sequence to ensure the bolt–nut alignment error was within the allowable limits. The land tests, the pool tests and the sea test were carried out. The test results showed that the bolt and nut can be connected in the subsea environment reliably.

Erosion Analysis for the Carcass of Unbonded Flexible Pipes

At present, unbonded flexible pipes (UFPs) are widely used in ocean engineering for oil exploitation. In practice, erosion will lead to premature failure of pipelines. There is a lack of researches on the erosion of interlock carcass of UFPs. As the authority in the field of offshore engineering, DET NORSKE VERITAS(DNV) suggested a way to estimate the erosion rate of pipes, however, it does not study the erosion mechanism of UFPs in detail and the relevant parameters are not specified. This paper modifies erosion prediction of UFPs based on a user defined Fortran subroutine. A series of CFD simulations have been conducted, and three widely used erosion models were used for comparative verification. The effect of geometric shape on erosion rate has been carefully studied. and the effect of velocity, particle size, and concentration are also studied to verify the reliability of the improved model.

Oil Exploration and Exploitation in Ugbo (Ilaje) Communities of Coastal Yorubaland

Coastal Yorubaland is one of the richest parts of Nigeria in terms of natural resource endowment. The area is blessed with extensive forests, good agricultural land and abundant water resources such as fish. It is also blessed with reserves of crude oil. This natural resource has attracted the attention of oil companies, whose activities often result in economic and social problems such as environmental pollution, occupational dislocation, cultural extinction and rural urban drift. However, the attitude of the people in this region, especially the militant youths, has also contributed to environmental degradation: oil pipe vandalization has become a constant occurrence, and it has a debilitating effect on the environment. Environmental devastation, economic poverty and constant conflict constitute a lived reality. Oil exploitation activities have also left much of the area desolate, poor and uninhabitable. This article argues that the effects of oil exploitation on Ilaje Ugbo communities are comparable to what occurs in other oil communities of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Current Knowledge and Future Challenges on Bacterial Degradation of the Highly Complex Petroleum Products Asphaltenes and Resins

Petroleum products consist mainly of aliphatics, aromatics, asphaltenes and resins. After oil exploitation, the concentrations of asphaltenes and resins are high in oil reservoirs; however, they are also the petroleum pollutants most recalcitrant to degradation, leading to high oil viscosity. A sizable amount of work has been dedicated to understand the degradation mechanisms of aliphatics and aromatics; however, in comparison, little work has been carried out on asphaltene and resin degradation. This review discusses our current knowledge on the understanding of asphaltene and resin degradation. More specifically, it sheds light on work carried out to date on the degradation of these pollutants, and highlights the major gaps that limit our understanding of their degradation pathways. It also presents new potential research areas that can be explored to fill in these gaps.

Research on Underhole Field CMS Based on AI Communication

With the rapid development of computer technology, AI technology is applied to various industries, especially the communication industry. Through AI, communication can automatically identify and screen useful information, which will provide more accurate information decision-making for the system. Oil exploitation is a very dangerous work, which requires real-time monitoring of the working state of the system such as wind, water, gas and so on. Through the comprehensive detection of all kinds of information, mining enterprises can ensure the safety of the oil field, which can also ensure the safety of production. Although China’s oil exploration enterprises have many monitoring systems, which can detect a variety of information data. However, there are still many problems in these monitoring systems, such as isolation of each other, inflexibility of sensors, narrow range of data acquisition and so on. At the same time, due to the lack of comprehensive communication platform, the linkage of various production links in the oil well is poor. Therefore, we urgently need a comprehensive monitoring system, which can control the underground field information. Therefore, based on AI communication technology, this paper develops a comprehensive monitoring system.

Antimonies of Crude Oil Production in the Niger Delta: Reflection on Ahmed Yerima’s Trilogy

We learn from history that some consequences of abysmal government policies and dysfunctional tactics include socio-economic retrogression, increased deprivation ideology, victimhood, rebellion, war and revolution; and theorists have provided several plausible contextualizations for elucidation. One of such conceptualizations is Ted Robert Gurr’s theory of relative deprivation, which can be applied to illuminate sufficiently how discontent enacted in Ahmed Yerima’s trilogy can lead to aggressive responses. Thus, through an interpretive approach, we shall look at how Yerima portrays creatively in his trilogy – Hard Ground, Little Drops, and Ipomu why a show of force, divide and rule, carrot and stick tactics by successive Nigerian governments have exacerbated grief, restiveness and rebellion in Niger Delta because of unwholesome oil exploitation and ineffectual corporate social responsibility approaches. In the end, this study proposes that Niger Delta oil exploitation related discontent will fester and linger if functional inclusiveness and proportional infrastructural development are not deployed progressively.

Microseismic network sensitivity in case of no seismic activity

Underground human activities, such as mining, shale gas and oil exploitation, waste-water disposal or geo-thermal plants, can cause earthquakes. These industry projects need to be monitored by local seismic networks in order to contain the risk. An ideal seismic network should have a triangulated grid, with spacing equal to the depth of the industrial activity with no associated industry noise. In many cases, stations are placed near noisy roads, factories or in a private garden, none of which are located at optimal nodes and which thus introduce great variations in the nose level. In this article, we present a work-flow to determine the sensitivity of any local network, even if there is no local event recorded. In other words: how small are the earthquakes that such seismic networks detect? This knowledge can be used as an argument for claiming an area to be seismically silent-inactive down to a certain magnitude or for evaluating the effect of an additional seismic station.A brief theory and work-flow description is followed by two real-case demonstrations from Czech Republic, Europe: first, a proof-test on a well- studied seismically active area of West Bohemia / Vogtland and second, an application to an uprising geothermal project in Litoměřice, where no seismic activity was detected in years of monitoring.

Politics of Scale: Decentralization and Centralization of Oil Exploitation Right in Northern Shaanxi, China

Background: The impact of oil exploitation on local economy is often subject to the national resource management system. Monopolistic vertical resource management often makes local struggle ineffective. However, there is a successful local oil economy in China. This paper focuses on the formation of a special oil economy and reallocation of resources, power, and capital in Northern Shaanxi, China. This is a typical case of competing interests across multiple scales. It presents a typical case of the reconfiguration of resources, power, and capital at multiple scales.Methods: We introduce the ‘politics of scale’ to analyze the decentralization & centralization of oil exploitation rights, and the game among the government, state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and residents.Results: There are three findings. First, driven by fiscal interests, governments as the actual owners of the state capital, were directly involved in the politics of scale. Second, the interest conflicts among local state-owned enterprises, local governments were concealed owing to the strict administrative hierarchy and authority of the power, and they became a unified whole of interests and won the battle for oil resources with the central state-owned enterprises. Third, governments’ behavior strategies were simple and crude in scaling-down, mainly by hierarchical control and administrative orders. Private capital's behaviors were more diversified in scaling-up, but were completely suppressed and eliminated by the government agencies.Conclusions: We argue that politics of scale is an effective framework to explain multi-scale regulation, and is also a strategy of power competition among all practice parties.