INTEGRITY ENGINEERING
The Energy Problem
The World’s population is predicted to reach
9 Billion by 2050
or roughly a new city of 1.4 million people every week for the next forty years. Coupled with this population expansion is the desire for energy. The Oil price will rise and fall but the Oil and Gas Industry shows no sign of slowing and has continually expanded to meet this ever increasing demand.
Technology in the Oil and Gas Industry continues to progress in leaps and bounds. When it comes to Deepwater - water depth records are being repeatedly broken – and it is envisaged that production in the Gulf of Mexico will soon reach its highest ever level. Others are now looking to the Arctic for new opportunities offshore.
By moving into moving into these ever increasingly hazardous environments — deeper waters, extreme climates or more remote locations further vigilance is required when assessing the risks associated with these endeavours. Once the risks are known it is then possible to identify and engineer the measures or protective barriers to prevent or mitigate the consequences of these accidents.
In the front of everyone’s minds should be the desire for Safety – top of the Agenda wherever or whoever you are.
To be in a position to meet these needs and to facilitate growth and increased safety performance, we need to lift our sights and look to the future.
Given the risks involved and the levels of technical complexity to bring new finds on stream in remote and difficult locations, why gamble? We need to get it right.
In the Gulf of Mexico the memory of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig is still fresh. The rig exploded, burnt and then sank 41 miles off the Coast of Louisiana killing 11 people.
The resultant oil spill from the Mocondo well continued unabated for 87 days – estimated to be 4.9million equivalent barrels of oil.
The legacy of this tragic incident is a lasting impact to the Gulf Coast Economy, its surrounding environment and ultimately resulting in regulation of the petroleum industry.
BP continues to count the cost whilst it settles billions of dollars of claims following the disaster. At the start of 2019 this total reached some $65 billion (£50 billion).
But it is not just BP that was hit by this event – the entire oil industry faced growing Public contempt and demands for a crackdown on Safety.
Photo Courtesy of NASA
Sunlight illuminated the lingering oil slick off the Mississippi Delta on May 24, 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image the same day.
Oil smoothes the ocean surface, making the Sun’s reflection brighter near the centerline of the path of the satellite, and reducing the scattering of sunlight in other places. As a result, the oil slick is brighter than the surrounding water in some places (image center) and darker than the surrounding water in others (image lower right). The tip of the Mississippi Delta is surrounded by muddy water that appears light tan. Bright white ribbons of oil streak across this sediment-laden water.
Tendrils of oil extend to the north and east of the main body of the slick. A small, dark plume along the edge of the slick, not far from the original location of the Deepwater Horizon rig, indicates a possible controlled burn of oil on the ocean surface.
To the west of the bird’s-foot part of the delta, dark patches in the water may also be oil, but detecting a manmade oil slick in coastal areas can be even more complicated than detecting it in the open ocean.
When oil slicks are visible in satellite images, it is because they have changed how the water reflects light, either by making the Sun’s reflection brighter or by dampening the scattering of sunlight, which makes the oily area darker. In coastal areas, however, similar changes in reflectivity can occur from differences in salinity (fresh versus salt water) and from naturally produced oils from plants.
