A spar-spangled banner
Since it installed the first production spar in 1996, this mode of floating production has become a way of life for Kerr-McGee. Now the independent producer is set to flick the switch on two more spar units with a new look. Marshall DeLuca reports progress on the Gulf of Mexico’s Nansen and Boomvang developments where truss spar technology is making its industry debut.and another thing ... SupaMegaGiantsRuleOK
It is unclear why giant oil companies feel compelled to keep intact their full names when merging with their fellow giants. Partly, say the publicists, it is because the names of the companies have been established over many years and it would be a shame to give up the benefits of such hard-earned branding for a third, and unknown, new name ...
AUVs get down to work
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have started work for the offshore oil industry. After a period of hype and speculation the first untethered, free-swimming vehicles are gathering meaningful data in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, as Bob Barton reports.
Setting the standard
As with all intricate technologies, the goal of making subsea tree systems into a commodity is as elusive to manufacturers as it is desirable to customers. To date, the closest the industry has come is regionally based similarities perceptible in some arenas more than others. Rick von Flatern talks to the subsea tree manufacturers to get their take on efforts to standardize their complex systems.
Simmons says
When US oil and gas investment banker Matt Simmons
talks – as the old EF Hutton slogan used to run – people listen. Yet what the president of Houston-based Simmons & Company had to say to an audience of North Sea industrialists late last year made for uncomfortable listening – and is
essentially out of tune with the optimistic sounds coming
from UK government-industry body Pilot as to the province’s ‘Third Age’ prospects. Darius Snieckus reports.
Offshore Engineer Reports