Offshore Engineer Reports
September 2002

and another thing ... Rio sambas to research drum
Perhaps the most published graphic in the oil industry is one that traces the price of oil through time. It is used as an overlay to correlate everything from the history of rig activity levels to predicting coming oil shortages and gluts. In Rio de Janeiro this month during the 17th World Petroleum Congress, Dr Don Paul of ChevronTexaco and Saudi Aramco’s Abdulaziz Al-Kaabi used it to illustrate the role research and technology development must play within the oil industry ...

Blue Stream dream comes true
Early sceptics branded the idea of building a large diameter subsea trunkline across the Black Sea as a ‘pipe dream’, but with construction work now in the home stretch on the final onshore section of the 1250km line, the ambitious Blue Stream gas transportation system is closer than ever to becoming a reality. Darius Snieckus talks with Italian contractor Saipem about the record-setting laying of twin 24in offshore pipelines in water depths of 2150m between Russia and Turkey.

Shuttles set for US Gulf lift off
With the US Minerals Management Service having given FPSOs clearance for future field development concepts in the Gulf of Mexico, the industry has been examining the next step of the equation: shuttle tankers. Marshall DeLuca talks to two companies with very different pedigrees – American Shuttle Tankers and Conoco-owned Seahorse Shuttling & Technology – about their expectations and plans for this coming market.