DNV - Forum No. 2 2000

The future lies in deepwater technology… and in partnerships

Most of the significant developments in deepwater exploration and production during the past 25 years have taken place in Brazil. And the pioneer has been state-owned oil company Petrobras. Ricardo Luis Beltráo, Petrobras Installation Technology and Engineering Group manager, here discusses the prime issues affecting the industry, including developing technology and effects of the Government opening up the sector to international companies.

Adapting to change

Henrik O. Madsen admits that ‘we must never be content’, because the world is constantly changing. The recently appointed Chief Operating Officer of DNV’s Business Area Oil, Gas and Process Industries maintains that technology and markets are developing at such a rate that ‘our biggest enemy at the moment is resistance to change.

Managing change in Liverpool Bay

Over 1.5 million people, including 22 Members of Parliament, in north-west England and North Wales have a ringside view of the Liverpool Bay oil and gas fields. The asset is operated by Australian multinational BHP Petroleum, in a joint venture partnership with Lasmo and Centrica Resources. With one of the four fields just five miles offshore, activities are very much in the public eye. So far, the Partnership has invested £ 23 million in measures to make the environmental systems even more robust, and to avoid damage to the environment in the future.

Risk-based inspection ensures major savings at PINE BEND REFINERY

Equipment inspection and maintenance at Koch Industries’ Pine Bend (Minnesota) refinery has hitherto been based primarily on inspection history, with little consideration for consequences of failure or business interruption. Recently, however, risk-based inspection (RBI) has been recognised as a technology that could offer cost, risk and safety benefits for the refinery. By identifying where the risks were and how to control them, plant operators would save money and reduce risk at the same time.

DNV class for WORLD’S LARGEST membrane-TANK LNG CARRIER

With her four cavernous membrane cargo tanks, the 69,000dwt SK Summit is one of the largest LNG carriers yet built. A few days after her delivery in August 1999 she commenced loading LNG in Qatar, entering service between Ras Laffan in Qatar and Pyeong Taek in South Korea, on an anticipated 25-year contract.

For aircraft, rockets, satellites … DNV develops SOFTWARE PRODUCT CERTIFICATION

Far from the sounds of shipping or the aromas of the process industry – two of DNV’s traditional areas of activity – its offices in Toulouse, southern France, are home to a dedicated team of aerospace engineers and software specialists. Here, in one of the major centres of Europe’s space industry, DNV is developing certification schemes for the next generation of satellite-based navigation systems, the European Space Agency’s GALILEO.

Australia’s Greenhouse Challenge: Meeting the Kyoto targets

Greenhouse Challenge is an Australian co-operative venture between industry and government in which enterprises aim to achieve maximum greenhouse-gas abatement. At the same time they are recording and reporting greenhouse-gas emissions, and enhancing their business advantage.

Planning for FPSOs in the GULF of MEXICO

The Minerals Management Service, a US federal agency, has prepared an environmental assessment on operations in the deepwater areas of the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf. An integral part of this assessment involves DNV’s risk-analysis work, which forms part of an environmental impact statement on the possible use of floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units.

Enhancing safety, reducing costs in DEEPWATER DRILLING

Failures do not just happen: there is almost always an identifiable- and so avoidable - cause. Roderick J. Allan, Vice President Engineering and Technical Services, R&B Falcon Drilling, believes a focused analysis of risk could not only improve offshore safety dramatically, but also save considerable sums of money.

NITC HALVES COST of tanker operations

National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) has halved the cost of operating its fleet of 25 oil tankers during the past ten years. Chairman and managing director of NITC Mohamad Souri says the savings have come through professional management and uncompromising priority on quality ships, and claims it is better to have a well-run operation than a big fleet.

Meeting challenges to THE DRY-CARGO FLEET

‘Professional and cost-effective management of our operations is our main challenge,’ says chairman and managing director of Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) Ahad Mohammadi. Potential growth in Iranian exports of non-oil cargoes offers opportunities for IRISL, which today is Iran’s largest dry- cargo shipping company.

DNV leads development of PROCESS INDUSTRY SAFETY

DNV is playing a leading role in process-industry safety developments in Victoria, Australia. Following an explosion at Esso’s Longford Gas Plant in 1998, Victorian industry must demonstrate high standards of safe operation through the proposed new Major Hazard Facilities Regulations, which employ the performance-based safety case approach rather than prescription. DNV is helping both the regulator and process operators to meet the new challenge.

300,000dwt tankers contract highlights China´s drive for the west

Established in 1990, Dalian New Shipyard is the major focus for China’s colossal investment in modern newbuilding capacity - 1.25 billion dollars per year - in the nation’s aim to become the world’s leading shipbuilder. One result of that investment is Dalian’s new 80m wide building dock, opened in 1996 and now being used to build five DNV-classed, 300,000dwt VLCCs for Iran.

Orient Overseas Container Line PROFITS FROM SAFETY RATING

‘The cost of insuring our ships is now far lower than before we started to focus on quality,’ says Capt. H. E. Liaw, general manager of the Ship Management Department of OOCL. ‘We are now a preferred transporter in a market we previously did not have access to.