Burke
As part of our 50-year anniversary celebration, we asked former Offshore Editor Bob Burke (beginning on page 56) to reflect on the two decades that spanned his tenure here. Bob served as editor from 1969 to 1989, a time of dynamic growth and change in both the industry and the magazine.
"Over the years, Offshore magazine evolved to meet the needs of this emerging offshore industry, a unique blend that achieved an identity all its own," Bob said. "The industry combines technical development with financial and management skills to produce daring, innovative, and bold technology to confront the evolving and always increasing challenges. And this magazine's staff hustles to keep pace."
This issue is a case in point:
Gulf of Mexico technology for a North Sea field
The North Sea Clair field, discovered in 1977 west of the Shetlands, defied coherent analysis for almost two decades. Eventually, the pieces of this complex, heavily faulted reservoir fell into place, thanks to improved well placement and seismic imaging advances.
By 1998, operator BP had enough data to consider moving ahead with what was still a risky development project. When BP asked its partners what it would it take for them to agree to the project, the partners asked for development costs in the region of $3/bbl. BP had been working on a base case closer to $5/bbl capex.
To achieve the lower target, BP decided it would have to find ways not previously considered on the UK shelf.
"We asked ourselves, where could we develop a similar project elsewhere in the world for around $3/bbl?" says Terry Hughes, BP's project director for Clair. "The answer was the Gulf of Mexico, and the nearest analogy was the Pompano field. This featured similar quality crude, production, and injection rates, and roughly the same number of wells as we had included in our base case for Clair."
Pompano was developed in the early 1990s at a cost of under $3/bbl, via a platform designed by Mustang Engineering. Mustang later developed this design for another platform off West Africa, and the concept seemed ready for further development for Clair.
"It gave us the basic dimensions, in terms of the number of decks and topsides modules and their functional requirements," Hughes says. "There are some differences that you can't escape. The storms, for instance, are worse around the Shetlands, so the platform must be beefier than a Gulf of Mexico counterpart. But you can transfer technologies and techniques that are proven in the Gulf."
That is just what BP did, and the results speak for themselves. In this month's lead article, Jeremy Beckman, Editor Europe, details the intriguing story of how BP and Mustang took a Gulf of Mexico model and applied it to a North Sea situation with gratifying results. His report begins on page 26.
Ekofisk decommissioning
Meanwhile, in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, ConocoPhillips has begun abandonment of the Ekofisk tank. Cleaning of the tank's storage cells is under way, and a contractor has been chosen to remove the topsides, starting next year.
Installed in 1973 in a water depth of around 75 m, it was the first offshore installation with a concrete gravity base and will be the first of its type in the North Sea to be decommissioned. As a result, other operators will be keenly interested in ConocoPhillips' experiences.
On Ekofisk, ConocoPhillips is in a unique situation in that it is implementing further stages of development at the same time that it is abandoning some of the facilities. In August, it was due to install the steel jacket for a new wellhead platform, Ekofisk 2/4 M, on which 25 new wells will be drilled, as well as starting pre-qualification for the removal of other redundant platforms. Special Correspondent Nick Terdre reports on the challenges of these operations beginning on page 46.
Eldon Ball
