Health, Safety and Environmental R&D

Don Smith

International Association of Oil and Gas Producers

R&D within a Global Industry

• Industry invests billions of dollar on R&D related activities covering the full spectrum of industry interests (eg ExxonMobil invested ~$700m in 2005) • A range of mechanisms through which the industry funds R&D including: – Directly funded R&D – Grants – In-house R&D capabilities – Foundations – Involvement in government programmes • Difficult to establish the nature and extent of R&D activity in the health, safety and environmental areas

Offshore Structures

• Various floating system behaviour JIPs (Deepstar) • Moorings JIP • Decommissioning methodology JIP • SCI/TWI Brent Flare Tower Fatigue • Jack-Up Studies (related to SNAME and ISO) • FPSO Research Forum

FPSO Research Forum

• To identify the common technical issues facing those involved in designing, fabricating and/or operating FPSOs, and to foster JIPs to tackle them for the common good of the industry. • Current projects: – Numerical modeling of non-linear fluid loads by means of Volume of Fluid Method – Analysis of out of plane bending fatigue in mooring chain – Shallow water wave kinematics related to near-shore terminals – Investigation in mooring failures – Simulation of side-by side offloading – Intelligent Structural Health of FPSO’s – Fatigue analysis of steel structures – Investigation of structural integrity by inspections www.fpsoforum.com

Metocean

• Range of hindcasting JIPs: – North Sea (NUG/NEXT) – North West Approaches (NWAG) – Caspian Sea (CASMOS) • Regional JIP – West African Gusts – West African Swell Co-ordinated through OGP Metocean Committee • Wave Studies – 10 -4 Waves – Shallow water waves

Involvement in EU Programmes

SIMORC (System of Industry Data for the Offshore and Research Community)

• To create a central index and database of metocean data sets, collected by the oil & gas industry • To facilitate harmonisation in quality and formats, storing and retrieving of these industry metocean datasets • To create a searchable overview of hindcast studies

www.simorc.org

Virthualis

• Objective: to produce an affordable and accessible virtual reality technology to help reduce human factor related incidents in the oil and gas industry • EU funded programme: – 4 year duration – Total funds Euro 15 million (9 from EU) – Over 40 partners

www.virthualis.org

Health Related R&D

• Malaria • Sexually transmitted disease control

Environment Related R&D

• Long term effects of cutting piles in the North Sea • Produced water discharge • ‘Zero harmful discharge’ related studies • Arctic Conditions: – Chemical dispersion of oil in ice covered water – In-situ burning of oil in ice covered waters – Detection of spilled oil under ice • Establishment of a lab (Qatar) to study environmental effects associated with LNG production • Drill cuttings monitoring JIP (Brazil)

E&P Sound and Marine Life JIP

E&P Sound and Marine Life JIP

• Background – increasing focus on sound in the marine environment and its potential to cause harm to all forms of marine life • JIP Objective - to address the E&P relevant knowledge gaps, with the overall aims of better risk assessments and improved mitigation measures • JIP: – 3 to 5 year R&D programme – >$20m funds – 9 participants to date (more expected)

OGP Future Activities

• Fire and Blast Directory • Human Factors (Tools/Culture) • Geohazards Position Paper • Land Transportation Safety • Managing Major Accident Hazards

Summary

• On a global basis the industry spends a considerable sum on R&D related activities • Many different approaches adopted to funding R&D • Information on industry funded R&D (on a global basis) difficult to access – OGP currently exploring how this position can be improved