What is Beyond the 40 Years of the Offshore Technology Conference?

4/15/2012

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Despite a global economic recession and initial scares about swine flu back in 2009, attendance at the 2009 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) reached 66,820 strong. 

There are more than 120 energy professionals at the world’s largest offshore resources industry event, May 4-7, at its usual venue at Reliant Park, Houston. It was a little less than the attendance in 2008, however, exceeded the expectations given the situation stated above. It was actually the second largest in OTC’s 40-year history, with more than 557,000 square feet of exhibition area filled to capacity by 2,500 companies from 38 countries.

Don Vardeman, 2009 OTC chairman stated: “This year’s attendance levels underscore that in a downturn, energy professionals come to OTC to learn about technologies and innovative approaches to reduce their costs and improve performance. OTC is known for presenting new and proven technologies that will help companies find and produce more oil and gas in deeper waters, and for sharing lessons learned on global projects that advance the offshore industry.”  

On the other hand, the OTC Awards Luncheon keynote speaker Thierry Pilenko, chairman and CEO of Technip, said that the challenge in a lower oil price environment is to reduce costs while preserving human capital. Furthermore, he said that they can stack rigs, and they cannot stack people, so they should avoid “stop and go” attitude which is detrimental to the industry’s image, and continue to hire university graduates to avoid future generation gaps and maintain credibility.

The 2009 technical program offered four full days of sessions on the Arctic, as well as special panel sessions on operating in a volatile market. Their Spotlight on New Technology program focused on 14 innovative technologies that are already making the industry more effective.

OTC -still continues to grow and will extend its reach to Brazil to participate in the Brazil Offshore Conference, held on 16-19 2010. This is when they presented the first Arctic Technology Conference, a separate new conference focused on both offshore and onshore technology for Arctic exploration and development.


See: Petroleum Industry: Instrumentation
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Petroleum Disaster: Oil Spill

4/1/2012

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An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity. The liquid petroleum hydrocarbon is a naturally occurring flammable liquid (form of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape) consisting of a complex mixture of hydrogen and carbon of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth’s surface.

The term is mostly used to describe marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean, or the body of saline water that comprises a large part of the planet’s hydrosphere, or coastal waters, which as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) from the baseline, usually the mean low-water mark, of a coastal state.


Oil spills may be due to release of crude oil from: oil/petroleum tankers; a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil; offshore platform (oil platform), incorrectly called “oil rig,” a large structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing; drilling rigs, a machine which creates holes in the ground; and oil wells, a general term for any boring through the Earth’s surface that is designed to find and acquire petroleum oil hydrocarbons. This could also be due to the spills of: refined petroleum products, an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, like naphtha, gasoline (a transparent petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines), diesel fuel (any liquid used in diesel fuels), asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas, and their by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil, defined as any petroleum-based or synthetic oil that, through the use or handling, has become unsuitable for its original purpose due to the presence of impurities or loss of original properties. 

Another significant route by which oil enters the marine environment is through natural oil seeps, a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the Earth’s atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow.  

Oil spills can be controlled by chemical dispersion, combustion, mechanical containment, and/or absorption. Spills may take weeks, months or even years to clean up.


To: Newsat: Australian Satellite Commuications
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Early History of the Petroleum Industry

3/21/2012

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Petroleum (crude oil) is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth’s surface. For over 5000 years, this has been utilized by humans.
Oil in general has been used since early human history to keep fires ablaze, and also for warfare, or any organized, armed, and often a “prolonged conflict” that is carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, societal disruption, and usually high mortality.

Its importance in the world economy evolved slowly, with whale oil used for lighting into the 19th century. Whale oil is obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale (“Eubalaena japonica,” “E. glacialis,” and “E. australis”) and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale. Wood and coal was also used for heating and cooking into the 20th century.

The Industrial Revolution generated an increasing need for energy which was fueled mainly by coal, with other sources including whale oil. The Industrial Revolution was a period from 1750 to 1850 where changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times. However, it was discovered that kerosene could be extracted from crude oil and used as a light and heating fuel.  

Petroleum was in great demand, and by the twentieth century had become the most valuable commodity traded in the world market.

See: Ka Band

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