Offshore oil well

Reduction of Cycle Times for Seal Stacks for Deep Offshore Oil Wells... 

Pauli B, Foulkes M, Jones P. 1994. Determination of alkaline earth metals in offshore oil-well brines using high-performance chelation ion chromatography. Anal Proc 31 209-211. 

Barium is present at very low concentrations in most environmental samples. Thus, in spite of the availability of a detection limit of only a few ng ml 1 by flame AES, the element is rarely determined by flame methods AAS with electrothermal atomization or ICP-AES is more commonly used. A notable exception is in the determination of the element in barium-rich geological deposits.8 Another exception is in the analysis of formation waters from offshore oil wells.9 However, in this matrix, inter-element interferences are encountered from alkali and alkali-earth elements. These could be effectively eliminated by the addition of 5 g 1 1 magnesium and 3 g 1 1 sodium as a modifier.9... 

Dusseault and Santarelli 1989, Dusseault and El-Sayed, 2000). In heavy oil production from cohesionless sandstones (Geilikman et al. 1997). production rates with free sand influx can be 10-30 times higher (10-30 m /d rather than -1 mVd) than in the same well with a screen installed. Even in high-rate offshore oil wells (1000-4000 mVd), permitting some sand influx has led to production rate increases of >35% (data from over 200 oil wells in different North Sea fields, Dusseault et al. 2000). 

Figure 8 Chromatogram showing the separation of barium and strontium from magnesium and calcium in an oil-well brine (sample 1, diluted 1 1 v/v with double distilled water) using a Methyl-thymol Blue impregnated column (pH 9.2). (Determination of alkaline earth metals in offshore oil-well brines using high performance chelation ion chromatography. Pauli B, Foulkes M, and Jones P (1994) Analytical Proceedings 31 209-211 reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry.)...

The petroleum industry is cost intensive. Digging a deep offshore oil well costs more than 100 million, and a new world-class refinery costs up to 4 billion. 

Fixed onshore and offshore oil well drilling facilities ... 

Mobile onshore and offshore oil well drilling platforms, barges, trucks, or other mobile facilities when in a fixed position ... 

Sodium chloride is a slight accelerator at low concentrations and becomes a retarder at higher concentrations. Since seawater contains sodium chloride, it can be readily used in offshore oil well applications. 

Cathodic protection is a technique used to control the corrosion of a metal or alloy surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical or galvanic cell. Cathodic protection was first described by Sir Humphry Davy in a series of papers presented to the Royal Society in 1824 [8] and developed by his pupil Michael Faraday [9]. Common application are steel water or oil and gas pipeline, storage tanks, pier piles, ships and boats, offshore oil wells and platforms. 

The Hydrocarbon Processing Industry (HPI), has traditionally been reluctant to invest capital where an immediate direct return on the investment to the company is not obvious, as would any business enterprise. Additionally financial fire losses in the petroleum and related industries were relatively small up to about the 1950 s. This was due to the small size of facilities and the relatively low value of oil and gas to the volume of production. Until 1950, a fire or explosion loss of more than 5 million U. S. Dollars had not occurred in the refining industry in the USA. Also in this period, the capital intensive offshore oil exploration and production industry were only just beginning. The use of gas was also limited early in the century. Consequentially its value was also very low. Typically production gas was immediately flared or the well was capped and considered as an uneconomical reservoir. Since gas development was limited, large vapor explosions were relatively rare and catastrophic destruction from petroleum incidents was essentially unheard of. The outlays for petroleum industry safety features were traditionally the absolute minimum required by governmental regulations. The development of loss prevention philosophies and practices were therefore not effectively developed within the industry. 

In offshore drilling, the equipment allows drilling from a floating vessel and the completion of oil wells on the ocean floor is accomplished by remote control from the surface. The drilling vessel uses an automatic pilot to keep it in position while drilling. 

Offshore oil production requires many chemicals for well drilling, for the treatment of the produced oil, for the treatment of gas, and for the stimulation and workover of the wells [100,101]. Altogether,25 classes of chemicals are used in offshore oil production [102]. The chemicals are undergoing increasingly detailed testing. As in other Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR), the octanol/water partition coefficient (Kq, ) is a crucial factor determining the environmental behavior and toxicity of the chemicals [103]. Toxicity... 

In both cases, catastrophic failure of the well will incur a cost penalty of o er 20 million dollars. The cost of hiring the offshore rigs is more than 250,000 per day, let alone the cost of 10,000 metres of the highest quality stainless steel pipe. In one notorious example, seven oil wells were sequentially junked because the sand screens were inaccurately specified resulting in a bill for US 140 million. 

An extremely fire-resistant coating material designed for spray applications to onshore and offshore oil and gas facilities has been introduced by Hempel s Marine Paints. The product, called ContraFlam 3810, is easy to apply and is particularly well-suited to the protection of structural steel work, walls, and floors. Another coating of a surface hardener/weather barrier material, such as Contraflam Topclad 3811, can then be applied followed by a color coat. 

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