Oil drilling platform

Oil displacement efficiency, 18 613, 614 in enhanced oil recovery, 18 628—629 Oil drilling, enzyme-based clean-up processes in, 10 306-307 Oil drilling platforms, with fiber-optic smart structures, 11 158-159... 

The properties of the most important LCP fibers are listed in Table 1.2. The key application areas for LCP fibers include hard armor (vehicles, helmets), soft ballistic protection (vests), cut protection (gloves), and a variety of composite uses that include honeycomb structure, pressure vessels, and rubber reinforcement. Ropes and cables find utility in the mooring of huge offshore structures such as oil-drilling platforms and the reinforcement and support of optical cables. LCP fibers also find specialty niche markets such as sails for racing yachts, specialized fishing nets, etc. 

Natural disasters certainly can disrupt oil supply. For example, in 2005 Hurricane Katrina severely damaged many oil drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, significantly disrupting oil supplies into the United States mainland. Also, some oil refineries were forced to shut down during this hurricane season. 

Cathodic protection is a proven corrosion control method for protection of underground and undersea metallic structures, such as oil and gas pipelines, cables, utility lines and structural foundations. Cathodic protection is now widely applied in the protection of oil drilling platforms, dockyards, jetties, ships, submarines, condenser tubes in heat exchangers, bridges and decks, civil and military aircraft and ground transportation systems. 

Chem. Descrip. Microbes, cleaners and enzymes Uses Wetting agent, emulsifier for hydrocarbon deposits and spills on hard surfaces such as concrete or drain pipe interior walls or in soils, garage floors, toll booths, factory floors, repair shops, metal working sumps, fuel delivery stations, oil drilling platforms, construction sites, petroleum refining and chemical production operations... 

When water is produced along with oil, the separation of water from oil invariably leaves some water in the oil. The current oil-in-water emission limit into the sea is commonly 40 ppm. Oily water disposal occurs on processing platforms, some drilling platforms, and at oil terminals. The quality of water disposed from terminals remains an area of scrutiny, especially since the terminals are often near to local habitation and leisure resorts. If the engineer can find a means of reducing the produced water at source (e.g. water shut-off or reinjection of produced water into reservoirs) then the surface handling problem is much reduced. 

Foam Control. Whereas some siUcones are known to be foam promoters, Dow Corning FS-1265 Fluid is a Hquid fluorosiUcone with effective antifoam properties. Petroleum industry appHcation of fluids and dispersions in gas—oil separators on offshore drilling platforms has been successful. Their use peaked in the early 1980s, coinciding with constrained cmde oil capacity and production. Diesel fuels are an excellent solvent for dimethyl silicones and render them ineffective as an antifoam. A new antifoam which does not require the use of added siUca is formulated from a fluorosiUcone copolymer. It has shown promise to antifoam (8) diesel fuel (see Defoamers). 

The OREDA Offshore Reliability Data Handbooks covers a variety of components used in offshore oil drilling and platforms, including gas/fire detection systems, process alarm systems, firefighting systems, pressure relieving systems, general alarm and communication systems, evacuation systems, process systems (vessels, valves, pumps, heat exchangers, and compressors), electrical and utility systems, and drilling equipment. 

Continued Research into Mitigation Measures against effects of Precipitation, Waves, Floods and the Sea Level s Rise (e.g., the North Sea drilling platforms that are designed by oil companies for a one-meter rise in sea level). 

In contrast to infrared spectrometry there is no decrease in relative sensitivity in the lower energy region of the spectrum, and since no solvent is required, no part of the spectrum contains solvent absorptions. Oil samples contaminated with sand, sediment, and other solid substances have been analysed directly, after being placed between 0.5 mm 23-reflection crystals. Crude oils, which were relatively uncontaminated and needed less sensitivity, were smeared on a 2 mm 5-reflection crystal. The technique has been used to differentiate between crude oils from natural marine seepage, and accidental leaks from a drilling platform. The technique overcomes some of the faults of infrared spectroscopy, but is still affected by weathering and contamination of samples by other organic matter. The absorption bands shown in Table 9.1 are important in petroleum product identification. 

Units are sometimes placed in series to provide multiple stages of separation. Hydrocyclones are used on ships and drilling platforms for removing oil from water [Bednarski and Listewnik, Filtration and Sep., pp. 92-97 (March/April 1988)]. Numerical simulations ofhydro-cyclone performance and flow profiles are described by Bai and Wang [Chem. Eng. Technol., 29(10), pp. 1161-1166 (2006)] and by Murphy et al. [Chem. Eng. Sci., 62, pp. 1619-1635 (2007)]. 

After the failure of the Texas Tower TT-4, an important step forward was taken in the 1960s when oil drilling and related installations of pipelines at depths up to 60 m off the Mississippi Delta were begun. These installations were designed based on a more fundamental understanding of sediment properties. Oil platforms off the Mississippi Delta are of the jacket or template type which are supported by a long open-ended steel pipe pile foundation. 

These include blowouts (22 deaths on the C.P. Baker catamaran drilling vessel in 1964), helicopter crashes (eleven in one crash in 1966) , a near-miss crash of a Louisiana Air National Guard jet on an ODECO rig, Santa Barbara oil spill following a blowout at Union Oil s Platform A-21 in 1969 and another blowout in 1970 at Chevron s Platform C in Main Pass block 41. For more discussion on these incidents, see MMS, History of Offshore Vol. I, pp. 145-146. 

Most of the seabed areas leased for offshore operations have been confined to sectors of the GOM and regions adjacent to the southern coastline of Alaska. Much of the remainder of the vast U.S. OCS has been closed to leasing and drilling activities by moratoria enacted by Congress and supported by presidential directives. Generally, public opinion has supported the moratoria because of the environmental harms caused by the 1969 blowout and oil spill at the Amoco Cadiz drilling platform off the California coast and the 1988 Exxon Valdez tanker accident and spill in Alaska s Prince William Sound. 

Certain hazards—chemical exposure, fire, and explosion—associated with the volatile products involved in offshore oil and gas work are less likely with offshore wind. And, because the number of people on a wind turbine at any one time is much smaller than on a drilling platform, the likelihood of a worker being exposed to these hazards is smaller. Common hazards for the oil and gas industry may include falls (particularly down stairs) injuries from cranes and heavy lifts injuries from being struck by objects and musculoskeletal injuries from lifting, which may occur less frequently on wind turbines but have similar consequences. Other typical worker injuries including slips and trips and exposure to the weather elements may occur with a similar frequency, but the overall risk of a catastrophic event on an oil and gas platform is higher than what can be expected on a wind farm. For wind farms, the likelihood of a catastrophic event is lower with respect to personnel and environmental... 

The oil and gas industry has worked in an offshore environment for decades and has many best practices and standards that would be useful for the offshore wind industry. Chapter 3 introduces regulations and standards that are followed by the oil and gas industry and discusses their relevance to the offshore wind industry. While the oil and gas and wind industries share many offshore hazards, the overall associated risk for oil and gas hazards is greater than for the offshore wind industry. The oil and gas industry works with a more volatile product, and the risk of an explosion or fire on an offshore oil and gas platform is greater than on an offshore wind turbine. Furthermore, offshore drilling platforms are manned and thus pose a greater risk to human life than does the unmanned wind turbine. Chapter 5 discusses the associated risks of the oil and gas industry and the wind industry in more detail. 

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