FEATURES

Opportunities Galore for Oil and Gas Service Providers
Strong economic growth in India has warranted a strong demand for oil and natural gas in the country. In the last five years (2005-2010), the primary energy consumption has increased by over 7.5 per cent CAGR as compared to global increase, of about 2.1 per cent CAGR1. The share of oil and natural gas in India's total primary energy demand is 40 per cent. The overall contribution and pace of growth of oil and natural gas provides a perspective on the importance of this segment to the Indian economy... - Sanjay Sah & Arpit Agarwal

Piping Design for Deep Water FPSO Projects
In the offshore piping design, deep water projects are playing a vital role in the recent years. Ever since the first pipeline was installed offshore, major developments are happening in deep waters. As the oil reserves are slowly getting depleted in shallow depths, major oil companies are exploring and investing in deep offshore projects, which are highly complex and very expensive when compared to fixed platforms functioning in shallow water depths. In early days of offshore industry, 80-100 metres water depth was considered as deep, but now floating production facilities are being installed in 1500-2000 meters water depth or more. As demand for fuel is growing every day, more and more deep water projects are lined up in the coming years...
- HNS Sharma

Mitigating Risks through Early Warning System
Offshore platform design incorporates structural response to the natural dynamic loads generated by wind, ocean waves and earthquakes. Authors discuss the ways to minimise the earthquake related risks to the critical processes running on the offshore platform by using early warning systems...
- Weir Jones

Staying Connected
A new generation of diverless subsea connectors has been developed by Aker Solutions, making the installation of subsea systems in deep water easier, faster and more reliable...
- Endre Johansen

Logic of Timing More Important than Speed to Improve Cash Flow
Toyota introduced the concept of just-in-time inventory management to reduce its work in progress inventory to improve cash flow management. Author discusses the fondness he developed about this concept while pursuing his management which has helped him to look at the bigger picture beyond discounted cash flows from aggressive capital investment...
- Vineet Sharma

Right Solutions to Enhance Equipment Performance and Boost Productivity
The demand for reliable energy continues to grow at a rapid pace around the world. Oil and gas being the major source for overall. global energy supplies, their producers, in order to meet the reliable energy demands, must proactively incorporate the right maintenance solutions to help enhance equipment availability, reliability. and safety. ExxonMobil Lubricants & Petroleum Specialties displays proactive maintenance mindset by setting the benchmark for developing advanced lubricant technologies that are dependable, durable. and provide exceptional protection, even under demanding operating conditions...
- Glen Sharkowicz

Praveen Has Global Vision with an Innovative Perspective
Parveen Industries Private Limited (Parveen) saw a transition from manufacturing electrical conduit pipes in its nascent years to manufacturing oilfield equipment. Expressing his concern over the limited scope of oilfield equipment supplies in Indian market, Prabhat Kumar, Director-Marketing, Parveen Industries Private Limited, talks about their equipment dominating the worldwide markets. Oilfield equipment demand varies in direct proportion to the oil prices. The company aims to be a leader in its field, and for this it is looking for strategic partners already established in the field...
- Prakash Kumar

INDIA SHOWCASE

Technip Forges New Frontiers in Technology
The history of Technip in the offshore industry is linked to the development and implementation of major technological breakthroughs, enabling development of some of the most challenging offshore areas around the world. Today, providing the best solutions to unlock the oil and gas potential of offshore provinces remains a core objective of the Group. ..
- Jean-Marc Letournel

Global reach and a multi-faceted work force gives Aker Powergas Pvt. Ltd. the competitive edge
Over the past decade, there has been a significant increase in the number of EPC players in the Indian market. Ashish Gharpure, Director - Sales & Marketing, Aker Powergas Pvt. Ltd. and Vinayak Pai, Director - Operations, Aker Powergas Pvt. Ltd., who have assumed new roles in the company, provide insights into the future plans of the company...
- Vinayak Pai & Ashish Gharpure

Eastern hub for the hydrocarbon industry
Mott MacDonald, a global management, engineering and development consultancy, has delivered a terminal at Visakhapatnam (Vizag) on behalf of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL). The facility is considered India’s largest fully automated terminal exclusively for black oil products. Vijay Sheth, Divisional Manager, Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals, Mott MacDonald, talks to Offshore World about the successful completion of the project...
- Vijay Sheth

Offshore Structural Modelling, Design and Information Management Software
Tekla's technology creates new opportunities for the offshore construction industry. Tekla Structures, the most advanced building information modelling (BIM) software in the market, provides an accurate, dynamic, and data-rich 3D environment that can be shared by offshore contractors, structural engineers, steel detailers and fabricators, as well as concrete detailers and manufacturers...
- Chandra Shekar

The New Kid on the Block: Praesagus RTPO-A Hamilton Company
Hamilton, US based consulting group recently announced entry in the Indian market through its subsidiary Praesagus RTPO (Real Time Production Optimisation), headquartered in Pune. Keith Grimes, CEO Hamilton Group along with Ashish Chitale, President and MD, and Manav Kanwar, Advisor Business Development hosted a get- together for select technical group from the E&P sector in Mumbai...

"Our Range is now one of the most Comprehensive in the World"
E2S boasts of being the world’s leading independent signaling equipment manufacturer. Delivery, for them forms the most important area as a business. In an interview with Offshore World, Neal Porter, Sales & Marketing Director, E2S Ltd, talks about the high quality, long lasting and reliable products, the company manufactures. E2S being an electronics driven company, its products offer highest output and lowest current consumption figures available...
- Neal Porter

'Sensit's Biggest Advantage is the Ability to Sense Gas faster than its Competition'
In an interview with Offshore World, J Scott Kleppe, President, SENSIT Technologies, briefs us about the detection products, the company manufactures. Bringing innovative technologies for the user to experience increased safety and reliability, drives their success. Their ability to sense gas faster than their competitors and the user-friendly nature of the products make them unique in their field...
- J. Scott Kleppe

INTERVIEW

Demand of Simulation Solutions to Rise in the Future
In an exclusive interview with Offshore World, Dr Ahmad Haidari, Global Industry Director - Process, Energy and Power, Ansys Inc and Dr Kaustubh Nande, Manager – Marketing, Ansys Software Pvt Ltd (Ansys India) talk about the engineering simulation business that Ansys has been into since decades. They talk about the various stages of the company, right from its nascent years to the market that it is able to dominate now. Giving a very lucid picture of the company’s scope, they have brought several aspects of its expanding business-growth, acquisitions, customers, competitors, challenges, business units, verticals, investments, software,technology enhancement methods under one umbrella...

NORTH SPECIAL

Technip Forges New Frontiers in Technology
The history of Technip in the Offshore industry is linked to the development and implementation of major technological breakthroughs, enabling development of some of the most challenging offshore areas around the world. Today, providing the best solutions to unlock the oil and gas potential of offshore provinces remains a core objective of the Group...
- Jean-Marc Letournel

Failure of "Single Point Mooring Systems" Subsea Hoses
Aryatech Marine & Offshore Service Pvt. Ltd. is a Marine and Offshore Engineering and Consultancy Company is headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is comprised of experienced professionals specialising in providing services to the Marine, Offshore and Petroleum industries. Aryatech is associated with Stewart Technology Associates USA, a major Marine & Offshore Engineering Consultancy company, and have together completed various projects in the offshore oil and gas sector. These include the two recently completed projects on the Single Point Mooring offloading systems where the complete offloading buoy setup of the floating hoses, subsea hoses and the mooring hawsers had been analysed...
- Tarun Rewari

FEATURE

Life on the Rigs
Someone loves taking his son out for horse riding; someone runs an eco-friendly plastic factory in his free time; someone envisions his son playing the guitar and becoming a rock-star someday; someone reminisces about his days as a road tar layer; someone worries about not having given enough time to his son; someone, who goes by the nickname Scooter, loves disassembling scooters and reassembling them back to participate in scooter races in England; someone agonises about a burglary back home and wishes to go back as soon as possible to follow up with the police; someone is anxious about payment notices regarding his second home in Bangkok; a former Commander of the Navy is keen to bring in his military discipline to life on the rigs...
- Aniruddha Patnaik

Understanding Illumination in FPSO Design
With a century's worth of experience in providing electrical solutions to marine and hazardous markets, Chalmit provides an insight into some of the key issues to consider when illuminating a floating production and storage vessel...
- Ian MacLeod

Reducing Uncertainties in Gas Quality Measurements
Gas is traded on amount of energy which is derived from the measurement of volume and the amount of energy per unit volume (heating value or calorific value). Hence, the property is now routinely calculated from gas composition data obtained from gas analysis according to ISO6974 [1] and ASTM 1945 [2]. This paper gives details of the areas of the gas measurement process where biases may be introduced and seeks to highlight the methods that can be used to reduce the uncertainty of process gas quality measurements. When properly implemented, these methods will improve the confidence of all interested parties, where natural gas is traded and reduce the threat of litigation...
- Paul Holland

Implementing Innovative Technologies
Why is it that as an industry we struggle to invest and develop in new technologies? As head of an independent Scottish subsea business operating across the globe I find that still, in the energy business in many parts of the world, there remains a reluctance to strike out and try new ways of working...
- Mike Wilson

Differential Global Positioning Systems & Albert Einstein
Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPS) is a technique of making global positioning systems accurate to within two metres. It is a land based technique using four satellites and two receivers. One receiver is mobile and is the entity that needs positioning. The second receiver is stationary on land and kept at a very accurately positioned and surveyed point...
- Mayank Mohan Pande

New Approach to Token-based Licensing Drives Efficiencies in Energy Companies Today
As the world adapts to the impact of the global economic downturn, companies across the process industries, including those operating in the oil and gas sector, are adjusting to new business realities. Organisations must ensure that they focus on profit maximisation in what continues to be an uncertain market environment.
- Sunil Chaudhari

Refinery Improves Safety with Honeywell’s Integrated Solutions
Toxic or combustible gases are part of an industrial process, but can have severe negative impact on people, property and productivity. To provide early warnings of fire or gas release, Reliance needed a partner to provide integrated fire and gas detection, CCTV systems and strong execution capability to work on an aggressive schedule. Reliance also wanted systems that work with the entire gamut of detection devices like combustible gas detectors, toxic gas detectors, smoke detectors, heat detectors, fire alarm panels, fire suppression systems and manual call points. Honeywell offered the full spectrum of gas sensing technologies (electrochemical, catalytic bead, open-path and point Infrared)...

Thermal Insulation for Extreme Temperatures
As new oil discoveries are pushed into deeper waters, the thermal requirements for these systems are becoming more challenging. Often referred to as frozen smoke, aerogels are the lightest and the best insulating media as their performance does not degrade with time or temperature exposure. Cabot produces hydrophobic silica aerogel using fine particle technology adaptive for variety of applications including the very demanding oil & gas industry. The article gives insights into the performance of these super insulators under extreme conditions...
- Matthew Greenfield

Hydrocarbon Extraction from More Demanding Waters
The global demand for extraction of hydrocarbons from more demanding waters means contractors and operators face even more challenging issues. Though we all hope that renewable energy and alternative fuels will have a big impact on lowering our use of fossil fuels, hydrocarbons remain and will continue to be a key source of energy into the foreseeable future...

COMPANY PROFILE

'Leighton's Indian Arm to Play Strong Role in Growth Strategy'
Since 1975, the unique combination of local knowledge and extensive international experience has made Leighton an international contractor of choice in the countries in which operation is carried out. The key strength is the ability to develop innovative, practical solutions for the clients in segments such as civil engineering and infrastructure, building, mining, offshore oil and gas, and rail. Leighton is one of the leading contractors and project developers in Asia, India and the Middle East, and even further afield in the offshore oil and gas market. In an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan, Russell Waugh, Managing Director, Leighton Welspun Contractors, speaks about the extensive experience in the management and execution of a wide range of projects over a broad geographic region...
- Russell Waugh, Managing Director, Leighton Welspun Contractors

People atthe Helm
Russell has worked for over 20 years in the construction industry and been involved in the management of a diverse range of projects throughout Australia and Asia. Russell joined Leighton Welspun some 6 years ago, with the dual goals of establishing Leighton Welspun as a key player in the Offshore Oil and Gas sector, and establishing Leighton’s presence in the Indian market...
- Russell Waugh, Managing Director, Leighton Welspun Contractors

Pipeline Replacement Project-2
Leighton Welspun Contractors in India has just completed the Offshore Pipeline Replacement Project-2 in ONGC’s western offshore Mumbai High and Neelam fields. The project involved surveys; engineering; procurement; fabrication; coating; transportation and installation; hook-up and commissioning of the subsea flow lines; injection lines; platform piping; deck modifications and demolition of the redundant risers. The offshore Mumbai High and Neelam Fields are located approximately 50km offshore Mumbai's coast. The water depths in the field range from 50m to 85m...
- Harshjit Sheth

G1-GS 15 Shallow Water Project
Leighton Welspun Contractors Pvt Ltd (LWIN) completed the G1-GS15 Shallow Water Project for India's Oil & Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) in May 2011. G-1 field is located in Bay of Bengal, 20 km off Amalapuram coast in Krishna-Godavari Basin at a water depth of 250-450m which will produce through a subsea production system consisting of subsea production wells and production manifold. ..
- Pyarilal Kandy, Project Manager, Leighton Welspun Contractors Pvt Ltd

Mangala Field Development Pipeline Project - 800T Twin 24-in Pipeline Bottom Pull
Leighton Contractors India Pvt. Ltd (Leighton) completed the 800-tonne bottom pull of the twin 24" crude oil pipeline under an EPC contract for Cairn India Ltd. (CIL) in April-2011. The pull represents one of the largest pulls ever performed from an offshore winch anchored. The project is part of installation of an SPM system which forms the marine infrastructure for CIL's Bhogat Crude Oil Terminal (COT)...
- Mathew Castelino, Installation Engineering Manager Leighton Welspun Contractors Pvt Ltd

FEATURES

Integrity Management for Flexible Pipe Systems
Flexible pipes have been used in offshore applications since the 1970s. Due to their operational versatility and the challenges operators face when developing and operating marginal fields, the use of flexible pipes for oil and gas production has increased rapidly over the last two decades. Experience world-wide has shown the benefits of a systematic inspection and maintenance set-up to protect assets and ensure operational reliability. Consequently, there is an increased effort among leading operators towards systematic Integrity Management for the flexible marine pipeline systems...
- Carsten S Dahl, Manager, System Assessment Services, NKT Flexibles I/S, Denmark

Driving Project Efficiency, Cost Control in Upstream Oil & Gas Industry
Today's upstream oil and gas companies are focused on keeping pace with growing demand and driving incremental revenues by exploiting hydrocarbon reserves. This trend is particularly significant in fast-emerging, dynamic new markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) where operators are aggressively pursuing new market opportunities both domestically and further afield. These opportunities include finding and developing new reserves and equally extending the production life of existing assets. Achieving these twin goals presents a range of related challenges to operators...
- Henry Lau, Senior VP and Managing Director,Aspentech Apac

Improving Safeguards Through Integrity Management
While failure of subsea components is relatively infrequent, in the past few years there have been a number of subsea components which have failed during operation, including flexible risers, flex joints, and mooring lines. These failures present significant environmental, safety, and physical costs, which may have been avoided with the implementation of a robust Integrity Management (IM) plan. However, the need for IM may only become apparent following an expensive failure or prolonged shut-down, or in the worst case, a fatal accident...
- Peter Falconer, Global Subsea IM Business Manager, 2H Offshore.

Emerson Launches New Wireless Tool to Measure Pressure Behind Well Casing
Emerson Process Management launched the Roxar Downhole Wireless PT Sensor System – Annulus B at OTC 2011. The new instrument will measure online and in real-time previously inaccessible pressure and temperature information behind the casing in subsea production wells, providing operators with an important new tool for well integrity monitoring

Configuring Protective Enclosures for Offshore Applications
Engineers tasked with choosing and configuring enclosures, cabinets and shelters for offshore applications face a multitude of conflicting demands. Not only must the unit provide protection against extreme cold or extreme heat – depending on platform location – but it must also be resistant to a host of environmental and other factors, such as salt spray, sour gas, high wind velocities, UV exposure and possibly high pressure blasts. Topping out this wish list, the enclosure needs to have a robust structural integrity, a very long service life and yet weigh as little as possible – as all topside weight on offshore platforms is an expensive commodity. Many of these demands are common to all types of protective enclosure, regardless of whether they are small instrumentation housings or relatively large shelters. This article looks at some of the issues behind each category...
- Martin Hess and Rohit Nath

Instrument that Makes Oil Exploration Easy
Oil is a tricky object to find. Nature has presented us with reservoirs of oil and gas, but due to its non-renewability and extensive uses the sources are on the brink of exhaustion. In this article, we address one electronic instrument that helps in oil exploration and thereby reduces risks in this cost-intensive and high reward industry...
- Mayank Mohan Pande, DGM(E&T), Marine Survey; ONGC

Environmental, Health, Safety Guidelines For Offshore Oil & Gas Development
The Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines are technical reference documents with general and industry-specific examples of Good International Industry Practice (GIIP). When one or more members of the World Bank Group are involved in a project, these EHS Guidelines are applied as required by their respective policies and standards. These industry sector EHS guidelines are designed to be used together with the General EHS Guidelines document, which provides guidance to users on common EHS issues potentially applicable to all industry sectors. For complex projects, use of multiple industry-sector guidelines may be necessary...
- Jaimin Vasa, President, Gujarat Chemical Association

LEADERSPEAK

Role of Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources in India's Energy Basket
India is currently the world’s fourth largest economy in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) terms. India is also the fifth largest energy consumer in the world. However, due to its high population of approximately 1.1 billion, the per-capita consumption of most energy related products is extremely low, about 25 percent of the world average. Over the last decade buoyed by the country’s economic growth, energy consumption in India has been growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9 percent during the last decade...
- Shishir Agarwal, CEO, Essar Oil Ltd

FEATURES

Safety in Designing for Oil & Gas Projects
HSE in any project is divided into technical safety, working environment and natural environment. Every Safety Engineer should have a general understanding of the basic requirements in all three areas. With regards to projects in Oil & Gas, it is important to ensure that designs are in accordance with rules, regulations, applicable standards and platform specifications and help to set requirements for how the projects are best executed...
- Girish K Dalvi

Human Factor Engineering
This paper discusses an applied approach for HFE integration and implementation into the design, whether it is a new vessel, a facility construction project, or the expansion, modernization, or upgrading of an existing vessel or facility. This success-ful strategy has evolved over many years in the marine industry. This strategy integrates HFE throughout the various life cycle phases of a project with the objective of efficiently executing relevant HFE activities throughout conceptual, preliminary, and detail design as well as during construction and operation...
- Sudhir Mishra

Role Of Top Management In Health and Safety
The age old saying ‘The Buck Stops Here' has in today's scenario another responsibility for the Boss which is ‘Safety Starts Here’. I have chosen to write on Leadership in Health and Safety - not just to explain the fundamental importance of visible leadership by the Top Management of organizations but to explore what real leadership actually looks like in practice when it is done properly and well. And also to make the case for why Boardroom attention to and scrutiny of health and safety is just as important for business success as Financial Reporting, or any other aspect of Corporate Governance...
- Vinay Sharma

Aiming for 10 Fold Growth in 10 Years
Over the years DAS offshore has diversified into various fields and presently serves sectors such as upstream/downstream hydrocarbon, water supply, infrastructure, Non-destructive Testing (NDT) and heat treatments etc. The core service area however continues to be upstream. Ashok Khade, Director Marketing, DAS Offshore who hails from Sangli district, Maharashtra says that in the last 15 years the company have achieved dynamic growth from being a small fabrication contractor to a dynamic stronghold group of companies with the annual turnover having multiplied by twenty folds. The company is continually working towards listing the company for public issue by the year 2012.
- Merly Simon

Safety from the Ground Up
In the light of ever-more-dangerous explorations in deep oceans and harsh climates, safety has become an increasingly-important issue, not just for the people involved but for the greater environment. While making a mistake might cause an injury, making the same mistake in different circumstances could result in billions of dollars worth of damage, both to a company’s reputation and to the environment. Here Phil Maxted of global engineering services and bolting company Hydratight, reveals that safety is more than just what a company does: it has to be built into everything it is...
- Phil Maxted

Choosing the Right Safety Shower
The choice of emergency safety showers has grown over the years to meet the changing and expanding needs of the oil and gas industries and to deal effectively with new hazards. Manufacturers offer a choice of equipment that has been tailored to suit specific workplace requirements to offer the best possible treatment in the event of an accident. It is important to understand what is required for effective decontamination and the options that are available...
- Tony Hughes

Supporting the Oil and Gas Industry
The oil and gas industry faces challenges associated with age-related equipment de-terioration. In these scenarios, companies must ask themselves what to do with the equipment; more specifically, should they maintain the equipment as it ages, or retire it and purchase new equipment?...
- Luis M. Penalver

Stahl Cranes has Superior Platform in Technology, Design and Reliability
STAHL CraneSystems has been around for over 130 years. With our high-performing development team and countless pioneering inventions, we have succeeded in decisively influencing the technological progress within the industry. Our well-conceived standard product range, further advanced into sophisticated special-purpose solutions and explosion-protected hoists, has enabled us to achieve our worldwide success...
- Anand Dayanidhi

INTERVIEW

In-sync with the Growth of India's Hydrocarbon Sector
A K Purwaha, Chairman and Managing Director of Engineering India Limited talks about core competencies of EIL and it’s role in shaping the hydrocarbon industry of India with Mittravinda Ranjan. EIL has developed an extensive track record of working with almost all the major players while providing its services in upstream, midstream and downstream hydrocarbon sector, ports and terminals, fertilizer, mining and metallurgy projects...
- A K Purwaha, Chairman and Managing Director of Engineering India Limited

FEATURES

"GAC's global network helps our clients connect with markets around the world."
Paul Haegeman, Managing Director GAC India has spearheaded growth of Indian operations since 2006. As he explains, the company offers a wide portfolio of shipping services to all types of vessels calling at Indian ports. Those services include the handling of bulk cargo and providing vital support operations for the country’s growing oil and gas industry. He talks about offshore operations to Offshore World...
- Paul Haegeman, Managing Director, GAC India

Taxation for the Exploration & Production Sector
Taxation of the E&P sector was traditionally driven with the objective of attracting investments and expertise to secure India’s energy resources. An attempt has been made to keep this objective in mind in the new legislation, ie, the Direct Taxes Code (DTC), proposed to be enacted from 1 April 2012, as well...
- Nidhi Agarwal, Neetu Vinayek

Health, Safety, Security of Personnel and Environment in Offshore Hydrocarbon Industry
Much importance would be given on OHSAS standard in an oil and gas and offshore industries, which will result in achieving sound Health, Safety and Security of personnel and to the Environment. HSE management system will not only comply with all current legislation and statutory requirements but also address the process of risk minimisation to achieve zero incident goals. This document will provide an overview of HSE expectation and work as food for thought...
- Kiran M Parikh

Increasing Predictive Intelligence in Indian Offshore Operations
India Hydrocarbon Visions 2025 is a report commissioned by the Indian government in 2000 with the goal of achieving long-term energy security for the country. Key recommendations and aspirations include "the intensification of exploration efforts and achievement of 100 percent coverage of unexplored basins in a time bound manner to enhance domestic availability of oil and gas."
- Vincent Vieugue

Rehabilitation of Rigid Subsea Pipeline
Marine structures operate in a complex environment that can vary significantly according to site location and water depth. The offshore structures can be divided into different zones namely mud line / subsoil, subsea, splash zone and marine atmospheric zone. There can be different temperature zones, vibration levels on various levels on various levels of marine atmospheric zone in an offshore jacket...
- J S Kalsi

High Precision on the High Seas Measurement of Injection Water Quantities on Gullfaks A
The Norwegian oil company Statoil is the largest oil producer on the continental coast with a payroll of more than 16,000 employees. In 1986, the Gullfaks A rig, weighing 675 000 tonnes, was the first rig in the Gullfaks field to start production. Here 280 000 barrels of oil and 11 million m3 of gas are recovered per day. The gas is conveyed through pipelines to the gas processing plant north of Stavanger, while the crude oil is loaded directly into shuttle tankers on the field. With its storage capacity of 300 000 m³ oil, Gullfaks A is a major contact and transshipment point for export...
- Dipl.-Ing. Claus Weihermueller

Breakthrough for Framo in the CLOV project
A Contract awarded by Total for the supply of a Pump System for the CLOV deepwater development offshore Angola is a major breakthrough for Framo Engineering AS. CLOV consists of the Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta discoveries, located in approximately 1,370 metres of water in Block 17 offshore Angola. The company is a Total System Supplier to the worldwide oil and gas industry, supplying leading market technology for subsea processing, multiphase boosting, and wet gas compression...
- Arne B. Olsen

Tekla Structures: Ideal Solution for Offshore Industry
The Halfdan Platform Halfdan BB is an unmanned platform situated in the North Sea at a location where the depth reaches 50 m. The platform’s substructure consists of traditional tubular cable profiles which are welded together to form a tower lattice with three arms joined below to the foundation pylons...
- Rohit Toshniwal

Staying Ahead of the Curve in Natural Gas
In response to the anticipated growth in the demand of LNG, TORP LNG AS has developed its proprietary EasyLNG regas solution for emerging markets. The design philosophy for EasyLNG was to develop a re-gasification plant with convenience in scalability...
- Lars Odeskaug

Solid Waste Discharges from Marine Sanitation Devices
January 2010, the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) MEPC 159(55) effluent standards and performance tests for sewage treatment plants installed on board went into effect. Marine sanitation device (MSD) equipment manufacturers offer a variety of treatment schemes they claim effectively treat wastes for the offshore exploration and production markets. But to properly determine the efficacy of an MSD, closer evaluation of the logistics of its specific solids/sludge handling system should be made...
- Dana Casbeer

Bartec Keeps Temperature up in one of Austria's Biggest Natural Gas Stations
The natural gas station Strasshof with its owner OMV Gas & Power is one of the biggest natural gas stations in Austria. The safety technology provider received the order for the engineering and supply of trace heating for the conveyer pipes as well as the condensate pipes. The used cable was the self-limiting parallel heating cable PSB as well as the self-limiting parallel heating cable HSB. The convincing advantage of these two kinds of cables is their ability to be used in explosive atmospheres without any temperature limiter...
- Paul Rosenberger

Oil and Gas Business has 38 Percent Shortage of Skilled Labour
Dearth of skilled workers have been a cause of concern in India’s oil and gas sector. It has been learnt that due to shortfall of young talent and shortage of meticulous training India has been facing this problem. On the other hand India’s rival china has done prolific growth in oil and gas sector and has also made inroads in other foreign markets...
- Aditya Kumar

Sound Management in E & P
Vinay R Sharma, MD, Oil Field Warehouse Services ushered a new era in the field of logistics for the offshore oil & gas sector, which has changed the look of balance sheets of operators in this sector and opened a whole plethora of opportunities to global suppliers...
- Vinay R Sharma

Neural Networks in Exploration and Production of Hydrocarbons
Human brain is a unique organ that can comprehend itself. Brain mechanisms are complex in nature and though much of research has been carried out by the scientists in this field, still it is a long way off from understanding these completely. Electronic computers that mimic structure of neural computation began a promising era in the eighties. Author discusses use of artificial neural networks that are and can be used in E&P activities...
- Mayank Mohan Pande

Primary Medical Emergency Response at Remote Locations
India is a vast country rich in numerous natural resources including oil & gas, minerals, and other resources. This attracts various organizations involved in mining, exploration, infrastructure, engineering etc which exposes the employees and contractors of the company to a wide range of risks including medical risks. These projects utilise specialized machinery and equipment including heavy equipment and have a significant risk of serious trauma and injuries. Thus such remote locations should have the capability to deliver effective primary first aid, advanced medical care and transportation capability to a tertiary care medical facility...
- Dr Alok Khullar

LEADERSPEAK

DOEIL: Growing Slowly but Steadily
A successful person often has the courage to never let it go in adverse circumstances, rather he uses it as a tool to fight with odds and take a calculated risk and act accordingly. Navpreet Singh, Joint Managing Director of Mumbai-based, Dolphin Offshore Enterprises (India) Ltd (DOEIL) is one such man who is ready to take business-risks that his contemporary business friends never take. Despite his very hectic schedule, he talked to Mittravinda Ranjan about sundry issues related to oil and gas Industry, the growth and future plans of the organization...
- Navpreet Singh, Joint Managing Director,Dolphin Offshore Enterprises (India) Ltd

FEATURES

Ushering a New Era in Offshore Logistics
Vinay R Sharma, MD, Oil Field Warehouse Services ushered a new era in the field of logistics for the offshore oil & gas sector, which has changed the look of balance sheets of operators in this sector and opened a whole plethora of opportunities to global suppliers. An entrepreneur in his true spirit be found opportunity in the challenge that the offshore industry been facing. It has been five years since he decided to had call it quits with India’s biggest conglomerate to pursue his dream. And he hasn’t looked back since. He shares his journey with Offshore World through an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan...
- Vinay R Sharma, MD, Oil Field Warehouse Services

The Vital Link to Realize Oil & Gas Discoveries
Shipping industry has always played a vital role in transporting energy into the country, to meet the country’s ever growing demand. Despite endeavours, the Indian shipping industry has not been able to maintain its growth momentum with the pace of economic development. Arun Kumar Gupta, Director (Technical & Offshore Services), The Shipping Corporation of India and Convener INMARCO-INAvation 2010, expresses his concern over the reduced EXIM trade through Indian vessels...
- Mittravinda Ranjan

FLNG: Bolt on Technology for Berthing and Mooring - is it that Simple ?
The systems used for berthing, mooring and mooring management at onshore LNG terminals are often considered suitable for Floating LNG (FLNG) applications. Given the many additional factors of a highly dynamic marine environment, is this a valid assumption? By demystifying the complexities of FLNG berthing and mooring, Tom Toth, Technical Manager, Offshore Integrated Moorings, Trelleborg Marine Systems, gives an insight into new technologies and ideas for integrated berthing and mooring...
- Tom Toth

Offshore Access Systems - Revolutionising Marine Personnel Transfer
More than 10 million crew transfers take place annually across the world in the offshore oil and gas industry and whether these are by helicopter, vessel or crane basket, personnel transfer remains one of the highest risk activities. This, added to growing pressure on operators to increase productivity while reducing operational costs has led to more intense scrutiny of current personnel transfer methods...
- Steven Beales

Creating the Workforce for the Booming Offshore Sector
Growing demand of petrotech professionals is a challenge oil and gas industry is facing in the E&P sector. Prof Paritosh K Banik, Director General, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), delves over the manpower crunch in this field...
- Prof Paritosh Banik

High Precision on the High Seas Measurement of Injection Water Quantities on Gullfaks A
The Norwegian oil company Statoil is the largest oil producer on the continental coast with a payroll of more than 16,000 employees. In 1986, the Gullfaks A rig, weighing 675 000 tonnes, was the first rig in the Gullfaks field to start production. Here 280 000 barrels of oil and 11 million m3 of gas are recovered per day. The gas is conveyed through pipelines to the gas processing plant north of Stavanger, while the crude oil is loaded directly into shuttle tankers on the field. With its storage capacity of 300 000 m³ oil, Gullfaks A is a major contact and transshipment point for export...
- Dipl.-Ing. Claus Weihermueller

NELP Bid Rounds Secures Investment of about USD 14 Billion
The oil and gas sector in India have been traditionally dominated by Public sector undertaking – which accounts for more than half of domestic oil and gas production and refining capacity in the country. However, in recent years, because of the steps taken by the government to deregulate the industry and encourage greater private and foreign participation, private sector contribution in the sector has been increasing steadily. In this backdrop, the ninth round of NELP offers an attractive entry point. The NELP-IX provides for attracting investments in this important sector of the economy and has significantly boosted the development of Exploration and Production sector...
- Merly Simon

Handling Test Separator Problems for the Oil & Gas Industry
V-Cone flow meter offers an advanced differential pressure flow technology that acts as its own flow conditioner. This unique design enables the V-Cone flow meter to provide outstanding performance without the long lengths of upstream or downstream pipe runs usually required by other types of flow meters. This requirement for reduced straight pipe run results in significant space savings, especially on offshore platforms...
- Rohit Toshniwal

A Systematic Approach to Health Risk Management in Oil And Gas Industry
Oil and gas sector in India are subjected to legislation and regulation concerning Occupational Health and Safety. With the increase in legislation and the drive for ever-greater efficiency and accountability, health and safety in oil and gas is becoming an increasingly important subject. This article covers the essential health issues that apply specifically to Oil and Gas industry, including the nature and causes of occupational injury or illness, relevant occupational health legislation applicable in India and occupational health risk management for the industry...
- Dr Kowshik Kupatira

Advantages of Master Metering Method of Proving Custody Transfer Flows
"The American Petroleum Institute Manual of Petroleum Measurement Standards" offers a guide for the design, installation, calibration, and operation of meter-proving systems that are commonly used by petroleum operators around the world. The chapter covers Displacement and Tank provers as well as the use of Master Meters to validate measurement systems for custody transfer. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the advantages of the Master Meter proving method in today’s offshore and onshore custody transfer applications...
- Andrew Ross

Specialty Stainless For Solving Corrosion Problems in the Oil & Gas Industry
Stainless steels cover a wide range of alloys, each with a particular combination of corrosion resistance and mechanical properties. In oil and gas applications many of these stainless steel grades are used, depending on the demands of the particular service environment. To achieve good corrosion resistance several damage mechanisms have to be considered, such as uniform corrosion, pitting corrosion and environmentally-induced cracking. Different strategies are used for developing specialty stainless steels which have properties far superior to those of the basic 304L and 316L grades. This paper will focus the attention on some duplex and superaustenitic grades and their corrosion properties and applicability to the oil and gas industry...
- Elisabeth Johansson, Rachel Pettersson, Elisabet Alfonsson and François Weisang-Hoinard

High Performance Age Hardenable Nickel Alloys Solve Problems in Sour Oil and Gas Service
In the coming years the new frontier of oil and gas exploration will be in deep wells, and particularly those in deepwater. Most of the easy to pick fruits of the industry have already been taken with shallow field development. Compared to shallow wells, deep wells generally require equipment built with more high performance nickel base alloys. Wells are categorized either being sweet or sour. Sweet wells being only mildly corrosive, while sour wells are highly corrosive and contain hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, chlorides and free sulphur. In addition different levels of corrosive conditions are compounded by temperatures up to 260oC and pressures up to 25,000 psi. and generally deep wells generally have higher temperatures and pressures...
- Corrotherm International Ltd

INTERVIEW

Economic Reforms & NELP Rounds Transformed the Face of E&P in India
Naresh Kumar, MD, Jindal Drilling & Industries Ltd speaks on growth in Indian exploration activities, reflected in the increasing number of offshore rigs working off the coast of India during the last decades. Economic reforms & NELP rounds have changed the face of E&P activities in India. Looking back to June 2000, there were only 12 rigs contracted for work in the offshore waters of India. Around 2002, ONGC, with maximum acreage, went in for massive re-development plan for Mumbai High North and subsequently Mumbai High South fields, involving installation of numerous platforms to carry out the stated goal to increase recovery factor from the averaging 28 percent to 40 percent. He says, the rig count has grown to around 52 rigs currently contracted for work in offshore waters surrounding the country in an interview with Mittravinda Ranjan...
- Naresh Kumar, Managing Director, Jindal Drilling & Industries Ltd

FEATURES

Taking Well Intervention to Ultra-Deep Waters
When Aker Solutions' new deepwater intervention vessel, Skandi Aker, last month was announced winner of the coveted international "Ship of the Year 2010" award, it was as much about what goes on between the vessel and the seabed as the ship itself...
- Vennlig hilsen

Ultrasound in the Offshore World
Because light and radio-waves cannot penetrate more than a few metres of the sea the only medium for signalling measurements and communications is Sound. Nature has endowed marine animals like dolphins and whales to use ultrasound (those frequencies of Sound which exceed the 20 KHz limit for human hearing) for locating prey and even sing their songs! In this short article we shall see how ultrasound waves are generated, focussed, refracted, and reflected and how they are used to image the sea bed and generally used in the offshore world...
- Mayank Mohan Pande

Evolving Options for Offshore Fluid Services
The selection of fitting technology depends on pressures, temperatures and media. However, when applications demand very high reliability, or involve pressures beyond the scope of other industry-standard fittings, choice becomes limited and the cost of the fitting itself can be a tiny fraction compared to the cost of installation. This is especially the case with many marine applications in hydraulic lines, services and instrumentation...
- Jim Breeze and Kishore Malkani

Practical Deepwater Pipeline Repair System
A major U.S. oil producer challenged the deepwater pipeline repair industry to develop a system that would be environmentally responsible and provide business continuity and value. Wachs Subsea, LLC and Oil States Industries, Inc. answered the challenge by designing, testing, and producing an innovative Deepwater Pipeline Repair System consisting of a cut-lift-remove-replace method that is operational at 10,000 feet, and can repair up to a 200-foot section of pipeline...
- Tim Sheehan

Smart Wireless Instrumentation for Offshore Applications
O&G Offshore operators are continuously on the lookout for ways to reduce capital and operational expenditure in an increasingly fluctuating business environment. With less weight, smaller footprint and enhanced security and reliability, wireless technology provides answers to some of these business challenges and is fast changing the industry's thought patterns. How does one extend the power of predictive intelligence into areas that were previously out of physical or economic reach and open the doors for new possibilities in process improvement? Remote locations, physical obstructions, and the high cost of engineering and integrating new technologies with exiting technologies should no longer be the barriers for this... - Sunil Khanna, Dr A S Prasad and Pawan Sharma
- Sunil Khanna, Dr A S Prasad and Pawan Sharma

Smart 3D Solutions Increase Safety in the Engineering Enterprise
As recent events have indelibly illustrated, lapses in plant safety can result in the loss of life and property, unimaginable environmental damage as well as corporate financial and reputation ruin, and intense governmental scrutiny. SmartPlant Enterprise and its ship and offshore counterpart, SmartMarine Enterprise, inherently promote safer plant design and construction with their rules-based Smart 3D engineering design solution...
- David Joffrion

Use of Compressor Water Wash to Optimise Gas Turbine Performance
Optimising Gas Turbine (GT) performance is a key consideration for plant operators. Such activity returns dividends of improved output and heat rate recovery, benefiting equipment lifecycle and maintenance costs. GTs compress large quantities of air through the compressor stage, consuming up to 60 % of the energy involved in operating the engine. Any compressor efficiency degradation significantly impacts overall efficiency. Contaminants, even in small concentration, can coat or foul working surfaces. Over time, this results in lower efficiency and output. Compressor fouling is almost unavoidable, even with modern air filter treatment. Compressor cleaning is required to maintain overall GT efficiency. A well-designed offline and online water wash system can minimise compressor fouling, maintain higher turbine efficiencies, and significantly improve profitability without impacting the durability of compressor components. This paper reviews methods to optimize a compressor utilizing a water wash program and data that demonstrates an improvement of output and heat rate recovery...
- Robert J Burke and Alessandro Boursier

Condensate Stabilization
Composition of raw natural gas depends on the type, depth, and location of the reservoir and geology of the area. Most of the gas reservoirs contain some amount of heavy hydrocarbon components in its liquid state. This associated liquid hydrocarbon is called as hydrocarbon condensate. The hydrocarbon condensate contains large percentage of lighter components, which will flash off when the condensate is brought to atmospheric pressure. The recovered hydrocarbon condensate needs to be stabilized to avoid hydrocarbon flashing in storage tanks. Stabilization is a process of decreasing the amount of lighter components (C1 to C3) in the liquid phase. In other words, stabilization can be defined as a process that brings down the vapor pressure of the hydrocarbon liquid to the required specification. Stabilization of fluids from oil fields is called crude stabilization whereas for gas fields, it is called condensate stabilization. The objective of this article is to elaborate a method for the selection of a condensate stabilization technique for a specific application. Stabilization of condensate can be achieved through various techniques. However, this article discusses the techniques of Multistage Flashing and Stabilization by Distillation in detail...
- John Benoy and Rajesh N Kale

Management Excellence in Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals Refineries
Over past three decades corporate management has sponsored number of business improvement initiatives such as TQM, Six Sigma, and Lean Manufacturing. These and other operational excellence initiatives were used as catalyst to improve business performance. Many companies today are continuing to implement some form of operational excellence program to again transform and dramatically increase organizational performance...
- Dr Sohrab R Bhot

LEADERSPEAK

"We are scouting for younger fields, with proven oil and gas reserves that are in need of investments".....
Sudhir Vasudeva, Director (Offshore), ONGC started his career with this organization, as trainee in the same year when India’s hydrocarbon major had put the Mumbai High field into production .He is the oilman with extensive hands on experience in various E&P projects of the ONGC. When he took charge of his current position in February 2009, two main things that topped the agenda were to improve recoveries from Mumbai High and bring East Coast fields on stream at the earliest. In a free wheeling interview with Mittravinda Ranjan, he talks about various projects the company is working on and the strategy of the corporation to augment the hydrocarbon supplies in the country...
- Sudhir Vasudeva, Director (Offshore), ONGC

INTERVIEW

Powergas will play significant role in monetizing Indian hydrocarbon assets...
Sanjay Joshi is the Managing Director, Aker Powergas Pvt Ltd, India, the Indian arm of Aker Solutions. He is a chartered chemical engineer with extensive experience in upstream and downstream projects. He has held various positions in his professional career in engineering design, project management and business development. Joshi talks about the robust growth of oil and gas sector in the country and the role of the Indian arm in global operations of the group in a face to face interview with Mittravinda Ranjan...
- Sanjay Joshi, Managing Director, Aker Powergas Pvt Ltd

FEATURES

Seabed Processing Systems; Key to Unlock Hidden Deposits
Subsea field discoveries have rapidly increased over the past years. However, very high field development costs restrict the operators from exploiting the available resources. Siemens has developed power grids to address the challenges for the offshore industry to produce oil from marginally economic fields and unlock the potential of isolated fields...
- Bjoern Einar Brath

Using Laser Scans for Offshore Platforms
Complete information about as built plant status is critical for the EPC companies for revamps of old platforms. As compared to conventional methods of gathering the data, use of laser scanning technology in surveys results in generation of highly accurate data. This minimizes the overall cost by fast tracking on site data gathering without the necessity of plant shut downs. The authors have discussed various advantages of this technology for offshore platforms...
- Dr Heiko Hosse, Madanan Sankara Marar and Margarete Kreppert

Controlling Corrosion with PTFE Coatings for Fasteners used in Marine Environments
Offshore structures are used worldwide for a variety of functions and in a variety of water depths, and environments. The most commonly used offshore platforms are made of steel and are used for oil/gas exploration and production. The design and analyses of these offshore structures must be made in accordance with recommendations published by the American Petroleum Institute (API)...
- Kirtan R Dhami

Best Practices in Hazard and Operability Studies
Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP) remains a very powerful tool in the armory of modern designers and engineers in minimizing hazard and operability related concerns from process plants in continuous as well as batch operations. In a world moving towards increased environmental awareness, HAZOP techniques will continue to find traditional as well as novel applications...
- Ram K Goyal and S Kugan

Managing Time for Professional Success
"The most important principle of corporate management is Time Management." - Thomas Watson, IBM. Time is the most precious resource. Few things are more important to us than learning how to manage time well. What is Time Management? Is it only making schedules or working faster? Often approaches to time management are very mechanistic...
- Nikhil Desai

India Steps on Shale Gas
Companies including Reliance Industries Limited (E&P), RNRL, and Genpact, have expressed interest in exploring for shale gas in India. Reliance Industries paid a reported USD 1.7 billion for a 40 percent share in Atlas Energy’s leasehold in the Marcellus shale gas play in the eastern US. A complication to shale gas in India is that the government-issued leases for conventional petroleum exploration do not include unconventional sources such as shale gas....
- Merly Simon

Cairn-ONGC Pipeline Operational
Commissioning of this crude oil pipeline marks a successful completion of a technological marvel in the Rajasthan project and would facilitate more cost-effective and augmented crude oil production directly accessing the buyers...
- Merly Simon

India Eyes BP's Hydrocarbon Assets in Vietnam
While BP is mulling to sell fields in Pakistan, Colombia, Venezuela and Vietnam to meet the USD 20 billion clean-up bill of the worst oil spill, India is eyeing to acquire company's assets in Vietnam. Murli Deora led Indian delegation for talks to Vietnam in July...
- Zafrus Salam

VIEWPOINT

Gearing Up for the Future Challenge!
India's hydrocarbon potential remains vastly unexplored, with only 22 percent of its sedimentary basin area being well explored. The dgh have institutionalized a very systematic licensing round and the eight successful nelp rounds have increased the intensity of domestic exploration activities and also the participation of Indian private sector and select international players in exploration activities in India. This has in turn led to increased private investment in the sector in recent years. Although a number of significant discoveries have been made during the past six - seven years, increased efforts are required to unlock India's untapped Hydrocarbon potential...
- Rahul Dhir, Managing Director and CEO, Cairn India

FEATURES

Exploring India's Sedimentary Basins
Energy safety is amid the primarily stern apprehension for the countries all over the world and more precise to emerging nation like India. Within the existing circumstances the key driver for energy augmentation appears to be exploration efforts in Indian sedimentary basins...
- S.K. Srivastava, DG, DGH

Blood is Thicker than Gas
The Supreme Court ruling closes a chapter on a high profile feud between two Ambani borthers Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani that could set the tone for the country's policy on gas pricing and aloocation...
- Zafrus Salam

Indian Gas Transmission Business
Gas supplies are expected to be more than double in the next five years in India. Well developed infrastructure of transmission pipe lines is necessary to support demand supply chain. Positive results from NELP rounds and new gas discoveries in the country have generated significant interest among various industry players in gas transmission business...
- Revati Kasture

New Drilling Techniques Yield Positive Results in Russia.
New technologies are making way into the field of E&P activities. Oilmen are more open to trying out innovative technologies to increase production. At TNK Uvat Fields, the geologists have tried new commingled technology and achieved success. Russia has sourced this technology from abroad and being novel technology very few companies have used so far.Commingled production has yielded good production results in Ethiopia and Ecudor...
- T N K - Uvat

Enhanced Laser Diode Spectroscopy Design for High Integrity Gas Detection Applications
Operators of gas detection systems used in safety-critical applications in the hydrocarbon processing, petrochemical and other industries are increasingly looking for rugged fixed, open path (line-ofsite) gas detectors featuring high safety integrity with low levels of maintenance and total cost of ownership Enhanced Laser Diode Spectroscopy™ (ELDS™) is a unique class of laser diode spectroscopy that includes techniques for increasing sensitivity and reliability for gas detection applications. The design of an open path gas detection (OPGD) system with ELDS can meet industry requirements for high safety integrity and low maintenance with two proprietary ELDS techniques: harmonic fingerprints and automatic functional testing of gas detectors...
- Lee Richman

Silicone in the Oil and Gas Industry
Silicone is a class of specialty chemicals that have unique properties that result from its origins at the frontier of inorganic and organic chemistry. This paper describes the nature of silicone and the physical and chemical properties that make it unique. The relationship and utilization of these properties to applications throughout the petroleum production and refining chain are discussed in the paper...
- Dow Corning Corporation

Demanding Performance Requirements of Oil and Gas Industry Require Careful Safety System Selections
Asset and system availability along with process uptime are more critical than ever in the oil and gas industry. At today’s high fuel prices, each minute of uptime counts. Any disruption of the supply chain creates a strain in the market and puts companies at risk for incurring substantial downtime losses...
- Rockwell Automation

Managing the Shipping Carriers
Tanker management is just not a profession but passion for Capt. Mohan Naik, General Manager, Dynacom Tankers Management. The company is headquartered in Athens and set up its Indian operations around 18 years back under his leadership. The company operates one of the biggest fleets of carriers for the oil & gas industry. He shared his views on few of the concerned issues in a candid conversation...
- Capt Mohan Naik, General Manager, India

Tapping the Unconventional Gas Sources
Gas hydrates is described as a very large global reservoir of natural gas, estimated to contain more organic carbon than all other known fossil fuel. The worldwide amount of methane in gas hydrates is about twice the amount of carbon held in all fossil fuels on earth and is considered to contain at least 1x104 gigatons of carbon in a very conservative estimate...
- Merly Simon

Two Down In Three Weeks
About sixty percent of world's energy need is met through hydrocarbons. Drilling oil and gas wells in deepwater is risky and costly process. Time and again, the hydrocarbon industry has witnessed accidents that have not only resulted in huge financial losses but also had a deep impact on the environment...
- OSW Team

INTERVIEW

Maco in Good Shape, as Demand Increases in the Equipment Segment
There will be huge requirement of equipments in India in oil and gas industry in next two to three years. We are importing equipments for drilling and production as well, says Amitav Dutta, General Manager of Oil and Gas Divison, Maco Corporation. He shares his views on growing prospects of the company through an exclusive interview with Offshore World...
- Amitav Dutta

FEATURES

E+H Aims Exponential Growth in India
Mr. Sajiv Nath, Managing Director, Endress+Hauser (India) Private Limited has been associated with the automation industry for almost two decades, with expertise in the field of instrumentation, not only in India, but also in South East Asia, Middle East & Africa. In the past 20 years, he has worked at key positions with prominent automation companies both in India and abroad and a key member of the leadership team of Automation Industry Association. In an exclusive interview with Mittravinda Ranjan of Offshore World, he talks about the role of E+H’s presence in the Indian economic region as a part of company’s global growth strategy... - Mr. Sajiv Nath

Thinking Global, Acting Local is the Mantra
For more than half a century, Endress + Hauser, has consistently aligned itself to the needs of markets and customers and has marked its presence in all the major markets across the globe. Mr Klaus Endress, CEO, Endress + Hauser Group spearheaded the growth of the company globally since 1995. E+H set up its first Indian product centre in Aurangabad in 2000. He recently inaugurated a new facility to manufacture pressure and level meters in Aurangabad. On the sidelines of inauguration of inauguration of new production center, he talked to Mittravinda Ranjan of Offshore World about India as a dynamic market and the group's aim to achieve growth twice the country's GDP...
- Klaus Endress

Mama Mia! I've Struck Oil - Now What?
As the world's known reserves of crude are shrinking, the race is on to discover new fields and get the most out of the existing ones. Over the years, this hunt for the black gold has led man from the safety of land to shallow coastal waters and beyond into the depths of the ocean; from the salubrious climate of the Gulf of Mexico to the harsh freezing waters of the North Sea; from the relatively calm Arabian Sea to the typhoon-ridden seas of South-East and Far East Asia...
- Zubin Mistry

Learn and Use Global Offshore Experience
Since the piper Alpha disaster in 1988, many changes have been implemented across world offshore regions. Corrosion related failures of processing facilities are a major source of risk to offshore oil and gas installations. It has been recognized that there are many ways to organize and operate successful corrosion management systems, each of which is asset specific depending on factors such as Design, Stage in Life Cycle, Process Conditions and Operational History. Our country is yet to develop programs like Joint Industry Projects (JIPs) to address the materials and corrosion concerns with specific reference to our Indian operating conditions...
- M Valiappan

A Versatile Reservoir Unit
Based on recent experiences in designing the latest generation dynamic positioned (DP) drillships and floating production systems, a Versatile Reservoir Unit (VRU) has been developed by SBM Offshore. This unit has great operating flexibility and can be used in 4 operating scenarios...
- Leen Poldervaart and Nicolas Abela

Selecting the Right Stainless Steel Grade
Stainless steels have properties which make them attractive choices for a wide range of applications. Many grades have been developed over the years; these form a rich tapestry of alternatives, with grades optimized to offer cost-effective solutions to many of the problem environments in industrial, marine, construction and transport applications...
- Tarak P Kavi

Use of Explosion Modeling for Safely Locating Control Buildings in Oil Refineries and Petrochemical Plants
For safe siting of control buildings the American Petroleum Institute's Recommended Practice API RP-752 provides detailed guidelines and best practices. This paper describes the use of simple explosion modeling techniques to decide if a proposed location for a control building in a refinery meets current industry standards. In the case study presented in this paper, there were five scenarios posing potential risk, two of which called for detailed risk analysis. The quantitative risk assessment also includes a fault tree analysis that evaluates the event rate of vapor cloud explosion and Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE) of a propane vessel...
- Ram K Goyal

PTFE Coated Fasteners Continue to Solve Problems
The biggest problem that the oil and gas companies faced was preventing corrosion, which other wise cost thousands of dollars for the maintenance of the metallic parts and equipments in such companies. Thus rouse a need to protect machine component parts from corrosion and make them corrosion and chemical resistance...
- Abedin.M.Gunderwala

Reviving Natural Resources Naturally
Tiny and invisible, bacteria are often maligned as 'bugs' that cause diseases in humans and animals. Little do we know of how wonderfully they help sustain life on earth. As the base of the food chain in many environments, they do the most inane and tedious of jobs, from breaking down dead, organic matter and recycling natural resources to putting that tang in yoghurt and that sour taste in dough bread. And now financial support from DBT, Government of India, scientists at TERI and Institute of Reservoir Studies (IRS), ONGC have jointly developed ways of utilizing these bacteria to extract oil from 'stripper' or less productive oil wells and putting them back in business...
- Dr Banwari Lal

Wellhead Metering Using V-Cone Technology: Coal Bed Methane and Wet Gas Metering
In a bid to increase the hydrocarbon production there is an increase in use of injected fluids in E&P activities. However it is critical to monitor the level of fluids to get maximum output in most efficient manner. McCrometer’s versatile V-Cone Flow Meter is compatible with the demanding standards set by the oil/gas production, delivery and refining industry...
- Toshniwal Bros

MARKET INSIGHTS

Utilizing Restricted Data with Knowledge
Current trends in engineering dimensional control surveys in hostile offshore environment may reduce the cost of offshore projects significantly. Typically 'brown field' facilities are changed, modified and updated during their operation, to the point where the existing general arrangement drawings, P&ID's and structural / piping detailed drawings are completely out of date and do not reflect the actual site conditions. This causes major problems when the asset is being managed and maintenance or modification work is required...
- Ramon Kirpalaney

INTERVIEW

Firm Footing in India
Rockwell Automation Strikes the Right Match With Energy and Power. Greg Obenmeyer, M V Manager, (Oil and Gas) Rockwell Automation speaks to Offshore world... - By Mr. Greg Obermeyer

FEATURES

Indian Petrochemical Industry
Petrochemicals dominates the global chemicals market with a share of almost 40 percent. The coming years are expected to see the petrochemicals industry undergoing a major metamorphosis, particularly with the Middle East as a major petrochemicals supplier and China emerging as a major processing hub and end-use market... - Bhargav Vadia

Market Analysis of Indian Refining Sector
Oil is the world's most important source of energy. The demand for petroleum products is linked directly to the country's economic activity, which is measured by its GDP. The largest demand for petroleum products is from Asia and Asia Pacific region with strong growth in consumption shown by countries like China and India...
- Sandeep Gupta

Innovative Approach for Increasing Petroleum Refinery Margins
Integration of solvent extraction unit of lube refinery and FCC unit of fuel refinery provides a unique concept of converting fuel oil components into premium refinery products, leading to significant increase in GRM...
- M O Garg, Manoj Srivastava, Manoj Kumar and U C Agrawal

Crude Oil Prices Beyond the Obvious
In contrast with oil hydrocarbons, which have been an object of wide and detailed eco-toxicological studies worldwide, natural gas and its components have been left outside the sphere of environmental analysis, control and regulation. At the same time, the input of natural gas and products of its combustion into the biosphere is one of the typical and global factors of anthropogenic impact. The article is based on "Environmental Impact of Offshore Oil and Gas Industry"...
- Nazir Moulvi and Niteen Jain

Natural Gas in Marine Environment
In contrast with oil hydrocarbons, which have been an object of wide and detailed eco- toxicological studies worldwide, natural gas and its components have been left outside the sphere of environmental analysis, control and regulation. At the same time, the input of natural gas and products of its combustion into the biosphere is one of the typical and global factors of anthropogenic impact. The article is based on "Environmental Impact of Offshore Oil and Gas Industry"...
- Stanislav Patin, Translation by Elena Cascio

Defining Systems in Electrical and Process Domain
"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible" Albert Einstein We think of causes look for effects, in objects that are ours, not only mine. However, sometimes we have no option but to toss a coin!...
- Mayank Mohan Pande

VIEWPOINT

Offshore Exploration Hurdles on the Ground
As E&P activity is moving towards deeper waters, this will thrust the demand of Floating Production Storage and Off loading vessels (FPSO)...
- Umesh Grover

SPECIAL REPORT

Meeting the Technology Challenge
Technology is key to maximizing production from mature fields as well as economically developing new fields. Weatherford's staunch commitment to developing and integrating new technologies is driving the company's growth while helping E&P companies meet the increasing recovery challenges of mature, complex and extreme well environments. Offshore World presents its strides...

ARTICLES
Technology Trends

Checking Adequacy of Anti-surge Valves
Even as we find and start to produce from new wells, we still work to find ways to improve Compressor operations in the process industries are critical and a major control and reliability challenge. Oil and gas plants use centrifugal compressors to boost gas pressure. The turndown of booster compressors can result in significant operational losses...

Environment

Not Many Choices Left to Combat Climate Change
World leaders gathering in Cm openhagen next month for the UN Climate summit have a historic opportunity to avert the worst effects of climate change...

CORPORATES
Events

Industry Stalwarts Lend Finishing Touches to Oceantex World Expo 2010
The fourth meeting of the Central Advisory Board spearheading Oceantex World Expo 2010 met on 16th November 2009 at Delhi. Vice Chairman of the CAB for this mega event D.K. Pandey (Director - Exploration, ONGC) presided over the meeting...
- By Offshore World Team

Society of Underwater Technology Holds a Well Attended Seminar in Mumbai
The Society of Underwater Technology recently organized a 2 day seminar "Subsea Engineering for Oil & Gas" at Mumbai. Several well known national and international experts presented papers at the event coordinated and facilitated by well known Indian supplier of marine and offshore machinery and equipment, A.S. Moloobhoy and Sons...
- By Offshore World Team

COVER STORY

Sunny Days Ahead for Offshore
The recent financial crisis which led to the global recession saw crude oil prices plummeting from a record high of $147 per barrel in July'08 to below $40 per barrel by Dec'08, which had indeed affected the E&P sector's activities - mainly their expansion plans. Umesh Grover says that time has arrived for the offshore services sector to suppliment the E&P section...
- By Umesh Grover

FEATURES
Technology Trends

GE Smart Meters to be Used in AEP Ohio's Smart Grid Demonstration
GE Smart Meters will give consumers the information to make informed choices about when and how they use electricity-enabling them to lower their electric bills without sacrificing lifestyle...
- By our bureau

Safety

UK Offshore Safety Incidents Hit Record Low
New offshore statistics suggest the sector is getting safer, with both the combined fatal and major injury rate and major hydrocarbon releases at their lowest since the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) began regulating the industry...

Market Trends

Dim Prospects Spelt Out for Jack-Ups
Jack-up demand has been hit hard as oil prices tumbled from last year's peak over $140 a barrel...

CORPORATES
In the News

Corporate Excellence Award for R.S. Sharma, CMD, ONGC
R.S. Sharma, CMD, ONGC was conferred 'Amity Leadership Award for Corporate Excellence in Oil & Gas Industry' by Amity Business School during the 5th Annual Global Leadership Summit held at NO IDA on September 19, 2009...

HPCL receives Enterprise Connect Award 2009
HPCL received the Enterprise Connect Award 2009, which recognizes and rewards excellence among CIOs. The awards are instituted by CIOL (Cybermedia India Online Ltd., which is India's leading & first IT portal addressing the information needs of the IT community) in association with Dataquest magazine...

COVER STORY

Winds of Change to Bring Unconventional Energy to the Fore
Looking to the future, Wood Mackenzie says that by 2025 unconventional oil is expected to supply more than 20 percent of global demand. Unconventional gas is likely to be at least as important with the study forecasting it will account for over 40 percent of US gas supply by 2010...

FEATURES
Technology Trends

Wind energy manufacturing: massive parts meet mass production
Automation breakthroughs aim to double throughput, with reduced labor and improved quality...

- By Richard Curless

Stainless Steel meets the tougher conditions in Oil & Gas Industries
From years, the Oil& Gas industries are using a lot of carbon steel. However, in response of the increases of the corrosion severity in service conditions, of the emphasis on cost efficiency and life of field solutions, the stainless steels are more and more often considered as better solutions as the traditional carbon steel alternative. The benefits of using stainless steel include superior corrosion resistance, excellent mechanical properties, greater ecological sensitivity, economical advantages, for topside construction; oil flow and storage applications...

- By Francois Weisang-Hoinard

Operations

A Fresh Look at Client-Contractor Relations
Taking a contractor's perspective, Arunabha Sen discusses the challenges in Award and Execution of EPCI Projects in India...

- By Arunabha Sen

Environment

Siemens to Engineer Selective Waste-Gas Recirculation Systems for Posco Sinter Plants
Siemens VAI Metals Technologies received an order from the Korean steel producer Posco for the provision of engineering and supervisory services in connection with the installation, operation and maintenance of a selective waste-gas recirculation system for each of two sinter plants located at the company’s Pohang Works. The contract value is a single-digit million-euro figure...

CORPORATES
In the News

GAIL approves Rs. 8,000 crore investments for pipelines
GAIL (India) Limited has approved an investment of Rs. 8,000 crore for setting up of new pipelines and augmenting capacity of an existing pipeline. The investment was approved in the Company’s Board meeting held last week. This was announced by Dr. U D Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL at a media briefing here today. Others present at the briefing were Shri R K Goel, Director (Finance) and Shri R D Goyal, Director (Projects), GAIL...

COVER STORY

Major Challenges For Deepwater Operators
The challenges facing the industry as deepwater operations search farther and deeper for new discoveries continually push the limits of technology and economics. One of the prime challenges experts cite is to have flow assurance. And non productive time (NPT) is a major associated risk with all these challenges. Offshore World Bureau reports...

FEATURES
Insight

Indian Offshore Industry
Indian Offshore industry has a very bright future ahead and growing E&P activities in Indian offshore field has attracted many foreign E&P companies to enter the market and make huge investments and this scenario will continue...

- By Umesh Grover

MANAGEMENT
Technology

Unlocking Industry Potential
As the offshore sector faces its most challenging period yet, it is essential that service providers develop a culture of innovation to unlock industry potential...

- By Our Bureau

Environment

Dismantling Obsolete Offshore Installations
Stanislay Patin reports on the environmental impact of the offshore oil and gas industry...

- By Our Bureau

Operations

Sakhalin II gears up for full production
The last major offshore gas well is being completed at the Lunskoye platform in Russia's sub-Arctic Sea of Okhotsk preparing the way for full production capacity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Sakhalin II, one of the world's largest integrated oil and gas projects. Production at Sakhalin II's first LNG unit got under way in March 2009 with a flawless start-up programme. Completion of the final gas well - Russia’s largest - is a vital step towards starting operations at its second LNG unit. Full capacity of 9.6 million tonnes a year is expected to be reached in 2010...

- By Our Bureau

CORPORATES
Events

Gastech 2009 Highlights Eco-Certified Products
GE Oil & Gas, a world leader in oil and gas advanced technology equipment and services showcases extensive range of eco-certified products and latest technologies at Gastech 2009, the largest international conference and exhibition for the LNG, LPG and natural gas industries being held from May 25 to 28 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre...

In the News

Halliburton wins three engineering achievement awards
Technology recognized for innovation, problem-solving and potential to improve environmental performance, safety, and profitability...

Innovation

Continuous Improvement: Thinking outside the box eliminates nonproductive time
Thinking outside the box by M-I SWACO Environmental Solutions Supervisor Donald Anderson saved client BP 20 hours of nonproductive time (NPT) and nearly half a million dollars. "Along with the Azeri M-I crew on board the rig, Donald's contribution constitutes the embodiment of the 'Customer Focused, Solutions Driven' core value of M-I SWACO," said Azeri M-I ES Operations Manager Edgardo Hernandez. "It sets an example for the rest of us and contributes to the company’s position as the leader in integrated Drilling and Environmental Solutions, Wellbore Productivity and Production technologies in Azerbaijan and worldwide."...

SPECIAL REPORTS

Indian Offshore Industry: Rising Opportunities or Mounting Threats
Offshore Exploration plays an important role from drilling to refining and is vital to our economy, but there have been many major accidents. B.N. Prasad traces the threats in the industry's path and comes forward with a few suggestions...

- By B.N. Prasad

INSIGHT

Demystifying Peak Oil Theory
If comments from Alan Greenspan's memoir (published in 2007) - "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil - is a foretaste for what was to come, then the oil-led nuclear wars could well convert to reality Sir Albert Einstein's fear: "I do not know how the Third World War will be fought but I do know that the Fourth World War will be fought with sticks and stones." ...

- By Nazir Moulvi & Niteen Jain

MANAGEMENT

Taking the ghost out of the machine
The refining and chemical process industries have been rocked by some widely publi-cised incidents in recent times. To help reduce the number of accidents, DNV uses a risk-based approach through the isrs7 tool...

EVENTS

Petrotech 2009 Dazzles Amidst Tough Times
Eleven overseas ministers, 273 exhibitors and a contingent of 4000 speakers and delegates converged for Petrotech 2009 at Delhi. Asia's biggest Oil & Gas Industry organised by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd was held during 11th to 15th January 2009 ...

- By Our Bureau

Cover Story

Logistics Pound of Flesh Become Dearer to Trade Each Year
Indian economy has shown exemplary growth during the past decade and there has been a considerable increase in the demand of oil and gas. Primarily, 45 percent of India's energy requirements are met by oil and gas. Mittravinda Ranjan and Mousumi Ghoshal of Offshore World provide an update on India's Oil & Gas industry ...

Mittravinda Ranjan & Mousumi Ghoshal

News Features

ONGC Takes Over Imperial Energy
In what has been touted as the biggest takeover bids by ONGC, it has taken control of Imperial Energy PLc, a London-listed company that has most of its oil assets in Russia at a valuation of $3 per barrel of oil reserves. This, ONGC officials say, is half the valuation of global companies with reserves of the size of Imperial...

Offshore World Team

Fanning New offshore wind technology
A new wind farm of 400 MW capacity,located 130 kilometers from the coast in the North Sea, has been launched.The farm will be linked to the German Power Grid.The windfarm is expected to save carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions of 1.5 million tons per year by avoiding the need for additional fossil-fuel generation...

Offshore World Team

China's new gas deal with India
China has planned to sign a 30-year agreement with India .The agreement is going to be made between the countries to import natural gas from fields lying in offshore Myanmar where India's state-owned companies have 25 per cent stake...

Offshore World Team

Scenario

India Must Chase Oil Vigorously
Ravi K. Mehrotra is an industry veteran and head of Foresight Limited, London, General Agents for International Shipping, Oil Drilling and Oil Exploration companies. This enlightening article traces India's Oil & Gas situation and puts forth a few enlightening suggestions...

Ravi K. Mehrotra

Focus

New Dimensions to Accelerate Indian Exploration Ventures
Dr.V.K.Rao is currently Advisor (E&P/Gas Business), Reliance Natural Resources Limited. He has over thirty-five years experience in the Oil and Gas Exploration & Development Sector. Dr. Rao has served at ONGC, DGH, GAIL and Reliance ADA Group previously. He has been Head of NELP and CBM Rounds in Directorate General Of Hydrocarbons under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, covering five rounds of NELP and CBM Rounds. Through this illuminating piece, Dr. Rao shares his experiences on Exploration ventures in India and overseas and suggests a few innovative concepts towards accelerating exploration ventures in India...

Dr. V. K. Rao

Technology & Innovation

World's most advanced Wireless Technology 33 Safety & critical control system
Monitor, Inc. is pioneering a revolution in wireless communication solutions for the monitoring and control of remote assets in oil and gas applications worldwide. Their low-power systems deliver high-capacity data acquisition and significantly reduced exposure of field personnel at previously unachievable low costs. In some cases, these systems can reduce capital operating expenses (CAPEX) by over 50 percent...

Offshore World Bureau

View Point

Oil and Gas Industry in India - A Review
There can be no better topic than to discuss and debate on the present global crude oil and gas scenario particularly with respect to India. Those of us engaged in the oil and gas industry will have come to know that India's performance and record has been far from satisfactory. I view this with a great deal of pain and disappointment. The Government of India formed the ONGC in 1958 with the sole purpose of achieving self-sufficiency in crude oil production. Regrettably, over the past 50 years, our crude oil production has remained almost stagnant, hovering around an average of 31 Million Tonnes...

Cmde M.K. Banger

Safety

HSE in Exploration & Production
Exploration & Production (E&P) industry is known to offer amongst the most hazardous work environments. So, as a corollary, this industry is also one of the most regulated industries. Because of the nature of work here, every operation is hazardous and people working in the industry have to be extra vigilant at all times. Even routine operations have the potential to turn hazardous and prone to the external and internal effects...

Capt. Nisha Jain

Feature

National Oil Companies on a Trot
The growth in the oil and gas sector and the subsequent growth in the global service sector have led to the growth of many National Oil Companies (NOCs) worldwide. The scenario of providing services in the oil and gas sector has completely changed over the past years. The NOCs have increased significantly in number as well as power, which has been a debatable issue for the International Oil Corporations (IOCs) as well as the homegrown service providing companies for the oil and gas sector ...

Mittravinda Ranjan

Events

OSEA2008 achieves best-ever showing
Following the show's 80 per cent growth in exhibition space from the previous event in 2006, OSEA2008 - Asia's largest oil and gas exhibition and conference - closed today with 20,542 attendees, a robust 47 per cent increase from the previous event. 35 per cent of attendees were from overseas...

Offshore World Bureau

Cover Story

Logistics Pound of Flesh Become Dearer to Trade Each Year
Indian economy has shown exemplary growth during the past decade and there has been a considerable increase in the demand of oil and gas. Primarily, 45 percent of India's energy requirements are met by oil and gas. Mittravinda Ranjan and Mousumi Ghoshal of Offshore World provide an update on India's Oil & Gas industry ...

Mittravinda Ranjan & Mousumi Ghoshal

View Point

End of Easy Oil - But there are Solutions
Fluctuation of commodity prices has been one of the main challenges, says Weatherford International's Vice President Middle East & North Africa Anas Al Chalabi. He says the situation has affected their long term contracts with their clients thus making it difficult to quote offers for their products and services. He said that they were addressing this challenge by negotiation in the new and existing contracts to add escalation clauses linked to price indices in order to offset the effects of fluctuating commodity prices ...

Offshore World Team

Technology & Innovation

Open Path Gas Detection
Jean Berthold, the CMO and co-founder of Senscient, is known throughout the gas detection and analysis industry with extensive experience developing promotional sales and marketing strategies and the long term development of customer relationships and the effective hiring, training and motivation of talented and capable distribution partners

Jean Berthold

Regulators for Water-Glycol control fluid in subsea systems
Deep-sea exploration has become a major focus area for the Oil & Gas industry to meet the growing demand. Sub sea production systems become a lot advanced during the past decade for reliable performance and safe operation during any kind of unexpected failure to avoid dangerous occurrences. Water glycol based sub sea control fluids are specifically designed to meet requirements of both direct and multiplexed electro hydraulic systems over very long distances for deep-water exploration ...

Offshore World Team

RFID takes Everyday Life By the Storm
Where is RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) used really? Well, practically everywhere is what you would say. The technology is there. It's really up to you to think of a way that you could use it beneficially ...

Our Correspondent

Scenario

Oil & Gas Industry at Crossroads
Demand for oil and gas has reached new heights. Crude oil prices reached $147 per barrel during the summer. The major oil and gas companies announced several multi-billion dollar projects to improve and develop production. On the other hand the raw material production, engineering and construction markets have suffered from a shortage of all types of resources including talented professionals ...

Offshore World Team

Special Report

Act Now to Strengthen Global Economy
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for the creation of an early warning system to rescue the tottering global financial system and said Gulf Oil Producers should play a crucial role in this field. He was speaking at Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference 2008 ...

British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown

Management

Oil Industry faces skills shortage
The biggest challenge that the energy production sector is facing today is perhaps not technology or the huge finances that are required but the availability of skilled manpower. The problem is not new though and has been around over the last 25 years or so and the bad news is that experts reckon that it is only going to get worse in the coming years ...

Our correspondent

Safety

Enhanced Safety
Sea transportation has always been a challenge for the offshore operations. Though the helicopters have been the conventional mode of transportation for transferring crew, vessels too are used to transport spare parts and crew to the offshore platforms. The vessels require to be stationed in the landing area but carrying out the task safely is very difficult especially during the rough weather conditions ...

Offshore World Team

Environment

Shipping Partners Global Warming Solution
Oil tankers are environment friendly, energy-efficient and effective in terms of minimizing greenhouse-house gas (GHG) emissions according to experts. Backing up this claim, a study reveals that one litre of fuel on a modern VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) moves one tonne of cargo more than 2,800 kilometres. This is more than twice as far as 20 years ago. Again, the average carbon footprint in terms of CO2 per tonne-kilometre of each of the world's oil tankers is less than one tenth of that of a heavy truck and less than one hundredth of that of an aircraft ...

Offshore World Bureau

Cover Story

India: An emerging refining hub
The on-going development in port facilities, river transportation, and pipeline network, combined with the refining industry's ability to process a wide range of crude types and qualities, place India's major refiners in an excellent position to continue leading the country as a major refining hub...

E Nandkumar

Interview

We are currently evaluating the prospects in the Indian oil & gas market
Trelleborg is a world leader in subsea engineering/ architecture related products/ technology for offshore oil & gas sector. The company's production facilities are located in UK, Norway and US. With a strong work force of more than 22,000 employees, the group has market leading brand recognition. The $3.4 billion company with presence in around 40 countries in six continents has 100 production plants across the world. The company offers engineering materials for the most demanding current and future applications. "We are currently evaluating the short term and long-term prospects in the Indian oil & gas market as a whole to allow us to determine our plans for future development of sales in the region," said Richard Beesely, Business Development Manager of Trelleborg in an interview to Balakrishnan Nair...

Technology

Recent developments in refining technology in India & diving gases
This article summarizes recent developments in oil refining processes, addressing topics ranging from basic applications to the implementation of viable operations that meet environmental and economic stipulations...

Dr D K Tuli

Exploration

Strategic crude oil reserves: An overview
This is an objective analysis on the oil & gas sector in India along with detailed information on the exploration, production and other processes. It gives a detailed overview of the opportunities, challenges and critical success factors for the growth of the industry ...

Rajan K Pillai

Market

Managing risk in a volatile market
India is currently the world's sixth greatest oil consumer, accounting for more than 3% of world�s total annual petroleum consumption. About 30% of India's energy needs are met by oil, and more than 60% of that oil is imported. Hence the business is full of risks. This article delves on minimizing risk by managing crude oil feedstock resource ...

A S Ujwal

Automation

Fuelling today's energy solutions
Offshore production applications present unique automation and power challenges. Harsh conditions, space limitations, safety concerns and reliability, are distinct platform-management requirements. All must be taken into consideration when designing and upgrading systems. Rockwell Automation's solutions offer tremendous value to critical offshore production platforms ...

Rockwell Automation

Management

Professional manpower for oil and gas sector
With oil revenues and margins being considerably favorable over the past couple of years, the oil companies - National Oil Companies (NOCs) as well as International Oil Companies (IOCs) - are looking towards long-term business goals and wider investment opportunities. Unfortunately this investment-opportune time has coincided with a marked dearth of skilled and professionally qualified and experienced manpower, worldwide. The NOCs and IOCs need to come up with short-term as well as long-term solutions aimed at ensuring that a steady stream of capable workforce is available to them. For this they need to implement site-specific and region-specific remediation. For meeting the short-to-medium term needs of a specialized engineering discipline, a fast-track process of recruitment of technical and professional staff from India was developed and implemented with reasonable success ...

Ram K Goyal, Hassan Shehabi & S Kugan

Research

Process engineering of bio-diesel plant
Process know-how for the production of bio-diesel (Fatty Acid Methyl/ Ethyl Ester (FAME / FAEE)) is being studied in laboratory, pilot plant and commercial scale. The feedstock studied and used was waste vegetable oil from restaurants, acid oils from vegetable oil refineries, fish oil, soap solutions, jatropha, Karanja & crude palm oil. The commercial scale production was 6 lakhs bulk liters of biodiesel of ASTM D-6751-02 standard. The process parameters like mole ratio, catalyst concentration, mixing of reactants, kinetics, mass transfer etc is optimized ...

Najmul-Husein B Mujawar, Nurul-Hasan B Mujawar, N H Shinde & Balekhan A Mujawar

Cover Story

Indian natural gas: On a fast track
Over the years, natural gas has emerged as an environment friendly and high efficient fuel ...

Ernst & Young

World Market

Natural gas: Global fuel of choice
Natural gas is emerging as a vital domestic resource, which can fuel the economy. Increasing demand for hydrocarbons in established markets like the United States and in emerging markets like India and China has significantly increased the global demand for natural gas ...

Dr Anthony Barker, Director, BGEPIL

Safety

Developments in safe use of industrial & diving gases
This article delves into industrial and diving gases by making specific recommendations relating to safe standards, which should be used. It is aimed primarily at offshore and inshore/inland commercial diving operations ...

Gary Adams, Global Offshore, Air Products

Transportation

LNG at doorstep
IOC's project "LNG at Doorstep" is all set to revolutionize the way natural gases are transported across the country ...

B M Bansal, Director, Planning & Business Development, IOC Ltd

Pipeline

National Gas Grid When India will complete the project?
The upcoming National Gas Grid, set up by GAIL (India) Ltd, connects LNG import locations along the west coast with high consumption areas in northern, central and western India. It will also transport the recent natural gas discoveries (Krishna Godavari Basin, east coast) to markets in southern and western India ...

Rajeev Mathur, GM Business Development, GAIL India

Instrumentation

Space saving flow meters
The self conditioning V-Cone offshore flow meter from McCrometer (USA) requires a pipe straight-run that is up to 70 per cent less than other meters resulting in reducing pipe material cost and installation labour costs automatically. Easy to locate and easy to install, the versatile V-Cone is ideal for new equipment designs, expansion projects or retrofits requiring new meters ...

Toshniwal Bros (Hyd) Pvt Ltd

Case Study

High-performance Synthetic Lubricant: A cost-effective approach
AWG used conventional, mineral-based oils to lubricate each of its Solar T-1000 turbines. The mineral oil caused several problems at the facility, including deposit build-ups, which ultimately led to bearing failures and the need for regular system overhauls. After switching to Mobil SHC 824 synthetic oil, the frequent system overhauls resulting from bearing failures, the excess time and costs needed for turbine maintenance and parts replacements are a thing of the past ...

ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Lubricants & Specialities

Technology

From test separator to MPFM technology: Improvements in well testing and production monitoring
Multiphase flow meter is a non-nuclear, versatile and designed for true field conditions providing accurate, real-time measurements of oil, water and gas flows simultaneously without separation of the phases ...

Francesco Mazza and Chacko Andrews

Special Feature

NELP-VII will lead to entry of experienced operators in E&P activity
Under the seventh round (NELP-VII) around 57 blocks, the highest number of exploration blocks ever offered under NELP, are on offer for exploration of oil & gas. The total area of these blocks is about 0.171 million sq km. The offered blocks comprise 19 deepwater blocks, 9 shallow water blocks and 29 onland blocks. The road shows, data rooms and purchase of data packages to promote NELP VII have evoked tremendous response. NELP-VII is expected to see more intense competition among bidders than NELP-VI and earlier rounds. This intense competition will lead to entry of experienced operators in the field of E&P activity ...

Interview

We are making every effort in facilitating investments and consequent exploration
V K Sibal, Director General of Hydrocarbons, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas

Management

Concept selection is critical for deepwater project success
Selecting the right development systems involves assessment of the usual list of physical circumstances. Consider all options and prioritize them based on costs, commercial/technical risk, schedule, execution and potential biases. ...

Daryl B Rapp

Pipeline Design

Production of oil and gas from ultra deepwater
The high costs of operating and maintaining offshore production systems is making satellite subsea production an increasingly attractive prospect. This trend is accelerated by the existence of an expansive platform and pipeline infra-structure to which satellite wells can be rapidly tied back ...

C Holmen, G Michel, J Remery

Alternative Fuel

The quest for 'Green Energy'
The sources of fossil fuels, however, are not inexhaustible. Rampant and increasing use of them is leading to their fast depletion. They are becoming increasingly expensive with time. This has led to the search for alternative energy sources, polluting but abundant or, hopefully, abundant and non-polluting, and ideally, renewable. Biogas, or methane obtained from biogas, biomass, etc, are polluting, but are abundant or renewable. ...

Dipak Guha

Special Report

The Indian hydrocarbon sector on fast track
With India's energy needs projected to grow by 40% in the next five years, the future is indeed full of promise for the Indian hydrocarbon sector. But it has certain glitches. Has the price volatility in line with global trends in the oil & gas sector dampened the growth prospects of the Indian economy? Not withstanding growing interest in exploration of Indian basins in the past few years, with private and multinational companies joining in, will India's march towards self-sufficiency in crude oil remain a distant dream? The Ocentex 2008 International Conference held in Mumbai during February 15-17 provided the answers. ...

Balakrishnan Nair

Special Report

Maritime India: Seize the moment
While the conferences at the Shipping & Marine Expo 2008 served as a platform for exchange of ideas and technologies, the exhibition helped both the domestic and international exhibitors to display their state-of-the-art technologies and exchange inovative ideas under one roof...

Lovina kinny

Pollution Control

Bio desulphurisation of natural gas in three-phase fluidized bio reactor using thiobacillus dentrificans
Natural gas from the well head may contain a number of undesirable components that must be reduced to acceptable levels prior to distribution and sale. The most common in the gas industry is the removal and disposal of hydrogen sulphide (H2S). The present continuous studies are undertaken to develop an effective anaerobic desulphurization process of hydrogen sulphide from natural gas using three-phase fluidized bed bioreactor. ...

Masud Hossain and Manas Das

Cover Story

Refinery/petrochemicals integration: Past, present and a look into future
There is also a growing acceptance that climate change due to global warming could have radical effects on all aspects of the hydrocarbon chain. This paper questions the potential effect on the petrochemical and refi nery interface, if some of the changes discussed come to fruition. It also discusses the ways in which refi nery/petrochemicals synergies can be realized.

Andy Allen 

Equipment

Reciprocating compressors for process gas applications
Gases behave quite differently at different pressures and temperatures and with different gas compositions. Hence, it is very essential to know the thermodynamic behavior and gas properties for a selection of correct metallurgy for the compressor components.

Interview

“We are geared up to challenges of meeting the ever increasing domestic LPG demand”

S K Jain, Executive Director, BPCL

Overview

The Indian oil & gas sector: Energizing the future economic growth
Viewed from all angles, the hydrocarbon sector is very crucial for determining the energy security of our country. Today, in India, around 45% of the total energy needs are met by the oil and gas sector and this is likely to continue for the next two decades or more, along with increase in the usage of natural gas over the commonly used liquid hydrocarbons...

Interview

“Our motto is think big, think fast and think ahead”

Yuvraj Malhotra, CMD, HMFL

Insight

Offshore services - Issues & challenges
NELP has brought new challenges and unexpected opportunities in deepwater exploration. And with this buoyancy comes exciting times for the offshore services. Companies that support these activities provide logistical support, ports and terminals services, drilling and diving services, construction and even hiring of rigs.
Besides a huge amount of investments, the offshore service providers should constantly explore ideas and implement plans, which allow them to maintain their reputation to meet the increasing needs of exploration and production

Technology

Settling out pressure calculation in centrifugal compressor loop
In order to reduce the consequence of fi re hazard due to fi re in compressor area, remote operated, fi re safe, shut down valves (SDV) are provided both at inlet and outlet of compressor, handling fl ammable or toxic gases. This practice is recommended by most of technology licensors and plant safety agencies worldwide. In case of centrifugal compressor tripping due to any process upsets or fi re hazard, shutdown valves automatically closed to isolate the compressor from main plant area. Once the compressor gets isolated, the higher pressure gas trapped in the discharge side, leaks through clearance between casing and impellers and equalized with low pressure suction side, thus settles at a pressure higher than the operating suction pressure is called,“ Settling out pressure”. By defi nition, settling out pressure is the maximum pressure level which is reached within the compressor loop following centrifugal compressor tripping.

S K Saxena

Profile

‘Specialist manpower’ provider for the oil & gas sector
Brunel Energy Group, with its worldwide operations currently outsources 5,000+ specialist for diverse industrial needs globally. More than 50 percent of the above resources are presently deployed by the Brunel Energy divisions for various upstream, midstream and downstream operation in the oil and gas sectors

Brunel Energy Pvt Ltd

Biofuel

Sowing the seeds of tomorrow
Biodiesel have properties comparable to petro diesel oil, they can be used to run diesel engines with little or no modifi cations. The medium scale trials have already been carried out in India. It has many advantages, the major being non toxicity, bio degradability, renewable, net revenue increase, rural employment, greenery, substantial reduction exhaust emissions and called the fuel of the future.

Parish S Dwivedi