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| "Gulf Storms in the Offshore Oil Patch" - Sep. 13, 2005 |
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Foreword
As a relatively innocuous storm at the time, Hurricane Katrina ambled across Florida into the Gulf of Mexico. Once in the Gulf, however, the very high water temperatures there helped Katrina balloon into a monster by the time her eye crossed land, east of New Orleans. The result appears to have been one of the great natural disasters in American history.
Katrina's path across the Gulf of Mexico led through the center of the offshore oil patch. Final landfall then severely disrupted the nation's busiest port as well as one of the more important onshore gas and oil processing and refining areas in North America.
The situation is still being assessed. It appears, though, that the storm inflicted damage on a total of twelve drilling rigs, at least five of which are likely to be scrapped. Damage to at least thirty offshore platforms has been confirmed; eighteen of them are a total loss.
The extraordinary level of interest in Katrina and related matters has led us to share some intriguing observations about the experiences of people who work within the offshore oil and gas industry based in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the dangers they face. These come to us from our friend, "Bill." (For the sake of modesty and another reason or two, he has asked that we not use his last name.)
A native of Mississippi, Bill is an engineering consultant to the offshore oil and gas industry. He has more than thirty years of experience drilling wells in the Gulf of Mexico, thus giving him a unique perspective on Katrina-related and similar events. He recently shared a few of his experiences regarding how the volatile hurricane season in the Gulf affects the people and businesses within the offshore oil patch. --Doug Gillespie.
NOTE: I am immensely appreciative to Ms. Nancy Stevenson for her major contribution in assembling this article. What follows was transcribed and edited by Nancy, from a general outline Bill provided to her on 9/9. --DG.
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Onward
Along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane season runs from June to November. People living in this area are keenly aware of it and keep a wary eye on the Caribbean. But when you drill for oil and gas in the Gulf, it's an entirely different situation. We are bound by a different set of rules that must be followed.
The peak hurricane season starts in early to mid July and lasts until the end of September. These are the hottest months of the year; the Gulf's surface temperatures can exceed 90 degrees. This is high octane fuel for tropical storms and hurricanes.
And this year has been no exception. In fact, surface temperatures have been particularly high this summer. The Gulf was slick and calm for almost six weeks with no wind to help cool it off. Think of it as a wading pool setting in the sun for six weeks. This is what fueled Katrina, contributing mightily to the monster she would become.
On the rig, we generally keep one or more televisions on the Weather Channel 24 hours a day. If you're lucky enough to have Internet access, it's a good idea to look at NOAA'S Hurricane Center at least once a day to see if there's a possibility of a storm forming in the next 48 hours. If we see that a tropical depression or storm has formed, we begin watching much more closely and begin communicating with the people in "Town" more frequently.
"Town" is what we refer to as the people in the office or the glass house. They pretty much call the shots as to when and how things will be done. After all it's their money. It is also big money! If ever the term "time is money" applies, it applies here. Services and personnel can run as high as 500 to 700 thousand dollars per day; in some cases, it's more. Anytime you have to evacuate for a hurricane, the guys in "Town" grit their teeth and tense up. Because of the day rates, people still have to be paid -- and paid with no progress being made in drilling operations!
(In all honesty, I must admit that I've never once been upset about having to lie around in a hotel room, sipping a beer, still getting paid.)
Our governing body is the Minerals Management Service (MMS) It is part of the Department of the Interior, and it writes the rules that the drilling rigs or mobile offshore drilling units (MODU) must abide by. In short, they make sure that everybody follows the rules for drilling operations. They can level fines against an operator or drilling contractor that can add up to big money. A fine running hundreds of thousands of dollars is not uncommon.
One rule imposed requires that during hurricane season, we must have a 50-foot air-gap. This means that from the bottom of the rig to the surface of the water there must be at least 50 feet of air. This is to assure that if there is a hurricane, the wave height generated will have to exceed 50 feet. This rule saves a lot of rigs.
Another requirement stipulates that you must have an on- board storm packer, which I will discuss in more detail in a moment. Also required is a pre-written hurricane evacuation plan, in the event that you do have to abandon the rig. This plan must cover in detail the steps you will take to make sure that everything will be done according to MMS rules and regulations.
Most of us who work in the Gulf of Mexico are just ordinary people. Good, God-fearing folks who only want to create a better life for ourselves and our families. The money is good, and you only work six months out of the year, if you are on a regular rotation. All those who come and go learn very quickly that this is not easy work. It's very difficult work; long hours are normal. People with higher positions are accustomed to 36 to 48 hours of work with no sleep.
Usually, when a hurricane or tropical storm approaches the Gulf, there are three phases that we must complete. The first phase is acknowledgment that a threat is present. The second phase is preparing the rig for abandonment and sending in all non-essential personnel. The third phase is abandonment of the rig.
Once word is given to begin the three phases, our work begins. Depending on what mode you are in, it will take at least 36 to 48 hours to complete the tasks. In my example, I will use a drilling mode with a well depth of 16,800 feet. This is a deep well in the Gulf, but it certainly is not uncommon.
At this point, the drilling is stopped and the well bore is circulated out with mud pumps. This is to ensure that all hydrocarbons present will be removed, and the well bore will be stable during the rest of the operations. Once the well bore is circulated out, "tripping" the pipe begins, which is pulling the pipe out of the hole. This can take as long as 12 to 14 hours if there are no problems. As the pipe is pulled out, it has to be laid out on the deck. It cannot be left in the derrick, since this would make the rig very unstable in high winds.
Depending on the weight capabilities of the rig, a portion of or the entire pipe must be loaded on a supply boat and taken to the shore base or to safer waters. During operations, the rig must meet a certain hurricane weight. To get this weight down, some or all of the drilling equipment that is used to provide certain services must also be removed. This includes removing some of the ballast.
Meanwhile, personnel are chaining down other objects and heavy equipment that simply cannot be offloaded. Dispatchers are trying to make transportation arrangements for the crews, either by boat or helicopter. Others are trying to find accommodations for the rig crews and service personnel. If it looks like time will be a factor, drill crews and roustabouts will be asked to work an extra six to eight hours in addition to the twelve hours they already have worked.
Once most of the pipe has been laid down or offloaded, the well bore must be sealed in an effective manner. This is where the previously mentioned storm packer comes into play. When you drill a well, you drill one section at a time. At 16,800 feet, the well will have at least five sections. Each section is drilled with a different size drill bit. The deeper you get, the smaller the bit you use, because the sections will taper down as you get deeper.
After a section is drilled, it is "cased" off. This means that if you drill a 10 3/4" hole, it will be cased off with a
9 7/8" casing. This is a larger diameter pipe that has an outside diameter of 9 7/8". After it is run, it is cemented into place. In this case, we will run a 9 7/8" storm packer into the well to a depth of 15,000 feet and rotate it to the right with a drill pipe. This expands and seals off the well bore. All of the open hole that is not cased off will be below the packer. In the event that there is major damage to the rig, the well bore will be sealed and no hydrocarbons will escape.
Leaving the rig is the easy part. You either get on a helicopter, or the crane operator lowers you in a personnel basket onto the deck of the crew boat. That's pretty much it. Then you generally head to the heliport or to the shore base.
That is not the case all the time, however. Hurricanes pretty much have a mind of their own. Even though NOAA and others have advanced within the last several years at tracking and forecasting, hurricanes are still very unpredictable. In the early 1980's, there were a number of workers lost when a hurricane came through the Gulf. Failure to heed warnings resulted in these deaths. As a consequence, the Coast Guard has made it mandatory that all platforms and drilling structures be abandoned in the event of a hurricane in the Gulf. For a tropical storm, though, evacuation decisions are left to the discretion of the operator.
As a case in point, in 1999, I was working off the coast of Pascagoula, Mississippi when Tropical Storm Earl came through. We didn't have enough time to secure everything and leave, too. Evidently, the guys in "Town" decided that we could wait another 12 hours and leave the next morning. The next morning arrived, with the storm breathing down our necks. It was about 70 miles southeast of us, drawing a bead on our rig. Earl had winds only about five MPH shy of a Category One hurricane. Helicopters were out of the question, so a crew boat was dispatched to our location.
We evacuated the rig in 20-foot seas on a 150-foot crew boat. I am sure that most of you, probably none of you, have been on a crew boat in 20-foot seas. Imagine, if you will, riding on a roller coaster, getting beaten up for three hours. I won't go into detail about the people who were violently ill in plastic garbage bags during this horrific ride. It was a unique experience to say the least.
Eventually, we made it to the base, but not before almost capsizing twice. A colleague and I bought several cases of beer, checked into our hotel rooms, and discussed the day's activities. To quote my colleague, "ain't no way in hell I'm working for them sumbitches again!" And he didn't. As we say in our business, "he packed his gear and went to the house."
I was remodeling my home at the time and decided to stay on the job. Several weeks later, there was a tropical storm down by Cuba and we promptly evacuated. There wasn't a drop of rain or a puff of wind, so I drank my beer and worked on my tan by the pool for three days. Evidently, the powers that be in Houston had gotten word about what had happened the last time and exerted pressure with all the wrath they could muster on the guys in "Town."
To sum it all up, it's a damn tough job. But as the old axiom says, "somebody's got to do it."
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