bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Electrical Equipment to Meet North gea Drilling Requirements
Authors: Stephen D.D. 
Published: October 2008

Introduction
The severe environmental conditions which any oil drilling or production unit has to meet in the North Sea has resulted in a new generation of designs, and the high capital cost and value of fixed platforms together with their remoteness intensifies the requirements of high reliability and safety of both plant and personnel. Increased involvement in such details by governmental bodies and classification societies is also leading towards a more precise and onerous set of requirements applying to plant intended for use in problem areas such as the North Sea.
The power requirements for a large platform to be used for drilling and production is such that a review of the basic logic of plant capabilities is necessary to obtain the most economic overall solution while complying with all envisaged and stipulated conditions. As a result of such a study the new North Sea Platforms will incorporate many unique features applied to conventional equipment together with some items of a completely new design.
The functions of the electrical generating and distribution system is merely to provide adequate power for drilling and production and the other services required by the platform operators, and the system has been designed to ensure maximum integrity of supply with minimum requirement of supervision and control. Some of the main system design features are as follows.

Power Generation
To allow adequate flexibility of capacity requirements as the field is developed a minimum of three sets with space and facilities for five were allowed for. In addition units were installed with a capacity for updating at a later date if required. As an adequate supply of gas will be available at the production stage gas turbine prime-movers were selected suitable for fully automatic, remote, starting. The loading capacity of gas turbines is a function of ambient air temperature and a total load comparator system is provided to indicate what margin exists between kW load on the platform and kw capability of the connect generator sets, and this is related to an alarm system with an adjustable setting which can be used for personnel warning or to take remedial action if required.
Generators are normally auto-synchronized with a main and back-up synchronizer and isochronous governors ensure satisfactory set load sharing as well as keeping the platform frequency constant with all the associated advantages on production plant.
Emergency diesel generator sets which can be used for peak loading as well as "Black Start" are provided with governor droop control to enable them to operate on base load when paralleled with the main G.T. sets.
Because of the possible connected capacity it was economic to generate at 11 kV 50 Hz, this being a standard industrial rating, and to increase integrity double busbar, with two sections in each was used for the 11 kV switchgear. Normally the complete system is solidly connected but any section can be isolated if faulty, or alternatively the system can be operated as independent subsystems.
Pressure Grouting: An Improved Method of Offshore Structure Grouting
Authors: Tragesser Arthur F. , Dalton Charles F. , Kay Franklin J. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT
A new method of grouting the legs of offshore oil platforms has been evaluated with respect to resultant grout quality, economics and reliability. The experience gained from more than 40 actual grouting operations in the Gulf of Mexico was considered. A scale model of a typical jacket-piling assembly was constructed. The model was constructed from clear plastic material that would allow visualization of the process. A series of tests was conducted by displacing water in the annulus with compressed air and introducing a Class A cement slurry into the annular space. These tests were observed and recorded on color movie film.
The results from the scale model tests and from field operations show that a high quality grout column can be obtained by the new method and that the process is feasible from an economic and operational standpoint.

INTRODUCTION
The methods of grouting the legs of offshore oil structures that are commonly used today inject the grouting material into the bottom section of the legs near the ocean floor. This procedure requires that grouting lines extend from the surface to the bottom of each leg. The bottom of the leg must also be sealed. Generally, inflatable subsurface packers or grout seals are used. As the grouting material is pumped into the bottom of the leg, the water inside the leg is displaced through a surface vent. The injection is continued until grouting material of the desired specification is noted at the surface vent. In some situations, divers are used to remove the grout lines and packer inflation lines.
Satisfactory results are not always achieved with these conventional methods because:The sealing system could sustain damage during the installation of the platform that would not allow it to support the full column of grout. This would result in incomplete filling of the leg with grout.The injected grouting mixture could overrun static water in the leg and leave water pockets or water channels. This overrun water would signify cantle reduce the strength of the grout in those local areas.The platform jacket might have sustained unknown damage that would allow the grouting material to leak out after placement.
A new method of grouting has been developed that will overcome these potential problems, that will offer substantial economic savings in most cases and that promises improved reliability. This paper discusses the results of a scale model study of this method, describes the field experience gained to date and briefly describes the operational procedure.
This method is called the "pressure method". The details of the method have been previously disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 3,601,999. The authors believe this to be the first published report concerning the laboratory and field performance of the method.

PURPOSE" OF MODEL
Since the inside of a platform leg could not be observed during the grouting operation, it was necessary to build a transparent scale model to demonstrate the viability of the pressure grouting method.
Exploratory Drilling on the Canadian Continental Shelf,Labrador Sea
Authors: Duval Bernard C. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT
The Labrador Shelf is still at a very early stage of exploration. The various factors which make exploratory drilling particularly difficult and shorten the operating season, like ice-pack, icebergs, meteorology, are discussed. After a first unsuccessful attempt in 1971 whith a conventional anchored-type vessel, the technological breakthrough occurred when PELICAN, a dynamically positioned drillship, was successfully used in 1973 and 1974, which resulted in two gas discoveries out of three wells drilled. A description of this operation is presented as well as possible applications to other areas.

1. INTRODUCTION AND GENERALITIES
The Labrador Shelf comprises an area in excess of 50,000,000 acres. It is tightly covered by federal oil and gas permits granted to 24 single. Companies and joint holder Combines.
Its northern and southern boundaries are respectively the 61° parallel (which corresponds to the latitude of Hudson Strait), and the 52° parallel (Strait of Belle Isle). It is bound to the West by the Labrador Marginal Channel, fringing the mainland made up by the Canadian Precambrian Shield. To the East one can take the 1500' bathymetric contour line as a practical limit.
Due to this particular situation between a channel and the continental slope there is neither shallow water nor gradual descent of the bottom from the Continent towards the oceanic depths. The "backbone" of the shelf is constituted by a succession of banks with an average water depth of 600 feet, separated by transverse topographical troughs and saddles (Figure 1). These banks are from North to South : Saglek Bank, Nain Bank, Harrison Bank, North and South Domino Banks. Their area varies from approximately 3,000,000 to 6,000,000 acres.
The Eastcan Group (1) holds titles over approximately half of the Shelf, including almost the entire area of the banks.
Various geophysical surveys and reconnaissance seismic work began as early as 1966 and 50,000 miles have been shot in the area since. As a result one can conclude that the Shelf is underlain by a basin in which sediments in excess of 30,000 feet at some places, have deposited. The maximum thickness is to be encountered in the North (Saglek), whereas the central and southern parts range from 5,000 to 20,000 feet.
The exploratory targets are blockfaults related to rifting movements which took place when Labrador and Greenland drifted apart during Jurassic and Cretaceous times. There are a number of well-defined structures to be drilled in the years to come and the stratigraphic objectives range in age from the Paleozoic up to the Tertiary. The Labrador Shelf is at a very early stage of exploration drilling. Among three wells drilled so far, two were located on banks (Leif and Bjarni) and one in a saddle (Gudrid).
To put the matter in a more regional perspective, it is interesting to recall that the most active exploratory area of Eastern Canada so far has been the Grand Banks -of Newfoundland to the East and South of the Island and the Scotian Shelf South of the Peninsula of Nova Scotia.
Inclined Pulout Forces for Embedded Plate Anchors
Authors: Colp John L. , Herbich John B. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT
Laboratory model pullout tests were conducted in a "rod analogy" soil model, dense dry sand, dense submerged sand, and Gulf of Mexico marine sediments at pullout inclination angles from 900 (vertical) to 450 and at two burial depths. Equations are, developed from the experimental data that 0can used for design purposes.

INTRODUCTION
The expansion of the field of coastal and ocean engineering has resulted in a corresponding increase in applications for floating equipment, anchored in shallow or deep water, many of which impose a stringent station-keeping requirement. One of the solutions frequently used in these applications is a taut-line mooring system. However, the design of these systems demands consideration of the problem of loads on the anchor that are always more or less inclined from the vertical, due to the forces ocean currents and wind often exert against floating equipment. The effects of such loap' inclinations are not well known, since the phenomena of the resulting seafloor soil failure caused by excessive inclined loads have not been observed and understood. Lacking this information, the practicing ocean engineer must estimate the holding capacity in his anchor system design very conservatively whenever inclined loads can possibly occur.

MODEL EXPERIMENTS

Test Series
The initial laboratory tests were designed to allow the observation in a two-dimensional array of particle motion, in a simulated, dense, cohesionless, granular material during pullout of a plate under the application of inclined loads. The failure phenomena that occurred during these modes of loading could be observed, which would aid in understanding them.
The second series of tests was performed in a three-dimensional tank of dense, air-dry Ottawa sand. Values of maximum pullout loads for varying conditions of load inclination, and depth of burial, were measured.
The third series of tests duplicated the second series except that the dense, Ottawa sand samples were submerged under fresh water. This series of tests was analogous to the second series, but showed the effects of submergence.
The fourth series of tests was performed in the same manner and with the same equipment, except that the soil sample was composed of actual seafloor sediments obtained from the Gulf of Mexico. 'lhus, the differences in pullout force and failure meclianisms that occur between a fine-grained marine material and the granular materials examined in the second and third series, could be compared.

Two-Dimensional Tests
The two-dimensional tests utilized a plexiglas tank 3 ft high by 4 ft wide by 3/4 in. thick. The tank accommodated an array of approximately 150,000 steel rollers 1/8 in. in diameter and 3/4 in. in length. 'they were stacked with all of their cylindrical axes parallel and with their ends constrained by the plexiglas faces of the tank. 'the ends of the rollers were large enough so that photographs of the array taken through the plexiglas plainly show each roller and its displacements.
Geotechnical Properties of Sea-Floor Sediments off the Coast of Southern California
Authors: Noorany Iraj , Kirsten Oskar H. , Luke Gregory L. 
Published: October 2008

Abstract
Near surface sea floor soils were obtained, with a sampler attached to the tracked underwater vehicle RUM, from eight regions off the coast of Southern California. The soils represented the continental shelf deposits as well as deep sea floor sediments. The geotechnical properties of these soils, including grain-size distribution, index properties, strength and compressibility, were determined.

Introduction
This paper describes the geotechnical properties of 28 sediment cores from eight areas on the floor of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California. The water depths ranged from 46 m. (25 fathoms) to 1199 m. (655 fathoms). The cores were taken by a 7.30 cm. in diameter, 56 cm. long sampler attached to the manipulator arm of the RUM (Remote Underwater Manipulator), a research vehicle of the Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California. The sediment cores were stored in a 50C refrigerator and were tested at the Soil Mechanics Laboratory of San Diego State University, San Diego.

Sea-Floor Sampling by RUM
The RUM (Fig. 1), is an unmanned tracked vehicle developed for sea floor explorations in water depths up to 2440 m. (8000 ft.) deep. An umbilical cable connects RUM with a surface support platform ORB (Oceanographic Research Buoy) which provides the power and controls RUM. Various features of the RUM/ORB system are shown in Fig. 2. RUM has been instrumented for a number of underwater measurements (2). Among these are a remotely controlled sediment corer (Fig. 3), in-situ vane shear device and a cone penetrometer (3,4) which have been used in waters as deep as 1830 m. (6000 ft.).

Sampler Locations
The RUM/ORB system was deployed at eight different areas off the coast of Southern California during the months of January, February, March, May and June, 1972. The soil samples described in this paper were obtained from the upper 60 cm. of the sea-floor sediments. The eight areas explored were: La Jolla Canyon, La Jolla Fan, the continental shelf off Bird Rock, the edge of the continental slope west of Bird Rock, the continental shelf off the coast of Point Lorna, the edge of the continental slope west of Point Lorna coast, top of the Coronado escarpment, and the floor of the San Diego Trough.

Index Properties
The index properties of the samples are summarized in Table 1. The grain size distribution was determined from hydrometer test. The specific gravity of solids was measured by the pycnometer method, and the plasticity indices (liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index) were determined from Atterbert Limit tests. The liquidity index, in Table 1 is defined by the following equation.
High Seas Oil Recovery Systems Development and Testing
Authors: Leary John F. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT
The nature of high seas oil spills required the development of special devices which would operate and recover oil in the rough water environment. The importance of fast response to these situations dictated certain size and weight requirements and the oil spills predicted, dicated the recovery rate capability. These specifications are outlined and a history of events leading to the development and test of prototype systems is discussed. Certain of the oil recovery techniques are mentioned. Devices carried to prototype or advanced laboratory model level are discussed Examples are: the Free Vortex, the Weir- Basin, and the Disc-Drum. Attention is given to the theory of operation of these systems. Oil tests and sea tests of these devices are discussed. The capability of these systems as a result of recent design changes and tests is covered.

INTRODUCTION
The increased size of oil tankers, the density of traffic on the high seas, increased offshore drilling for oil and recent incidents of oil spills have all pointed to the urgent need for oil pollution control. In the event of a massive spill on the open sea, the Coast Guard will play an important role in the control, recovery, and disposal of this oil. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the Coast Guard's approach to the solution of the problem of recovering spilled oil from the surface of the sea. Many oil recovery techniques were studied and tested. Those most promising ideas were constructed into prototype systems scaled in size to meet the rates of recovery of oil which would combat the size spill anticipated. Two such recovery devices were constructed and tested in inland pools with oil and on the high seas in calm and rough conditions. The Disc-Drum and the Weir-Basin techniques have proven quite capable of meeting the oil recovery rates projected. One of these devices, the Disc-Drum system, has been able to withstand all the rigorous testing thus far completed. A third technique, the "Free Vortex", is still undergoing research and development. This system has recently shown considerable improvement and may yet become a very useful tool as an oil recovery device both for high seas use and inland waters.

DISCUSSION
A massive oil spill is one wherein millions of gallons of oil are released, possibly due to a casualty of a tanker at sea or an emission of oil to the sea from an offshore drilling rig. The classic example of the kind of spill referred to is the Santa Barbara Channel offshore oil spill which caused costly damage to beaches, wildlife, recreational marine facilities and other valuables along the shore. The primitive unprepared techniques used in an attempt to recover the oil were extremely inefficient, ineffective and very costly. It is commonly agreed that if spills could be contained and recovered and not allowed to reach the beaches it could save millions of dollars in beach cleanup and restoration costs. Oil recovery from the open water is, therefore, a highly desirable objective.
Computer Simulation of Offshore Oil Spill Cleanup Operations
Authors: Cochran R.A. , Fraser J.P. 
Published: October 2008

ABSRACT
Computer simulation provides a powerful tool for use in selection and design of oil spill control equipment. This paper describes an oil spill simulation program which enables the user to assess the effects of weather and of the performance characteristics of oil spill control equipment on the recovery of spilled oil. Results of a sample case are shown which indicate the trends which might be expected from variations in the number of skimmers used, their ability to operate to different maximum wave heights, other skimmer performance characteristics, length of time spent on the job, and size of the spill.

INTRODUCTION
Anyone faced with purchase of oil spill control equipment has a serious problem: How much of what type of equipment is needed? Until recently, there has been no logical answer to this problem. Purchase of oil spill control equipment has, at best, been based on educated guesses. The purpose of this paper is to present a better method by which we can select equipment for oil spill containment and recovery. The performance of oil spill control equipment in calm water is easy to assess. However, the performance generally deteriorates as the weather becomes more severe. If the weather becomes very severe, it may be necessary to shut down operations or to seek shelter. The most important weather variable which affects the performance of oil spill skimmers and booms is the wave height; we can usually determine a characteristic wave height above which a given skimmer cannot operate. Similarly, the maximum wave height above which a given boom will not contain oil can be determined. Thus, we can characterize the performance of oil spill control equipment in terms of wave height. Historical (statistical) weather data for any given offshore location can usually be obtained. These data can be used to generate realistic synthetic weather synopses, using the theory of Markov chains.1,2 In turn, the weather synopses can be used to deduce corresponding oil spill recovery synopses, using a computer simulation program we have developed.3 In any run, using the oil spill simulation program, the computer keeps track on the weather, which can affect not only the ability of skimmers to recover oil or booms to retain spilled oil but also the ability of equipment to mobilize and leave shelter for the job site. The program also keeps track of the spreading of oil on water and (if desired) evaporation of the lighter components, and from this information the computer deduces the area1 extent of the oil spill and the resulting average oil thickness. This information is needed because the recovery efficiency (oil: water ratio) of any skimmer depends on the oil thickness. Booms or surface tension modifiers can be used to contain the spilled oil. The end result of the computations in any single computer run is the amount of oil recovered in that run. For our simulations, we usually generate 100 different weather synopses (thereby giving a statistical distribution of weather simulations) and compute the oil recovery for each.