bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
An Assessment of Unmanned Lightweight Platforms for Satellite Field Development
Authors: Power K.M. , Ford J.T. , Tweedie J.A. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT:
The use of subsea technology for small field (400 mmbbls) development is now well established. However, there are a number of technical and economic reasons for preferring platform completion to the subsea completion of offshore wells. It is possible to construct a fixed platform for the majority of water depths encountered in the North Sea but to compete on an economic basis with subsea development options the platform needs to be lightweight and capable of unmanned operation,
Although minimal platforms have been used extensively in the Gulf of Mexico over the past decade they have rarely bea used iu the North Sea. However, recently there has been growing interest in the application of these development techniques inthe North Sea.
The work presented in this paper, which is a summary of an MSC. Subsea Engineering thesis at Heriot-Watt University, utilised cost and technical information from Asean Brown Boveri (ABB) Global Engineering Ltd. to analyse the economic and technical feasibility of applying these development techniques in the North Sea. This study examines a range of lightweight platform designs which could be used as alternatives to subsea facilities and then compares, on a techno-economic basis, two specific types of platform and the subsea technique for a range of water depths and field sizes

Introduction
The primary goal of a North Sea operator, in the developmentof a field, is to maximise his return on investment. In an effort to achieve this he will investigate development techniques which will reduce capital expenditure and if possible accelerate production. However, he will also have a long term view and therefore technical considerations such as thefollowing in mind: maximum flexibility for future.
Expansion, maximum use of proven technology, minimizing production downtime and minimizing abandonment cost. Theapplication of these principles is particularly important in the development of marginal and sub-marginal fields.
The use of subsea technology for marginal field development is now well established, However, there are many advantagesof completing such wells above sea level from a platform. It is of course technically possible to produce via a conventional four legged fixed platform but to compete economically with subsea technology in these types of development the platform needs to be designed with minimal facilities and capable of Unmanned operation.
The purpose of this project was to determine whether 'minimalplatforms', and specifically the new tripod structures, are a viable alternative to subsea development techniques for marginrd fields in the British Sector of the North Sea.
For the purposes of this study marginal fields are defined asthose having reserves less than 100 mmbbls and submarginal fields less than 50 mmbbls.

DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS
The relative techno-economic merits of three development schemes for a satellite field were assessed.
Horizontal Wells in a Steamdrive in the Midway Sunset Field
Authors: Carpenter D.E. , Dazet S.C. 
Published: October 2008

SUMMARY
Three horizontal wells have been drilled in a low pressure, mature steam drive at the D&E Unit of the Midway Sunset Field, Kern County, California. Simulation studies indicate that horizontal wells in thermal projects can increase recovery efficiency due to better a real sweep, accelerate production which improves the oil-steam ratio (OSR), shorten project life, and increase project profitability.
The D&E Unit was selected as a test site for horizontal wells because gravel packs were not required for sand control. Low reservoir pressures and moderately sorted, sub-rounded sands contribute to the success of slotted liner completions. The reservoir is composed of well sorted, thick turbidite sands which dip at about 45°. The first two wells were drilled at an oblique angle to dip with approximately 400' laterals. The third well was drilled on strike with slightly more than a 700' lateral. Radius of curvature is approximately 40'. The three wells were drilled as short radius horizontal wells due to well and lease spacing constraints. The short radius design allows the rod pump to be placed in the vertical section of the hde with minimal draw down sacrifice. The lowest point of the laterals is 10' above the oil-water contact. All wells are completed with dotted liners. The three horizontal wells cost 2-3 times more than vertical wells. Oil production rates increased 2-3 times more than vertical wells in the two wells with 400' laterals. The third well with a 700' lateral is more prolific with 6 times the production rate of a vertical well. At this time, the wells are too immature to accurately predict ultimate recovery. This paper will discuss the drilling and completion design of the wells, steam soak data, temperature logs in the horizontal section and current production results.

EXPECTED BENEFITS
Simulation work has shown that horizontal wells in thermal drives accelerate production and increase recovery efficiency by improving a real sweep1,3,4,5 Increased production rates are a result of longer completed intervals and the additional draw down derived from placing the wells at the base of pay. In 1986, Huang, et al1 indicated that project improvement derived from horizontal well development could be dramatic; simulation results predicted a 250 percent increase in initial production rate. The best ease in the simulation reduced project life from 15 to 7 years.
Other potential benefits include producing reserves between the oil-water contact and existing completions. Many existing wells were completed shallow to avoid penetrating the transition zone. Horizontal wells may be the most effective way to exploit this wedge of undeveloped reserves.
Vertical wells frequently suffer from production problems Stemming from steam entry into the wellbore. Steam entry may cause sanding, liner damage, and high casing pressures. Horizontal wells would not "steam out" until the steam drive is very mature, therefore remedial work maybe significantly reduced.
Bonded Three-Layered Epoxy Polyethylene Coating to Continuous Steel Coiled Tubing
Authors: Reuser H.C. , Plummer R.A. , Lanan G.A. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT
The continuous steel coiled tubing manufactured by the ERW induction process features a patented weld allowing for coiled steel flat strips to be milled into continuous lengths of finished tubing and wound onto reels. A coating line was specially configured to apply a bonded three layered epoxy polyethylene coating to the continuous coiled steel tubing in lengths up to 14,400 feet by the straight through endo process.
The coated steel tubing was used for high pressure utility lines positioned from a central offshore platform to satellite platforms and were bundled and laid simultaneously from a lay barge. The lines were successfully nstalled offshore in Mobile Bay, Alabama in July, 1991.

INTRODUCTION
Electronic Resistance Welded (ERW) tubing or pipe is manufactured in a continuous process at the pipe mill. For typical pipeline applications, however, this continuous pipe is cut into 40 foot lengths at the mill, coated, transported to the installation site and then welded back together in the field. Obvious efficiencies result if the pipe can be coated, transported and installed in continuous lengths.
Procedures for manufacturing and handling continuous lengths of pipe are well established in the coiled tubing industry. Additionally, the offshore pipeline industry has developed procedures for installing continuous pipe lengths by the reel barge method. This paper describes the combination of these proven tubing/pipeline industry procedures with the continuous application of a high quality coating suitable for offshore pipelines. The continuous steel coiled tubing manufacture is described first, followed by the coating application, and a case history of its use in Mobile Bay, Alabama (Reference 1).

TUBING MANUFACTURE
Stee1 Coiled Tuber Development Modern coiled tubing technology was first applied in 1969, when l/2 in. OD tubing was used in conjunction with gaseous nitrogen to backwash salt water disposal wells. Since then, available tubing diameters have increased from 1/2 in. to 2 3/8 in. OD.
Coiled tubing trucks and skid units capable of running various sizes and lengths are now located in almost every oil and gas producing area of the world. There are presently more than thirty different downhole and fluid flow types of applications for coiled tubing. These applications now include offshore utility lines.

Stee1 Selection and Coil Slitting
Master coils of steel sheet are received from the steel mill in ten standard thicknesses ranging from 0.067 in. to 0.188 in. Coil lengths for the thinnest and thickest gauges vary from 3,800 feet to 1,800 feet, respectively, and the average coiled weight is 43,000 lbs. Each master coil is identified by a coil number and steel heat number. Individual strips slit from the master coils can be traced to the master coil number throughout the manufacturing process and delivery to the customer. Quality assurance and control is a vital tubing manufacturing function and follows both the welding and mill process to conclusion.
How To Find Gold (and Other Money) With a Dynamic Positioning Control System
Authors: Craft D.C. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT
An informal account of the first U.S. conversion of a standard tug/supply vessel into a Dynamic Positioned (DP) project vessel. Contains a limited review of deepwater search and recovery and the circumstances leading to the conversion. Concludes with a comparison of costs of chartering an existing DP vessel versus converting a vessel of opportunity.

TEXT
I had all but forgotten that the modifying of a tug/supply with a DP control system for the Central America Identification Project In 1987 was the first such effort in the United States.
I hope to give you some insight as to why and how this occurred. I believe that some of you here today may be able to save a considerable amount of operational money by taking a similar approach when the time comes to select a DP vessel for your future projects.
While preparing the original abstract for this presentation, a 9entleman I greatly respect recommended I Include a little of the development of Dynamic Positioning and bits of my personal deep water search aridrecovery experience, in his words, this would add flavor and interest to an otherwise boring subject. I hope he iS right
Let me point out for those of You that were not around In "good old days", before DP vessels were readily available, precise stationkeeplng for deep water work was completely dependent upon the shiphandling ability of a vessels master and/or mates. The technique required that a device be placed on the bridge to show the ship handler the vessels actual and real time position In relation to the desired position.
In reasonable weather conditions a good shiphandler would have little difficulty using this method to take up and maintain a desired position.
[Unfortunately the weather is not always favorable and the level of concentration required to maintain a precise station for long periods of time can be quite exhausting.
Under these conditions, as operator fatigue sets in, errors in judgement and reflexes could insidiously creep in with the result that the ship might make a totally unexpected or radical departure from station while equipment was deployed.
Such a departure can be very hazardous, even life threatening to personnel. It can also severely damage or bring about the loss of very expensive equipment. Seeking ways to prevent such accidents led, to greater and greater use of automation to augment the shiphandler's capability.
You will note that I use the word "augment" as opposed to "replace" the shlphandler. In my judgement nothing can replace a highly-skilled and competent shlphandler. I strongly feel that such an individual must always be the bridge of any deep recovery vessel, including' those with a fu: redundant DP control system.
Long before DP vessels became commonplace, I had twice gone through the pressure cooker of attempting to keep a vessel on a very small diameter station by "chasing the X" on a track plotter or TV type display designed by a non-shiphandling electronics technician.
The Corporate Safety Culture: Its Workings And Its Importance
Authors: Koenig D.W. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT
Corporate culture determines the vitality of an organization. The corporate safety culture is a subset of the corporate culture. Each corporate culture and each safety culture is unique
A culture is difficult to describe by people both inside and outside the culture, The reason for this is that people inside the culture are generally not conscious of it and people outside the culture describe it in terms of their paradigms.
This paper describes four components of culture: symbols, heroes, rituals and values. These components are applied to the early years of the Du Pent and Conoco companies as examples of how safety cultures develop. These cultural components are then applied to the Du Pont company of today.
Understanding why and how corporate cultures exist provides insight into why organizations function the way they do and how these functions can be changed.
The reader is asked to compare his organization's safety culture to that of Du Pent and Conoco in order to apply the cultural components and note similarities and differences.

INTRODUCTION
What are your first thoughts about the words, "multipe explosions, fire, and smoke"? The odds are your mind immediately focused on one of the serious incidents in the petroleum or chemical industries. But you could have thought about a recreational activity like a racetrack and a finely tuned dragster warming up at the starting line to go 200 miles per hour.
Do you ever wonder why the company you work for operates the way it does? Questions you might ask are: Why is the company concerned with safety or ethics? Why is the company concerned with occupational health or the environment? You might conclude that it's just the way things are done.
These questions tend to focus thinking on corporate behavior and how individual interpretations of an event can differ or be the same. The interpretation an individual lives to an event is a result of that individual's socialization into a culture1.
This paper focuses on one of several levels of culture the organizational or corporate culture. Geert Hofsted in his book Culture and Organizations describes six cultural levels: 1. a national level, 2. a regional, ethnic or religious level, 3. a gender level, 4. a generation level 5. a social class level, and 6. the organizational or corporate level2.
The content of this paper is taken from three major sources: recent business literature on corporate culture, examples from the Du Pent and Conoco safety cultures, and personal interpretation,
This paper hopes to pique your interest in ways to understand corporate safety culture. It represents a personal view of safety and cultural issues. The observations I make about the safety culture of my organization are made from my own set of paradigms
Paradigms are the rules people use to solve problems. Paradigms work well for as long as they fit the conditions of the problem. Steven Covey describes it this way in his book The Seven Principles of Highly Effective People:
Deepsea Mining In China
Authors: Xie Longshui 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACT
At present, the ore reserves per man in China is 1.5t, much less than 3.5t which is the average ore reserves per man in the world. With the development of China national economic construction, the requirement for copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese to China's industries is being increased gradually, Currently, the supply of these metals is short of demand in China, and this shortage is filled up through the import of mineral products from other countries, Thus the polymetallic nodule mining in deep sea is of great importance to China national economic construction, This paper describes the situation of China's metals market, the early study on deep sea mining, the existing conditions of the exploitation of deep sea polymetallic nodules in China up to date, and the general situation of China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA). From the point of the author's view, the deep sea mining plan and the technical strategy to achieve the aim of industrial mining in the registered international seabed nodule area early in the next century taken by a China ocean mining entity are described in the last section of this paper.

INTRODUCTION
The increasing development of today's Industry leads the demand for metals to great increase inevitably. With the ever decreasing of the land mineral resources, the wish for obtaining the ore from oceans becomes more eager. Therefore, the seafloor in the future will be a base of raw metal supply to the world industries.
Early in 1960s'the assessment of nodule mineral resources in the seafloor was made by J. L. Mere, Professor in a university in U.S.A. Since then, it is increasingly acknowledged that the manganese nodules in the seafloor are said to be a new mineral resources Meanwhile, the surveying of seabed manganese nodules was started in many countries.
Up to now, a great progress in the research and development of seabed manganese nodules has been extended, especially in U.S.A., Germany, France, Japan and former USSR etc. Without any exception, a great achievement in the surveying of seabed manganese nodules had been made by China(the 5th pioneer investor of deep sea mining fol. lowing on India, former USSR, France and Japan, which was approved by the Preparatory. Commission for the International Seabed Authority officially in March 1991),
According to the surveying, the manganese nodules distribute over the deep seabed, especially concentrating in the Pacific ocean, Of course, it is very difficult to collect the manganese nodules in such a deep sea. this is a systematic engineering involved in many disciplines such as geology, oceanography, metallurgy, electronics, shipbuilding, mechanics, computer supervisor y control, underwater TV, remote control, new materials,. and new technology etc. In order to make the exploitation and utilization of ocean mineral resources possessed of human race be true as soon as possible, the deep sea mining sector of China is willing to cooperate with he international entities to research in the mining, processing and metallurgy technology. for manganese nodules.
High-Resolution Seismic Stratigraphic Applications To Petroleum Exploration
Authors: Trabant P.K. 
Published: October 2008

High STAND SYSTEMS TRACT (HST) AND CONDENSED SECTION (CS)
The sequence stratigraphic cycle starts towards the end of a high stand in sea level as experienced under present day conditions. sediments accumulated during this period of the cycle are part of the highstand systems tract ([1ST)of Figs, 2 and 3.
During the HST stage there is very little deposition on the outer Continental shelf and beneath the deeper water of the slope, as sediment accumulation consists Primary in a slow "rain" of microscopic shells of plankton and other fossils and wind transported sediments, The slow accumulation of sediments during this phase the cycle is "condensed" relative to time, and it is the condensed layer tire identified on high resolution seismic records by laterally continuous strong acoustic reflection and the attitude of overlying und underling reflector (Fig 1 and 5). The point in time at which sea level reaches its Maximum incursion shoreward is referred to as the "maximum flooding stage" (mfs of Figs 2 and 3). This occurs during the warmest portions of an interglacial stage, and the resulting sediment layers are characterized by an abundance of microfossils.
A "sequence boundary" is located immediately above the condensed section provided no erosion has taken place, in which case the boundary follows the unconformity.
High rates of sediment accumulation during the HST phase are limited to points of high fluvial discharge along the shoreline and the occasional delta which builds out onto the shelf. Such is the case at the mouth of the present-day Mississippi River. The HST portion of a cycle is completed when sea level drops sufficiently to place the shoreline along the outer portions of the continental shelf As the cycle progresses the shoreward areas become exposed and dissected by fluvial processes developing a coastal plain similar to the present-day areas of south Texas and Louisiana,

SHELF MARGIN SYSTEMS TRACT (SMST)
As sea level drops as a result of global climatic cooling and the buildup of continental ice sheets the shore line slowly migrates towards the outer continental shelf accumulating sediments seaward where supplied in a "prograding"fashion [Fig. 3),
Those areas experiencing high sediment discharge rates on the mid to outer shelf areas develop shelf margin systems tracts (SMST), while elsewhere relatively little deposition takes place.
The SMST depo-centers consists of lobe-shaped sedimentary complexes which tend to meander and switch position along the shoreline or shelf edge during this period.
Upon reaching the shelf edge with a further drop in sea level sediments are dumped down the steeper inclines of the upper slope to form the lowstand systems tract components of Figs. 2 and 3.

LOWSTAND SYSTEMS TRACT (LST)
Upon reaching it's lowest elevation towards the peak of an ice age, sea level and the shoreline are located along the continental shelf edge. This is more than a hundred miles off the present Texas coast in approximately 500 feet of water.