Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005.
100-559: During its initial decades, the firm was involved in the manufacture of cast iron stoves and hydroelectric turbines . The turbine business was Kværner's leading product throughout the first half of the twentieth century, although it had also branched out into the production of bridges, cranes, and pumps. Kværner underwent a spree of international acquisitions during the 1990s, which included Govan Shipbuilders , Götaverken , Trafalgar House , Vyborg Shipyard ; its headquarters were also relocated from Oslo to London during this decade. However,
200-751: A cupola , but in modern applications, it is more often melted in electric induction furnaces or electric arc furnaces. After melting is complete, the molten cast iron is poured into a holding furnace or ladle. Cast iron's properties are changed by adding various alloying elements, or alloyants . Next to carbon , silicon is the most important alloyant because it forces carbon out of solution. A low percentage of silicon allows carbon to remain in solution, forming iron carbide and producing white cast iron. A high percentage of silicon forces carbon out of solution, forming graphite and producing grey cast iron. Other alloying agents, manganese , chromium , molybdenum , titanium , and vanadium counteract silicon, and promote
300-443: A rack and pinion gear system on each leg. A drillship is a maritime vessel that has been fitted with drilling apparatus. It is most often used for exploratory drilling of new oil or gas wells in deep water but can also be used for scientific drilling. Early versions were built on a modified tanker hull, but purpose-built designs are used today. Most drillships are outfitted with a dynamic positioning system to maintain position over
400-626: A well bay and a small process plant . They are designed to operate in conjunction with a static production platform which is connected to the platform by flow lines or by umbilical cable , or both. The Petronius Platform is a compliant tower in the Gulf of Mexico modeled after the Hess Baldpate platform, which stands 2,100 feet (640 m) above the ocean floor. It is one of the world's tallest structures . The Hibernia platform in Canada
500-464: A 10-tonne impeller) to be sand cast, as the chromium reduces cooling rate required to produce carbides through the greater thicknesses of material. Chromium also produces carbides with impressive abrasion resistance. These high-chromium alloys attribute their superior hardness to the presence of chromium carbides. The main form of these carbides are the eutectic or primary M 7 C 3 carbides, where "M" represents iron or chromium and can vary depending on
600-475: A decision to cultivate its core businesses; consequently, Kvaerner was established, through a demerger , as a specialised EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) company addressing the global market. On 6 May 2011, the shareholders' annual general meeting approved the establishment of Kvaerner as a separate company. In 2015, it commenced fabrication of a 26,500 tonne steel jacket, the largest in Europe, for
700-463: A mile-long wooden trestle with railway tracks into the sea at McFadden Beach on the Gulf of Mexico, placing a derrick at its end – this was later destroyed by a hurricane. In 1945, concern for American control of its offshore oil reserves caused President Harry Truman to issue an Executive Order unilaterally extending American territory to the edge of its continental shelf, an act that effectively ended
800-631: A passing crack and initiate countless new cracks as the material breaks, and ductile cast iron has spherical graphite "nodules" which stop the crack from further progressing. Carbon (C), ranging from 1.8 to 4 wt%, and silicon (Si), 1–3 wt%, are the main alloying elements of cast iron. Iron alloys with lower carbon content are known as steel . Cast iron tends to be brittle , except for malleable cast irons . With its relatively low melting point, good fluidity, castability , excellent machinability , resistance to deformation and wear resistance , cast irons have become an engineering material with
900-412: A pile foundation supporting a conventional deck for drilling and production operations. Compliant towers are designed to sustain significant lateral deflections and forces, and are typically used in water depths ranging from 370 to 910 metres (1,210 to 2,990 ft). These platforms have hulls (columns and pontoons) of sufficient buoyancy to cause the structure to float, but of weight sufficient to keep
1000-563: A rule of mixtures. In any case, they offer hardness at the expense of toughness . Since carbide makes up a large fraction of the material, white cast iron could reasonably be classified as a cermet . White iron is too brittle for use in many structural components, but with good hardness and abrasion resistance and relatively low cost, it finds use in such applications as the wear surfaces ( impeller and volute ) of slurry pumps , shell liners and lifter bars in ball mills and autogenous grinding mills , balls and rings in coal pulverisers . It
1100-424: A spongy steel without the stress concentration effects that flakes of graphite would produce. The carbon percentage present is 3-4% and percentage of silicon is 1.8-2.8%.Tiny amounts of 0.02 to 0.1% magnesium , and only 0.02 to 0.04% cerium added to these alloys slow the growth of graphite precipitates by bonding to the edges of the graphite planes. Along with careful control of other elements and timing, this allows
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#17327980624481200-651: A stake in the Vyborg Shipyard ( Russian : Выборгский судостроительный завод ) and renamed it Kverner-Vyborg Shipyard ( Russian : ОАО "Квернер-Выборг Верфь" ) which was the largest manufacturer of offshore installations in Russia. Also during the mid 1990s, Kvaerner expanded its footprint in the Indonesian market, including through the formation of Kvaerner Bakrie Engineering in late 1995. The company's expansive acquisitions quickly brought economic hardship to
1300-618: A storm in the North Sea with the loss of 123 lives. In 2001, Petrobras 36 in Brazil exploded and sank five days later, killing 11 people. Given the number of grievances and conspiracy theories that involve the oil business, and the importance of gas/oil platforms to the economy, platforms in the United States are believed to be potential terrorist targets. Agencies and military units responsible for maritime counter-terrorism in
1400-417: A wide range of applications and are used in pipes , machines and automotive industry parts, such as cylinder heads , cylinder blocks and gearbox cases. Some alloys are resistant to damage by oxidation . In general, cast iron is notoriously difficult to weld . The earliest cast-iron artefacts date to the 5th century BC, and were discovered by archaeologists in what is now Jiangsu , China. Cast iron
1500-399: A year after it was opened. The Dee bridge disaster was caused by excessive loading at the centre of the beam by a passing train, and many similar bridges had to be demolished and rebuilt, often in wrought iron . The bridge had been badly designed, being trussed with wrought iron straps, which were wrongly thought to reinforce the structure. The centres of the beams were put into bending, with
1600-474: Is a 4-column design that looks similar to a semisubmersible. Proprietary versions include the Seastar and MOSES mini TLPs; they are relatively low cost, used in water depths between 180 and 1,300 metres (590 and 4,270 ft). Mini TLPs can also be used as utility, satellite or early production platforms for larger deepwater discoveries. A GBS can either be steel or concrete and is usually anchored directly onto
1700-462: Is a class of iron – carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its carbon appears: white cast iron has its carbon combined into an iron carbide named cementite , which is very hard, but brittle, as it allows cracks to pass straight through; grey cast iron has graphite flakes which deflect
1800-491: Is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed . Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform linked by bridge to the production platform. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf , though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas. Depending on
1900-438: Is added in the ladle or in the furnace, on the order of 0.5–2.5%, to decrease chill, refine graphite, and increase fluidity. Molybdenum is added on the order of 0.3–1% to increase chill and refine the graphite and pearlite structure; it is often added in conjunction with nickel, copper, and chromium to form high strength irons. Titanium is added as a degasser and deoxidizer, but it also increases fluidity. Vanadium at 0.15–0.5%
2000-439: Is added to cast iron to stabilize cementite, increase hardness, and increase resistance to wear and heat. Zirconium at 0.1–0.3% helps to form graphite, deoxidize, and increase fluidity. In malleable iron melts, bismuth is added at 0.002–0.01% to increase how much silicon can be added. In white iron, boron is added to aid in the production of malleable iron; it also reduces the coarsening effect of bismuth. Grey cast iron
2100-433: Is approximately 488m long and 74m wide with displacement of around 600,000t when fully ballasted. A typical oil production platform is self-sufficient in energy and water needs, housing electrical generation, water desalinators and all of the equipment necessary to process oil and gas such that it can be either delivered directly onshore by pipeline or to a floating platform or tanker loading facility, or both. Elements in
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#17327980624482200-420: Is characterised by its graphitic microstructure, which causes fractures of the material to have a grey appearance. It is the most commonly used cast iron and the most widely used cast material based on weight. Most cast irons have a chemical composition of 2.5–4.0% carbon, 1–3% silicon, and the remainder iron. Grey cast iron has less tensile strength and shock resistance than steel, but its compressive strength
2300-485: Is comparable to low- and medium-carbon steel. These mechanical properties are controlled by the size and shape of the graphite flakes present in the microstructure and can be characterised according to the guidelines given by the ASTM . White cast iron displays white fractured surfaces due to the presence of an iron carbide precipitate called cementite. With a lower silicon content (graphitizing agent) and faster cooling rate,
2400-453: Is difficult to cool thick castings fast enough to solidify the melt as white cast iron all the way through. However, rapid cooling can be used to solidify a shell of white cast iron, after which the remainder cools more slowly to form a core of grey cast iron. The resulting casting, called a chilled casting , has the benefits of a hard surface with a somewhat tougher interior. High-chromium white iron alloys allow massive castings (for example,
2500-605: Is known as the Iron Bridge in Shropshire , England. Cast iron was also used in the construction of buildings . Cast iron is made from pig iron , which is the product of melting iron ore in a blast furnace . Cast iron can be made directly from the molten pig iron or by re-melting pig iron, often along with substantial quantities of iron, steel, limestone, carbon (coke) and taking various steps to remove undesirable contaminants. Phosphorus and sulfur may be burnt out of
2600-415: Is one of the best sources for having floating production. The world's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility is in production. See the section on particularly large examples below. TLPs are floating platforms tethered to the seabed in a manner that eliminates most vertical movement of the structure. TLPs are used in water depths up to about 2,000 meters (6,600 feet). The "conventional" TLP
2700-433: Is one of the most common alloying elements, because it refines the pearlite and graphite structures, improves toughness, and evens out hardness differences between section thicknesses. Chromium is added in small amounts to reduce free graphite, produce chill, and because it is a powerful carbide stabilizer; nickel is often added in conjunction. A small amount of tin can be added as a substitute for 0.5% chromium. Copper
2800-442: Is required. During normal operations, PSVs (platform supply vessels) keep the platforms provisioned and supplied, and AHTS vessels can also supply them, as well as tow them to location and serve as standby rescue and firefighting vessels. Not all of the following personnel are present on every platform. On smaller platforms, one worker can perform a number of different jobs. The following also are not names officially recognized in
2900-641: Is the Petrobras America Cascade FPSO in the Walker Ridge 249 field in 2,600 meters of water. Notable offshore basins include: Larger lake- and sea-based offshore platforms and drilling rig for oil. These platforms are built on concrete or steel legs, or both, anchored directly onto the seabed, supporting the deck with space for drilling rigs, production facilities and crew quarters. Such platforms are, by virtue of their immobility, designed for very long term use (for instance
3000-572: Is the world's heaviest offshore platform, located on the Jeanne D'Arc Basin , in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland . This gravity base structure (GBS), which sits on the ocean floor, is 111 metres (364 ft) high and has storage capacity for 1.3 million barrels (210,000 m ) of crude oil in its 85-metre (279 ft) high caisson. The platform acts as a small concrete island with serrated outer edges designed to withstand
3100-403: The 3-mile limit " freedom of the seas " regime. In 1946, Magnolia Petroleum (now ExxonMobil ) drilled at a site 18 miles (29 km) off the coast, erecting a platform in 18 feet (5.5 m) of water off St. Mary Parish, Louisiana . In early 1947, Superior Oil erected a drilling/production platform in 20 ft (6.1 m) of water some 18 miles off Vermilion Parish, Louisiana . But it
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3200-698: The Chirk Aqueduct and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct , both of which remain in use following the recent restorations. The best way of using cast iron for bridge construction was by using arches , so that all the material is in compression. Cast iron, again like masonry, is very strong in compression. Wrought iron, like most other kinds of iron and indeed like most metals in general, is strong in tension, and also tough – resistant to fracturing. The relationship between wrought iron and cast iron, for structural purposes, may be thought of as analogous to
3300-590: The Condeep concept, often have in-built oil storage in tanks below the sea surface and these tanks were often used as a flotation capability, allowing them to be built close to shore ( Norwegian fjords and Scottish firths are popular because they are sheltered and deep enough) and then floated to their final position where they are sunk to the seabed. Fixed platforms are economically feasible for installation in water depths up to about 520 m (1,710 ft). These platforms consist of slender, flexible towers and
3400-527: The Congo region of the Central African forest, blacksmiths invented sophisticated furnaces capable of high temperatures over 1000 years ago. There are countless examples of welding, soldering, and cast iron created in crucibles and poured into molds. These techniques were employed for the use of composite tools and weapons with cast iron or steel blades and soft, flexible wrought iron interiors. Iron wire
3500-454: The Hibernia platform ). Various types of structure are used: steel jacket, concrete caisson , floating steel, and even floating concrete . Steel jackets are structural sections made of tubular steel members, and are usually piled into the seabed. To see more details regarding Design, construction and installation of such platforms refer to: and. Concrete caisson structures , pioneered by
3600-522: The Johan Sverdrup partnership. Subsequently, Kvarner was awarded additional work on this scheme. In September 2019, the company announced their plans to target renewable growth and that it was looking to expand its operations in renewable energy to help boost this growth by around 40% in the coming years. One month later, it signed a contract valued at NOK 1.5 billion for Hywind Tampen , the world's largest floating offshore wind farm. Separately,
3700-744: The Oslo Stock Exchange in 1967. By the 1990s, the company assembled a collection of engineering and industrial businesses, including shipbuilding , construction of offshore oil and gas platforms , production of pulping and paper manufacturing equipment, and operation of a shipping fleet . Directors-general of Kværner after the stock exchange listing were Kjell B. Langballe (1960–1976), Carl Røtjer (1976–1986) and Mikal H. Grønner (1986–1989). Chairmen were Frithjof A. Lind (–1982), Johan B. Holte (1982–1985), Emil Eriksrud (1985–1986), Carl Røtjer (1986–1989), Kaspar Kielland (1989-1996), and then Christian Bjelland (1996-2001). Since 2011,
3800-542: The Warring States period . This is based on an analysis of the artifact's microstructures. Because cast iron is comparatively brittle, it is not suitable for purposes where a sharp edge or flexibility is required. It is strong under compression, but not under tension. Cast iron was invented in China in the 5th century BC and poured into molds to make ploughshares and pots as well as weapons and pagodas. Although steel
3900-403: The surface tension to form the graphite into spheroidal particles rather than flakes. Due to their lower aspect ratio , the spheroids are relatively short and far from one another, and have a lower cross section vis-a-vis a propagating crack or phonon . They also have blunt boundaries, as opposed to flakes, which alleviates the stress concentration problems found in grey cast iron. In general,
4000-409: The "cell spar", which is built from multiple vertical cylinders. The spar has more inherent stability than a TLP since it has a large counterweight at the bottom and does not depend on the mooring to hold it upright. It also has the ability, by adjusting the mooring line tensions (using chain-jacks attached to the mooring lines), to move horizontally and to position itself over wells at some distance from
4100-707: The 13th century and other travellers subsequently noted an iron industry in the Alburz Mountains to the south of the Caspian Sea . This is close to the silk route , thus the use of cast-iron technology being derived from China is conceivable. Upon its introduction to the West in the 15th century it was used for cannon and shot . Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547) initiated the casting of cannon in England. Soon, English iron workers using blast furnaces developed
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4200-533: The 1720s and 1730s by a small number of other coke -fired blast furnaces. Application of the steam engine to power blast bellows (indirectly by pumping water to a waterwheel) in Britain, beginning in 1743 and increasing in the 1750s, was a key factor in increasing the production of cast iron, which surged in the following decades. In addition to overcoming the limitation on water power, the steam-pumped-water powered blast gave higher furnace temperatures which allowed
4300-711: The 1910s. Shortly thereafter, wells were drilled in tidal zones along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. The Goose Creek field near Baytown, Texas , is one such example. In the 1920s, drilling was done from concrete platforms in Lake Maracaibo , Venezuela . The oldest offshore well recorded in Infield's offshore database is the Bibi Eibat well which came on stream in 1923 in Azerbaijan . Landfill
4400-521: The 1920s by Edward Robert Armstrong for the purpose of operating aircraft with an invention known as the "seadrome". The first purpose-built drilling semi-submersible Ocean Driller was launched in 1963. Since then, many semi-submersibles have been purpose-designed for the drilling industry mobile offshore fleet. The first offshore drillship was the CUSS 1 developed for the Mohole project to drill into
4500-663: The CEO has been Jan Arve Haugan. Erik Tønseth became director-general of Kværner in 1989, and under his leadership the company underwent large-scale international expansion, acquiring the state-owned Govan Shipbuilders from British Shipbuilders . During 1992, Kværner acquired the Swedish company Götaverken . In 1996, Kværner acquired the British conglomerate Trafalgar House , after which it moved its international headquarters from Oslo to London . During January 1996, Kvaerner purchased
4600-514: The Earth's crust. As of June, 2010, there were over 620 mobile offshore drilling rigs (Jackups, semisubs, drillships, barges) available for service in the competitive rig fleet. One of the world's deepest hubs is currently the Perdido in the Gulf of Mexico, floating in 2,438 meters of water. It is operated by Shell plc and was built at a cost of $ 3 billion. The deepest operational platform
4700-516: The Gulf of Mexico from 2001 to 2010. On July 6, 1988, 167 people died when Occidental Petroleum 's Piper Alpha offshore production platform, on the Piper field in the UK sector of the North Sea , exploded after a gas leak. The resulting investigation conducted by Lord Cullen and publicized in the first Cullen Report was highly critical of a number of areas, including, but not limited to, management within
4800-686: The Gulf of Mexico, floating in 2,438 metres of water. It is operated by Royal Dutch Shell and was built at a cost of $ 3 billion. The first truss spars were Kerr-McGee's Boomvang and Nansen. The first (and, as of 2010, only) cell spar is Kerr-McGee's Red Hawk. These installations, sometimes called toadstools, are small platforms, consisting of little more than a well bay , helipad and emergency shelter. They are designed to be operated remotely under normal conditions, only to be visited occasionally for routine maintenance or well work . These installations, also known as satellite platforms , are small unmanned platforms consisting of little more than
4900-432: The Gulf of Mexico, the first jack-up rigs began appearing from specialized offshore drilling contractors such as forerunners of ENSCO International. The first semi-submersible resulted from an unexpected observation in 1961. Blue Water Drilling Company owned and operated the four-column submersible Blue Water Rig No.1 in the Gulf of Mexico for Shell Oil Company . As the pontoons were not sufficiently buoyant to support
5000-479: The Industrial Revolution, cast iron was also widely used for frame and other fixed parts of machinery, including spinning and later weaving machines in textile mills. Cast iron became widely used, and many towns had foundries producing industrial and agricultural machinery. Oil platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig , offshore platform , oil production platform , etc.)
5100-609: The Sergey Zavyalov ( Russian : Сергей Завьялов ) associated with early 1990s established Ako Barss Group ( Russian : "Ако Барсс Груп" ) which sold the shipyard to Rossiya Bank owners who placed the shipyard in the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) in 2012. In August 2000, Kværner sold its Construction Division to the Swedish company Skanska . The economic slowdown in 2001 coupled with
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#17327980624485200-543: The US ( Coast Guard , Navy SEALs , Marine Recon ) often train for platform raids. On April 21, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon platform, 52 miles off-shore of Venice, Louisiana , (property of Transocean and leased to BP ) exploded , killing 11 people, and sank two days later. The resulting undersea gusher, conservatively estimated to exceed 20 million US gallons (76,000 m ) as of early June 2010, became
5300-488: The alloy's composition. The eutectic carbides form as bundles of hollow hexagonal rods and grow perpendicular to the hexagonal basal plane. The hardness of these carbides are within the range of 1500-1800HV. Malleable iron starts as a white iron casting that is then heat treated for a day or two at about 950 °C (1,740 °F) and then cooled over a day or two. As a result, the carbon in iron carbide transforms into graphite and ferrite plus carbon. The slow process allows
5400-429: The benefit of what is called precipitation hardening (as in some steels, where much smaller cementite precipitates might inhibit [plastic deformation] by impeding the movement of dislocations through the pure iron ferrite matrix). Rather, they increase the bulk hardness of the cast iron simply by virtue of their own very high hardness and their substantial volume fraction, such that the bulk hardness can be approximated by
5500-537: The blast furnaces at Coalbrookdale. Other inventions followed, including one patented by Thomas Paine . Cast-iron bridges became commonplace as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace. Thomas Telford adopted the material for his bridge upstream at Buildwas , and then for Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct , a canal trough aqueduct at Longdon-on-Tern on the Shrewsbury Canal . It was followed by
5600-539: The bolt holes were also cast and not drilled. Thus, because of casting's draft angle, the tension from the tie bars was placed on the hole's edge rather than being spread over the length of the hole. The replacement bridge was built in wrought iron and steel. Further bridge collapses occurred, however, culminating in the Norwood Junction rail accident of 1891. Thousands of cast-iron rail underbridges were eventually replaced by steel equivalents by 1900 owing to
5700-522: The carbon in white cast iron precipitates out of the melt as the metastable phase cementite , Fe 3 C, rather than graphite. The cementite which precipitates from the melt forms as relatively large particles. As the iron carbide precipitates out, it withdraws carbon from the original melt, moving the mixture toward one that is closer to eutectic , and the remaining phase is the lower iron-carbon austenite (which on cooling might transform to martensite ). These eutectic carbides are much too large to provide
5800-439: The carbon to separate as spheroidal particles as the material solidifies. The properties are similar to malleable iron, but parts can be cast with larger sections. Cast iron and wrought iron can be produced unintentionally when smelting copper using iron ore as a flux. The earliest cast-iron artifacts date to the 5th century BC, and were discovered by archaeologists in what is now modern Luhe County , Jiangsu in China during
5900-477: The circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island , or float . In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. These sub-sea facilities may include one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells. Offshore drilling presents environmental challenges, both from
6000-451: The company entered into a strategic collaboration with Nel ASA on green hydrogen projects, including the prospective development of large scale hydrogen production plants. During July 2020, Aker Solutions announced major restructuring plans, centering on its merger with Kvaerner and the spinning off of its wind development and carbon capture and storage businesses into two separate Oslo-listed entities. Cast iron Cast iron
6100-547: The company, the design of the structure, and the Permit to Work System. The report was commissioned in 1988, and was delivered in November 1990. The accident greatly accelerated the practice of providing living accommodations on separate platforms, away from those used for extraction. The offshore can be in itself a hazardous environment. In March 1980, the ' flotel ' (floating hotel) platform Alexander L. Kielland capsized in
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#17327980624486200-545: The company. Kjell Almskog became Kværner's CEO in 1998, and implemented various plans to streamline the company. This included the sale of the Cunard Line (a division of Trafalgar House) to Carnival Corporation , the sale of Kvaerner Govan to BAE Systems and the sale of Chemrec to Babcock Borsig . On 10 March 2000, Kvaerner sold the Vyborg Shipyard, which was losing money and faced closure during 1999, to
6300-627: The cotton, hemp , or wool being spun. As a result, textile mills had an alarming propensity to burn down. The solution was to build them completely of non-combustible materials, and it was found convenient to provide the building with an iron frame, largely of cast iron, replacing flammable wood. The first such building was at Ditherington in Shrewsbury , Shropshire. Many other warehouses were built using cast-iron columns and beams, although faulty designs, flawed beams or overloading sometimes caused building collapses and structural failures. During
6400-536: The development of steel-framed skyscrapers. Cast iron was also used sometimes for decorative facades, especially in the United States, and the Soho district of New York has numerous examples. It was also used occasionally for complete prefabricated buildings, such as the historic Iron Building in Watervliet, New York . Another important use was in textile mills . The air in the mills contained flammable fibres from
6500-507: The direct predecessors of modern offshore platforms. Having been pre-constructed in a very short time, they were then floated to their location and placed on the shallow bottom of the Thames and the Mersey estuary. In 1954, the first jackup oil rig was ordered by Zapata Oil . It was designed by R. G. LeTourneau and featured three electro-mechanically operated lattice-type legs. Built on
6600-407: The early 2000s, Kværner was approached multiple times by its long time rival Aker ASA , a Norwegian oil services group controlled by Kjell Inge Røkke . During November 2001, in order to avoid bankruptcy, Kværner was compelled to merge with Aker. Røkke scuppered the solution preferred by Kværner's management, which was a rescue by Yukos. Kværner's international headquarters returned to Oslo and Kværner
6700-520: The effects of sulfur, manganese is added, because the two form into manganese sulfide instead of iron sulfide. The manganese sulfide is lighter than the melt, so it tends to float out of the melt and into the slag . The amount of manganese required to neutralize sulfur is 1.7 × sulfur content + 0.3%. If more than this amount of manganese is added, then manganese carbide forms, which increases hardness and chilling , except in grey iron, where up to 1% of manganese increases strength and density. Nickel
6800-416: The firm's heavy debt burden and a series of management missteps brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy . Hugo Erikssen, a director of public relations at Yukos , and Oleg Sheiko (Russian: Олег Шейко ), Yukos' vice president for finance, and Alexey Golubovich (Russian: Алексей Голубович ), who was Yukos' "director of corporate finance" until 2001, supported Kværner with mergers and financing. During
6900-507: The heavy debt burden built up by acquiring these businesses, some of which were actually unprofitable, jeopardised the company's continued existence by the start of the twenty-first century. Efforts to stabilise the company included the selling off of Cunard Line and its construction division, as well as the receipt of financial support from senior figures within the Russian oil company Yukos . However, in order to avoid bankruptcy , Kværner
7000-421: The impact of an iceberg . The GBS contains production storage tanks and the remainder of the void space is filled with ballast with the entire structure weighing in at 1.2 million tons . Royal Dutch Shell has developed the first Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility, which is situated approximately 200 km off the coast of Western Australia . It is the largest floating offshore facility. It
7100-535: The industry: Drill crew will be on board if the installation is performing drilling operations. A drill crew will normally comprise: Well services crew will be on board for well work . The crew will normally comprise: The nature of their operation—extraction of volatile substances sometimes under extreme pressure in a hostile environment—means risk; accidents and tragedies occur regularly. The U.S. Minerals Management Service reported 69 offshore deaths, 1,349 injuries, and 858 fires and explosions on offshore rigs in
7200-539: The lower edge in tension, where cast iron, like masonry , is very weak. Nevertheless, cast iron continued to be used in inappropriate structural ways, until the Tay Rail Bridge disaster of 1879 cast serious doubt on the use of the material. Crucial lugs for holding tie bars and struts in the Tay Bridge had been cast integral with the columns, and they failed in the early stages of the accident. In addition,
7300-418: The main platform location. The first production spar was Kerr-McGee's Neptune, anchored in 590 m (1,940 ft) in the Gulf of Mexico; however, spars (such as Brent Spar ) were previously used as FSOs. Eni 's Devil's Tower located in 1,710 m (5,610 ft) of water in the Gulf of Mexico, was the world's deepest spar until 2010. The world's deepest platform as of 2011 was the Perdido spar in
7400-555: The mobile units are anchored to the seabed. However, in deeper water (more than 1,500 metres (4,900 ft)), the semisubmersibles or drillships are maintained at the required drilling location using dynamic positioning . Around 1891, the first submerged oil wells were drilled from platforms built on piles in the fresh waters of the Grand Lake St. Marys (a.k.a. Mercer County Reservoir) in Ohio . The wide but shallow reservoir
7500-406: The molten iron, but this also burns out the carbon, which must be replaced. Depending on the application, carbon and silicon content are adjusted to the desired levels, which may be anywhere from 2–3.5% and 1–3%, respectively. If desired, other elements are then added to the melt before the final form is produced by casting . Cast iron is sometimes melted in a special type of blast furnace known as
7600-414: The name suggests, are rigs that can be jacked up above the sea using legs that can be lowered, much like jacks . These MODUs (Mobile Offshore Drilling Units) are typically used in water depths up to 120 metres (390 ft), although some designs can go to 170 m (560 ft) depth. They are designed to move from place to place, and then anchor themselves by deploying their legs to the ocean bottom using
7700-483: The oil/gas production process include wellhead , production manifold , production separator , glycol process to dry gas, gas compressors , water injection pumps , oil/gas export metering and main oil line pumps. Larger platforms are assisted by smaller ESVs (emergency support vessels) like the British Iolair that are summoned when something has gone wrong, e.g. when a search and rescue operation
7800-614: The produced hydrocarbons and the materials used during the drilling operation. Controversies include the ongoing US offshore drilling debate . There are many different types of facilities from which offshore drilling operations take place. These include bottom-founded drilling rigs ( jackup barges and swamp barges), combined drilling and production facilities, either bottom-founded or floating platforms, and deepwater mobile offshore drilling units (MODU), including semi-submersibles and drillships. These are capable of operating in water depths up to 3,000 metres (9,800 ft). In shallower waters,
7900-418: The properties of malleable cast iron are more like those of mild steel . There is a limit to how large a part can be cast in malleable iron, as it is made from white cast iron. Developed in 1948, nodular or ductile cast iron has its graphite in the form of very tiny nodules with the graphite in the form of concentric layers forming the nodules. As a result, the properties of ductile cast iron are that of
8000-762: The relationship between wood and stone. Cast-iron beam bridges were used widely by the early railways, such as the Water Street Bridge in 1830 at the Manchester terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , but problems with its use became all too apparent when a new bridge carrying the Chester and Holyhead Railway across the River Dee in Chester collapsed killing five people in May 1847, less than
8100-475: The retention of carbon and the formation of those carbides. Nickel and copper increase strength and machinability, but do not change the amount of graphite formed. Carbon as graphite produces a softer iron, reduces shrinkage, lowers strength, and decreases density. Sulfur , largely a contaminant when present, forms iron sulfide , which prevents the formation of graphite and increases hardness . Sulfur makes molten cast iron viscous, which causes defects. To counter
8200-405: The seabed like TLPs, but whereas a TLP has vertical tension tethers, a spar has more conventional mooring lines. Spars have to-date been designed in three configurations: the "conventional" one-piece cylindrical hull; the "truss spar", in which the midsection is composed of truss elements connecting the upper buoyant hull (called a hard tank) with the bottom soft tank containing permanent ballast; and
8300-477: The seabed. Steel GBS are predominantly used when there is no or limited availability of crane barges to install a conventional fixed offshore platform, for example in the Caspian Sea. There are several steel GBS's in the world today (e.g. offshore Turkmenistan Waters (Caspian Sea) and offshore New Zealand). Steel GBS do not usually provide hydrocarbon storage capability. It is mainly installed by pulling it off
8400-646: The shores of the Mississippi River by the LeTourneau Company, it was launched in December 1955, and christened "Scorpion". The Scorpion was put into operation in May 1956 off Port Aransas , Texas. It was lost in 1969. When offshore drilling moved into deeper waters of up to 30 metres (98 ft), fixed platform rigs were built, until demands for drilling equipment was needed in the 30 metres (98 ft) to 120 metres (390 ft) depth of
8500-526: The structure upright. Semi-submersible platforms can be moved from place to place and can be ballasted up or down by altering the amount of flooding in buoyancy tanks. They are generally anchored by combinations of chain, wire rope or polyester rope, or both, during drilling and/or production operations, though they can also be kept in place by the use of dynamic positioning . Semi-submersibles can be used in water depths from 60 to 6,000 metres (200 to 20,000 ft). Jack-up Mobile Drilling Units (or jack-ups), as
8600-501: The technique of producing cast-iron cannons, which, while heavier than the prevailing bronze cannons, were much cheaper and enabled England to arm her navy better. Cast-iron pots were made at many English blast furnaces at the time. In 1707, Abraham Darby patented a new method of making pots (and kettles) thinner and hence cheaper than those made by traditional methods. This meant that his Coalbrookdale furnaces became dominant as suppliers of pots, an activity in which they were joined in
8700-566: The use of higher lime ratios, enabling the conversion from charcoal (supplies of wood for which were inadequate) to coke. The ironmasters of the Weald continued producing cast irons until the 1760s, and armament was one of the main uses of irons after the Restoration . The use of cast iron for structural purposes began in the late 1770s, when Abraham Darby III built The Iron Bridge , although short beams had already been used, such as in
8800-417: The weight of the rig and its consumables, it was towed between locations at a draught midway between the top of the pontoons and the underside of the deck. It was noticed that the motions at this draught were very small, and Blue Water Drilling and Shell jointly decided to try operating the rig in its floating mode. The concept of an anchored, stable floating deep-sea platform had been designed and tested back in
8900-628: The well. They can drill in water depths up to 3,700 m (12,100 ft). The main types of floating production systems are FPSO (floating production, storage, and offloading system) . FPSOs consist of large monohull structures, generally (but not always) shipshaped, equipped with processing facilities. These platforms are moored to a location for extended periods, and do not actually drill for oil or gas. Some variants of these applications, called FSO (floating storage and offloading system) or FSU (floating storage unit), are used exclusively for storage purposes, and host very little process equipment. This
9000-518: The widespread concern about cast iron under bridges on the rail network in Britain. Cast-iron columns , pioneered in mill buildings, enabled architects to build multi-storey buildings without the enormously thick walls required for masonry buildings of any height. They also opened up floor spaces in factories, and sight lines in churches and auditoriums. By the mid 19th century, cast iron columns were common in warehouse and industrial buildings, combined with wrought or cast iron beams, eventually leading to
9100-565: The yard, by either wet-tow or/and dry-tow, and self-installing by controlled ballasting of the compartments with sea water. To position the GBS during installation, the GBS may be connected to either a transportation barge or any other barge (provided it is large enough to support the GBS) using strand jacks. The jacks shall be released gradually whilst the GBS is ballasted to ensure that the GBS does not sway too much from target location. Spars are moored to
9200-574: Was Kerr-McGee Oil Industries (now part of Occidental Petroleum ), as operator for partners Phillips Petroleum ( ConocoPhillips ) and Stanolind Oil & Gas ( BP ), that completed its historic Ship Shoal Block 32 well in October 1947, months before Superior actually drilled a discovery from their Vermilion platform farther offshore. In any case, that made Kerr-McGee's well the first oil discovery drilled out of sight of land. The British Maunsell Forts constructed during World War II are considered
9300-461: Was also produced. Numerous testimonies were made by early European missionaries of the Luba people pouring cast iron into molds to make hoes. These technological innovations were accomplished without the invention of the blast furnace which was the prerequisite for the deployment of such innovations in Europe and Asia. The technology of cast iron was transferred to the West from China. Al-Qazvini in
9400-821: Was built from 1837 to 1845 to provide water to the Miami and Erie Canal . Around 1896, the first submerged oil wells in salt water were drilled in the portion of the Summerland field extending under the Santa Barbara Channel in California . The wells were drilled from piers extending from land out into the channel. Other notable early submerged drilling activities occurred on the Canadian side of Lake Erie since 1913 and Caddo Lake in Louisiana in
9500-632: Was compelled to merge with its long time rival Aker ASA . During 2004, Kværner was amalgamated into the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008. On 6 May 2011, Kværner re-emerged when the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) part of Aker Solutions took the Kværner name. The new Kværner company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 8 July 2011. However, during 2020, Aker Solutions opted to restructure and merge with Kvaerne. Kvaerner Brug
9600-453: Was founded in Oslo in 1853 by industrialist Oluf A. Onsum (1820-1899). Early on, the primary activity of the business was its involvement in the production of cast iron stoves . In 1870, Kvaerner built its first hydroelectric turbine . During the early 1900s, Kvaerner power turbines remained the principal product line, which also included bridges, cranes, and pumps. Kvaerner was listed on
9700-410: Was more desirable, cast iron was cheaper and thus was more commonly used for implements in ancient China, while wrought iron or steel was used for weapons. The Chinese developed a method of annealing cast iron by keeping hot castings in an oxidizing atmosphere for a week or longer in order to burn off some carbon near the surface in order to keep the surface layer from being too brittle. Deep within
9800-459: Was restructured to become a holding company, with operating activities concentrated in Aker Kværner and Aker Yards . During 2005, Kværner ASA was merged with Aker Maritime Finance AS, a wholly owned company of Aker ASA, as a result of which the Kværner corporation ceased to exist. During 2008, Aker Kvaerner changed its name to Aker Solutions ASA . In December 2010, Aker Solutions announced
9900-522: Was used in ancient China to mass-produce weaponry for warfare, as well as agriculture and architecture. During the 15th century AD, cast iron became utilized for cannons and shot in Burgundy , France, and in England during the Reformation . The amounts of cast iron used for cannons required large-scale production. The first cast-iron bridge was built during the 1770s by Abraham Darby III , and
10000-562: Was used to raise shallow portions of the Caspian Sea . In the early 1930s, the Texas Company developed the first mobile steel barges for drilling in the brackish coastal areas of the gulf. In 1937, Pure Oil Company (now Chevron Corporation ) and its partner Superior Oil Company (now part of ExxonMobil Corporation ) used a fixed platform to develop a field in 14 feet (4.3 m) of water, one mile (1.6 km) offshore of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana . In 1938, Humble Oil built
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