Legislation is the process or result of enrolling , enacting , or promulgating laws by a legislature , parliament , or analogous governing body . Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill , and may be broadly referred to as "legislation" while it remains under consideration to distinguish it from other business. Legislation can have many purposes: to regulate, to authorize, to outlaw, to provide (funds), to sanction, to grant, to declare, or to restrict. It may be contrasted with a non-legislative act by an executive or administrative body under the authority of a legislative act.
59-824: The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic or OSPAR Convention is the current legislative instrument regulating international cooperation on environmental protection in the North-East Atlantic . Work carried out under the convention is managed by the OSPAR Commission , which is made up of representatives of the Governments of the 15 signatory nations, and representatives of
118-525: A pipeline that is not required to pass near offshore platforms for oil and gas exploration . Legislation Legislation to design or amend a bill requires identifying a concrete issue in a comprehensive way. When engaging in legislation, drafters and policy-makers must take into consideration the best possible avenues to address problem areas. Possible solutions within bill provisions might involve implementing sanctions , targeting indirect behaviors, authorizing agency action, etc. Legislation
177-443: 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
236-626: 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
295-800: A comprehensive report on the quality of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic. This was supported by five smaller reports on the different parts of the OSPAR maritime area –the Arctic , the Greater North Sea , the Celtic Seas, the Bay of Biscay/Golfe de Gascogne and Iberian waters , and the Wider Atlantic . According to the fr :Association pour le contrôle de la radioactivité dans l'Ouest , if tritium and iodine 129 discharges from
354-463: 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
413-412: 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
472-427: 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 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
531-405: A society organized for political action, the will of the people as a whole is the only right standard of political action. It can be regarded as an important element in the system of checks and balances and representative democracy. Therefore, the people are implicitly entitled even to directly participate in the process of law-making. This role of linking citizens and their government and legislators
590-618: 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
649-474: 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
SECTION 10
#1732758045758708-433: 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
767-513: Is closely related to the concept of legitimacy. The exercise of democratic control over the legislative system and the policy-making process can occur even when the public has only an elementary understanding of the national legislative institution and its membership. Civic education is a vital strategy for strengthening public participation and confidence in the legislative process. The term " dead letter " refers to legislation that has not been revoked, but that has become inapplicable or obsolete, or
826-600: Is no longer enforced. In more simpler terms, it means that the legislation is gone. There are several types of dead letter laws. Some laws become obsolete because they are so hateful to their community that no one wishes them to be enforced (e.g., slavery ). Similarly, some laws are unenforced because a majority wishes to circumvent them, even if they believe in the moral principle behind the law (e.g., prohibition ). Finally, some laws are unenforced because no mechanism or resources were provided to enforce them. Such laws often become selectively enforced or tacked onto other crimes in
885-415: 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
944-404: Is regarded as one of the three main functions of government, which are often distinguished under the doctrine of the separation of powers . Those who have the formal power to create legislation are known as legislators ; a judicial branch of government will have the formal power to interpret legislation (see statutory interpretation ); the executive branch of government can act only within
1003-442: 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
1062-403: Is sometimes used to include these situations, or the term primary legislation may be used to exclude these other forms. All modern constitutions and fundamental laws contain and declare the concept and principle of popular sovereignty, which essentially means that the people are the ultimate source of public power or government authority. The concept of popular sovereignty holds simply that in
1121-641: 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
1180-572: 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
1239-427: Is usually proposed by a member of the legislature (e.g. a member of Congress or Parliament), or by the executive, whereupon it is debated by members of the legislature and is often amended before passage . Most large legislatures enact only a small fraction of the bills proposed in a given session . Whether a given bill will be proposed is generally a matter of the legislative priorities of the government. Legislation
SECTION 20
#17327580457581298-403: 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
1357-590: 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
1416-537: The European Commission , representing the European Union . The OSPAR Convention was concluded at Paris on 22 September 1992. It combines and up-dates the 1972 Oslo Convention on dumping waste at sea and the 1974 Paris Convention on land-based sources of marine pollution. The name is likewise a combination of "Oslo" and "Paris". The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of
1475-454: 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
1534-718: The La Hague site into the Alderney Race do not diminish significantly, it will be difficult to achieve the objective of zero radioelement concentrations in the North Atlantic by 2020. In June 2007, OSPAR signatory parties agreed to amend the Convention in order to make mandatory the application of the treaty in the case of geological storage of CO 2 . The treaty allows carbon capture and storage of carbonic anhydride from land to an offshore marine site through
1593-583: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland ) and by Luxembourg and Switzerland . The OSPAR Convention entered into force on 25 March 1998, and replaced the Oslo and Paris Conventions, but decisions and other agreements adopted under those conventions remained applicable unless they are terminated by new measures adopted under the OSPAR Convention. The first Ministerial Meeting of
1652-409: 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
1711-711: 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
1770-521: 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
1829-514: 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
OSPAR Convention - Misplaced Pages Continue
1888-516: 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
1947-686: 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
2006-432: 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
2065-748: The North-East Atlantic was opened for signature at the Ministerial Meeting of the Oslo and Paris Commissions in Paris on 22 September 1992. The Convention has been signed and ratified by all of the Contracting Parties to the original Oslo or Paris Conventions ( Belgium , Denmark , the European Community, Finland , France , Germany , Iceland , Ireland , the Netherlands , Norway , Portugal , Spain , Sweden and
2124-567: The OSPAR Commission at Sintra , Portugal, in 1998 adopted Annex V to the Convention, extending the cooperation of the signatory parties to cover "all human activities that might adversely affect the marine environment of the North East Atlantic" . Nevertheless, programmes and measures cannot be adopted under the Convention on questions relating to fisheries management, which are currently coordinated by European nations in
2183-543: 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
2242-547: 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
2301-507: 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
2360-421: 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
2419-535: 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
OSPAR Convention - Misplaced Pages Continue
2478-399: The judicial process. Offshore platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig , offshore platform , oil production platform , etc.) 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
2537-418: 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
2596-555: 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
2655-414: 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
2714-590: The north east Atlantic and North Sea by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). The OSPAR convention now regulates European standards on marine biodiversity , eutrophication , the release of hazardous and radioactive substances into the seas, the offshore oil and gas industry and baseline monitoring of environmental conditions. In 2000, the OSPAR Commission published
2773-483: 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
2832-476: The powers and limits set by the law, which is the instrument by which the fundamental powers of government are established. The function and procedures are primarily the responsibility of the legislature. However, there are situations where legislation is made by other bodies or means, such as when constitutional law or secondary legislation is enacted. Such other forms of law-making include referendums , orders in council or regulations . The term legislation
2891-906: 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 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,
2950-405: 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
3009-477: 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
SECTION 50
#17327580457583068-695: 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
3127-526: 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
3186-417: 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
3245-628: 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
3304-565: 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
3363-574: 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
3422-821: 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
3481-621: 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
#757242