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38-541: Oil and gas fields reside beneath many inland waters and offshore areas around the world, and in the oil and gas industry the term subsea relates to the exploration, drilling and development of oil and gas fields in these underwater locations. Under water oil fields and facilities are generically referred to using a subsea prefix, such as subsea well , subsea field , subsea project , and subsea developments. Subsea oil field developments are usually split into Shallow water and Deepwater categories to distinguish between

76-695: A waveguide or in free space via wireless power transfer . Electrical power transmission has replaced mechanical power transmission in all but the very shortest distances. From the 16th century through the Industrial Revolution to the end of the 19th century, mechanical power transmission was the norm. The oldest long-distance power transmission technology involved systems of push-rods or jerker lines ( stängenkunst or feldstängen ) connecting waterwheels to distant mine-drainage and brine-well pumps. A surviving example from 1780 exists at Bad Kösen that transmits power approximately 200 meters from

114-534: A bottom mat. Generally jackup rigs are not self-propelled and rely on tugs or heavy lift ships for transportation. Jackup platforms are almost exclusively used as exploratory oil and gas drilling platforms and as offshore and wind farm service platforms. Jackup rigs can either be triangular in shape with three legs or square in shape with four legs. Jackup platforms have been the most popular and numerous of various mobile types in existence. The total number of jackup drilling rigs in operation numbered about 540 at

152-460: A buoyant hull fitted with a number of movable legs, capable of raising its hull over the surface of the sea. The buoyant hull enables transportation of the unit and all attached machinery to a desired location. Once on location the hull is raised to the required elevation above the sea surface supported by the sea bed. The legs of such units may be designed to penetrate the sea bed, may be fitted with enlarged sections or footings, or may be attached to

190-433: A few hundred feet water depth maximum) and robotic equipment for deeper water depths. Any requirement to repair or intervene with installed subsea equipment is thus normally very expensive. This type of expense can result in economic failure of the subsea development. Subsea technology in offshore oil and gas production is a highly specialized field of application with particular demands on engineering and simulation. Most of

228-588: A field by means of a subsea production system, since traditional surface facilities such as on a steel-piled jacket, might be either technically unfeasible or uneconomical due to the water depth. The development of subsea oil and gas fields requires specialized equipment. The equipment must be reliable enough to safeguard the environment and make the exploitation of the subsea hydrocarbons economically feasible. The deployment of such equipment requires specialized and expensive vessels, which need to be equipped with diving equipment for relatively shallow equipment work (i.e.

266-511: A single satellite well with a flowline linked to a fixed platform , FPSO or an onshore installation, to several wells on a template or clustered around a manifold, and transferring to a fixed or floating facility, or directly to an onshore installation. Subsea production systems can be used to develop reservoirs, or parts of reservoirs, which require drilling of the wells from more than one location. Deep water conditions, or even ultradeep water conditions, can also inherently dictate development of

304-450: A waterwheel to a salt well, and from there, an additional 150 meters to a brine evaporator. This technology survived into the 21st century in a handful of oilfields in the US, transmitting power from a central pumping engine to the numerous pump-jacks in the oil field. Mechanical power may be transmitted directly using a solid structure such as a driveshaft ; transmission gears can adjust

342-399: Is commonly used in connection with oil and/or natural gas drilling . There are more jackup rigs in the worldwide offshore rig fleet than other type of mobile offshore drilling rig . Other types of offshore rigs include semi-submersibles (which float on pontoon-like structures) and drillships , which are ship-shaped vessels with rigs mounted in their center. These rigs drill through holes in

380-512: Is not practical. Subsea completions can be traced back to 1943 with the Lake Erie completion at a 35 ft (11 m) water depth. The well had a land-type Christmas tree that required diver intervention for installation, maintenance, and flow line connections. Shell completed its first subsea well in the Gulf of Mexico in 1961. Subsea oil production systems can range in complexity from

418-614: Is one possible means of energy storage . London had a hydraulic network powered by five pumping stations operated by the London Hydraulic Power Company , with a total effect of 5 MW. Pneumatic systems use gasses under pressure to transmit power; compressed air is commonly used to operate pneumatic tools in factories and repair garages. A pneumatic wrench (for instance) is used to remove and install automotive tires far more quickly than could be done with standard manual hand tools. A pneumatic system

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456-424: Is the movement of energy from its place of generation to a location where it is applied to perform useful work . Power is defined formally as units of energy per unit time . In SI units: Since the development of technology , transmission and storage systems have been of immense interest to technologists and technology users. With the widespread establishment of electrical grids , power transmission

494-443: Is the real-time virtual test of systems for subsea production, subsea drilling, supply above sea level, seismography, subsea construction equipment, and subsea process measurement and control equipment. The power transmission infrastructure for offshore wind power utilizes a variety of subsea technologies for the installation and maintenance of submarine power transmission cables and other electrical energy equipment. In addition,

532-406: Is usually associated most with electric power transmission . Alternating current is normally preferred as its voltage may be easily stepped up by a transformer in order to minimize resistive loss in the conductors used to transmit power over great distances; another set of transformers is required to step it back down to safer or more usable voltage levels at destination. Power transmission

570-399: Is usually performed with overhead lines as this is the most economical way to do so. Underground transmission by high-voltage cables is chosen in crowded urban areas and in high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) submarine connections. Power might also be transmitted by changing electromagnetic fields or by radio waves ; microwave energy may be carried efficiently over short distances by

608-542: The DeLong Rig No. 1 for Magnolia Petroleum , consisting of a barge with six legs. In 1953 DeLong entered into a joint venture with McDermott , which built the DeLong-McDermott No.1 in 1954 for Humble Oil . This was the first mobile offshore drilling platform. This barge had ten legs which had spud cans to prevent them from digging into the seabed too deep. When DeLong-McDermott was taken over by

646-510: The Minerals Management Service (MMS, US), Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD, Norway), and Health & Safety Executive (HSE, UK). The MMS administers the mineral resources in the US (using Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)) and provides management of all the US subsea mineral and renewable energy resources. Jackup barge A jackup rig or a self-elevating unit is a type of mobile platform that consists of

684-758: The Southern Natural Gas Company , which formed The Offshore Company , the platform was called Offshore No. 51 . In 1954, Zapata Offshore , owned by George H. W. Bush , ordered the Scorpion . It was designed by R. G. LeTourneau and featured three electro-mechanically-operated lattice type legs. Built on the shores of the Mississippi River by the LeTourneau Company , it was launched in December 1955. The Scorpion

722-400: The monopile foundations of fixed-bottom wind turbines and the anchoring and cable structures of floating wind turbines are regularly inspected with a variety of shipborne subsea technology. Recent technological advancements have given rise to the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to collect mineral samples from prospective mine sites. Using drills and other cutting tools,

760-465: The ROVs obtain samples to be analyzed for desired minerals. Once a site has been located, a mining ship or station is set up to mine the area. Seafloor mineral mining of seafloor massive sulfide deposits (so named for the sulfide molecules, not the deposit size) are a developing subsea mineral mining industry. Nautilus Minerals Inc. had begun to establish a new industry by commercially exploring and, in

798-403: The amount of torque or force vs. speed in much the same way an electrical transformer adjusts voltage vs current . Factories were fitted with overhead line shafts providing rotary power . Short line-shaft systems were described by Agricola , connecting a waterwheel to numerous ore-processing machines. While the machines described by Agricola used geared connections from the shafts to

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836-555: The different facilities and approaches that are needed. The term shallow water or shelf is used for very shallow water depths where bottom-founded facilities like jackup drilling rigs and fixed offshore structures can be used, and where saturation diving is feasible. Deepwater is a term often used to refer to offshore projects located in water depths greater than around 600 feet (180 m), where floating drilling vessels and floating oil platforms are used, and remotely operated underwater vehicles are required as crewed diving

874-409: The drillship hulls, known as moon pools. This type of rig is commonly used in connection with offshore wind turbine installation. Jackup rigs can also refer to specialized barges that are similar to an oil and gas platform but are used as a base for servicing other structures such as offshore wind turbines , long bridges, and drilling platforms. Power transmission Power transmission

912-478: The end of 2013. The tallest jackup rig built to date is the Noble Lloyd Noble, completed in 2016 with legs 214 metres (702 feet) tall. Jackup rigs are so named because they are self-elevating with three, four, six and even eight movable legs that can be extended (“jacked”) above or below the hull. Jackups are towed or moved under self propulsion to the site with the hull lowered to the water level, and

950-513: The future, planned to extract copper, gold, silver and zinc in its Solwara 1 Project. The project was establishing its operations 1 mile (1.6 km) beneath the ocean surface in the Bismarck Sea near Papua New Guinea . When fully underway the operation would have been the world’s first commercial deep sea mining project. First production was expected to begin in 2017, but the company went bankrupt in 2019 after failing to secure funding for

988-568: The legs extended above the hull. The hull is actually a water-tight barge that floats on the water’s surface. When the rig reaches the work site, the crew jacks the legs downward through the water and into the sea floor (or onto the sea floor with mat supported jackups). This anchors the rig and holds the hull well above the waves. An early design was the DeLong platform , designed by Leon B. DeLong . In 1949 he started his own company, DeLong Engineering & Construction Company. In 1950 he constructed

1026-458: The machinery, by the 19th century, drivebelts would become the norm for linking individual machines to the line shafts. One mid 19th century factory had 1,948 feet of line shafting with 541 pulleys. Hydraulic systems use liquid under pressure to transmit power; canals and hydroelectric power generation facilities harness natural water power to lift ships or generate electricity. Pumping water or pushing mass uphill with ( windmill pumps)

1064-541: The new oil fields are located in deep water and are generally referred to as deepwater systems. Development of these fields sets strict requirements for verification of the various systems’ functions and their compliance with current requirements and specifications. This is because of the high costs and time involved in changing a pre-existing system due to the specialized vessels with advanced onboard equipment. A full-scale test ( System Integration Test – SIT) does not provide satisfactory verification of deepwater systems because

1102-730: The project. Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are robotic pieces of equipment operated from afar to perform tasks on the sea floor. ROVs are available in a wide variety of function capabilities and complexities from simple "eyeball" camera devices, to multi-appendage machines that require multiple operators to operate or "fly" the equipment. Other Professional Equipments used in installation of Sub Sea Telecommunication cable are specially designed crafts, modular barges, Water Pump along with Diving support and other accessories to seamlessly conduct installation operations in Deep Sea and Near Shore end, Rivers, Lakes. There are few professional companies in

1140-557: The relatively slender legs and not on the barge hull. Modern jacking systems use a rack and pinion gear arrangement where the pinion gears are driven by hydraulic or electric motors and the rack is affixed to the legs. Jackup rigs can only be placed in relatively shallow waters, generally less than 120 metres (390 ft) of water. However, a specialized class of jackup rigs known as premium or ultra-premium jackups are known to have operational capability in water depths ranging from 150 to 190 meters (500 to 625 feet). This type of rig

1178-408: The seafloor. Then "preloading" takes place, where the weight of the barge and additional ballast water are used to drive the legs securely into the sea bottom so they will not penetrate further while operations are carried out. After preloading, the jacking system is used to raise the entire barge above the water to a predetermined height or "air gap", so that wave, tidal and current loading acts only on

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1216-436: The system's functions, and dynamic properties, against various requirements specifications. This includes the model-based development of innovative high-tech plants and system solutions for the exploitation and production of energy resources in an environmentally friendly way as well as the analysis and evaluation of the dynamic behavior of components and systems used for the production and distribution of oil and gas. Another part

1254-413: The test, for practical reasons, cannot be performed under conditions identical to those under which the system will later operate. The oil industry has therefore adopted modern data technology as a tool for virtual testing of deepwater systems that enables detection of costly faults at an early phase of the project. By using modern simulation tools, models of deepwater systems can be set up and used to verify

1292-444: The use of batteries, power provided from generators on ships or platforms with fossil fuel generators, or for lower power requirements, wind, solar, or wave energy harvesting buoys. A number of professional societies and trade bodies are involved with the subsea industry around the world. Such groups include Government agencies administer regulations in their territorial waters around the world. Examples of such government agencies are

1330-679: The waters between the Florida Straits and Cape Hatteras. Research and projects are developing to harvest energy from hydrothermal vents to provide power for subsea ocean research instruments, developing autonomous vehicle recharge technologies, seabed sensor systems, and environmental research applications. Other investigations include harvesting energy from differences in temperature that occur with varied ocean depth, and microbial fuel cells that produce energy from organisms in ocean seafloor sediments. Current methods for providing power for electric applications on offshore seabeds are limited to

1368-423: The world who own, operate such equipments and carry out operations worldwide on turnkey basis. Subsea energy technologies are the subject of investigation using a number of technical strategies, none of which have yet been commercialized to become viable products or new energy industries. Energy sources under investigation include utility scale power production from ocean currents, such as the rapid currents found in

1406-518: Was proposed by proponents of Edison's direct current as the basis of the power grid. Compressed air generated at Niagara Falls would drive far away generators of DC power. The war of the currents ended with alternating current (AC) as the only means of long distance power transmission. Thermal power can be transported in pipelines containing a high heat capacity fluid such as oil or water as used in district heating systems, or by physically transporting material items, such as bottle cars, or in

1444-452: Was put into operation in May 1956 off Port Aransas , Texas. The second, also designed by LeTourneau, was called Vinegaroon . A jackup rig is a barge fitted with long support legs that can be raised or lowered. The jackup is maneuvered (self-propelled or by towing) into location with its legs up and the hull floating on the water. Upon arrival at the work location, the legs are jacked down onto

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