April 2001 Vol. 222 No. 4  Offshore

Robert E. Snyder,  Editor

Petrobrás P-36 tragedy, rig sales, contracts

News was just coming in at press time about explosions on Petrobrás’ P-36 floating production system operating on Roncador field in 4,500-ft water. As reported by Reuters and Associated Press news services, three blasts and an ensuing fire rocked the structure on March 15. At least one of the 175 workers aboard was killed and eight to ten more were reportedly missing, with no hope of survival. Damage to one of the hulls eventually sank the vessel on March 20, despite reported attempts to inject nitrogen into the column. Vessels were standing by to contain any fuel or riser oil leakage. The unit did not store crude.

Petrobrás’ P-36 floating production system listing before sinking in 4,500-ft water in Roncador field after explosions and fire. (Vo Fernandes / Fotosite via Reuters).

The massive FPS vessel was converted from the Spirit of Columbus semisubmersible and installed last year, using steel catenary risers to subsea well clusters, which were reportedly shut-in. The FPS was processing 80,000 bopd, with a capacity of 180,000 bopd, at the time of the accident, exporting through pipelines to the P-47 FSO unit.

Rig sales, acquisitions. Pride International has purchased two semisubmersibles from Transocean Sedco Forex for a reported $45 million in cash and 3.03 million shares of Pride common stock. One of the semis, TSF’s Drillstar is featured on this month’s cover, during maintenance work in the UK. It has been renamed Pride North Atlantic. TSF will continue to operate the rig under a bareboat charter until September 2001.

The other rig, Sedco Explorer has been renamed Pride North Sea. TSF’s bareboat charter on this rig has been terminated. Both rigs were stacked ready in the UK in early March.

In another important acquisition, Noble Drilling acquired Maurer Engineering Inc. The contractor plans to integrate Maurer into its drilling technology subsidiary Noble Engineering & Development Ltd., which develops technology to improve drilling efficiency. Noble will reportedly retain all Maurer employees, including its founders, William C. Maurer and William J. McDonald.

Mr. Maurer received the 2001 SPE Drilling Engineering Award at the recent SPE/IADC Drilling Conference in Amsterdam. This award is SPE’s most prestigious drilling honor and was established to recognize technical contributions or outstanding achievements in this major area of petroleum engineering. Bill’s extensive drilling R&D background extends back through a major tenure with Exxon Production Research, before he went on his own. He has published over 50 articles and holds 23 patents on downhole drilling tools.

BP awards two large contracts. FMC Corp. recently announced that its FMC Energy Systems unit has entered into a five-year frame contract with BP for supply of subsea systems and related services for the Gulf of Mexico. The initial contract is valued at $250 million and is renewable for an additional five years.

The contract calls for FMC Energy Systems to provide subsea trees, controls, manifolds, well connection systems and related offshore services to BP for its GOM E&P activities. The scope of supply will cover BP’s deepwater development programs. Hardware deliveries are expected to begin in late 2002, with initial project management and engineering to begin immediately.

Coflexip Stena Offshore announced from Paris that CSO Aker Engineering, Inc. (formerly Aker Engineering), one of its Houston-based entities, has been awarded a five-year contract covering subsea system integration and design engineering for BP’s GOM deepwater developments program. The contract is CSO Aker Engineering’s largest single design engineering contract to date and is expected to utilize about 25% of its engineering and project management resources.

The agreement covers conceptual and detailed engineering along with procurement and installation support for all subsea equipment and risers for developments being evaluated and executed by BP Exploration’s GOM Deepwater Business Unit. Currently identified projects are in water depths ranging from 4,000 to 6,000 ft. Preliminary work on has begun and BP and their partners are relocating their subsea system teams to CSO Aker’s Houston office.

And in another deepwater development, FMC Energy Systems and Cal Dive International have entered into an agreement to develop and jointly fund a new steel, mono-bore intervention riser system for use in deep water. The system is rated for water depths to 10,000 ft and will be the first in the industry rated for working pressures up to 15,000 psi.

The system, to be deployed from Cal Dive’s newbuild Q4000 can intervene in horizontal and vertical subsea trees of all manufacturers. It utilizes a modular design concept, which includes MUX controls and dual-bore features for access to annulus and production bores in subsea wells. The slim bore also allows it to be handled easier and run much faster than a conventional riser.