Drilling advances

	Vol. 224 No. 9
ROBERT E. SNYDER, EXECUTIVE ENGINEERING EDITOR

Bob Palmer: The legacy continues. In mid-August, Rowan Companies christened the new jackup Bob Palmer, in Rowan’s Sabine Pass, Texas, yard. The rig, formerly the Super Gorilla-class Gorilla VIII, will carry the name of a major player in Rowan’s success story into the very type of operation where C. Robert Palmer started his career. In April 2003, Palmer was recognized for 50 years in the oilfield – all in service to Rowan Companies. He started with Rowan in 1953 as a roughneck on Barge Rig 6 in New Iberia, Louisiana, while earning an engineering degree at Southern Methodist University. By 1960, he was supervising engineering/purchasing at headquarters, then in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1963, he went to Midland, Texas, as drilling engineer.

The Super Gorilla-class jackup Bob Palmer, christened at LeTourneau’s Sabine Pass yard on August 16, 2003.

When Rowan went international in 1964, he became project engineer on the company’s first jackup rigs. In 1969, he became International Drilling Division manager. In 1972, he was named Chairman and CEO; and in 1973, he became President when Cecil Provine retired. In August 2002, Rowan named Daniel McNease President. Palmer retired in May 2003, to remain on the Board, and serve as non-executive Chairman. 

During Mr. Palmer’s tenure, he guided the organization to assemble a family of companies that could build and support advanced and powerful offshore rigs, plus other divisions, including Era Aviation, with aircraft in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska; and LeTourneau, Inc., which has built about one-third of the world’s jackup fleet, plus logging/mining equipment. In the 30 years since Palmer became CEO in 1972, Rowan’s property, plant and equipment value increased 100 times. 

But his leadership was not limited to Rowan. His influence spread into broad industry and government affairs. He is past President of IADC, past Chairman of the National Ocean Industries Association, a member of the National Petroleum Council, and a Director of the API. Another of his “sideline” project accomplishments was co-authoring a patent for the Offshore Launching System that uses a Gorilla-class jackup outfitted with a launch pad to provide a mobile, offshore platform to launch a satellite-bearing rocket into space. 

The offshore industry will miss you, Bob, but we won’t be surprised to see you around – it’s hard to give up 50 years of involvement in the ever-exciting and developing offshore drilling arena. 

Design challenges for jackup operators. Continued frontier development is driving industry’s need to refurbish and modify many of the world’s 388 active jackup units for novel projects, improved efficiency and sometimes harsh environments; it is also spurring the building of new units. Responding to the technical challenges posed by these modifications and need for new designs, ABS has released a detailed technical commentary to its Rules for Building and Classing Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODUs). 

The commentary – a further step in providing industry more specific direction on how to apply ABS Rules to these new projects – focuses on jackups, the predominant type of drilling unit addressed in the Rules for Building and Classing MODUs. ABS provides classification/certification services for 75% of the world’s MODU fleet. 

The commentary addresses some 27 issues, including clarification of load considerations, material selections and structural analysis requirements; and it applies to Part 3 of the MODU Rules, which details criteria for hull and equipment associated with all structures. The Rules include a total of five parts: general introduction; materials and welding; hull and equipment; machinery; and surveys after construction. A contact for more information from ABS is Susan Gonzalez: sgonzalez@eagle.org.

ASTM increases openness in standards development process. The American Society for Testing and Materials, one of the largest international voluntary standards development organizations in the world, has announced launch of a new Internet-based system designed to initiate, develop and track draft standards and revisions before and during their balloting stage. The new Work Item Registration (WIR) system, which is accessible from the ASTM website at www.astm.org, is significant because it adds increased openness and transparency to the consensus standards development process. Now, any interested individual from anywhere in the world who wants to know whether ASTM is developing or revising a specific standard can access the information using the WIR system. 

Users will be able to utilize the system to perform key-word searches about new standards/revisions; sign up for a free e-mail advisory service that provides notification of new work items in their area of interest; and view a committee’s jurisdiction for the item in question. The new system also improves access and involvement for ASTM members at every stage of the standards development process. With easy access to work items in progress, members everywhere have added impact on standards development. 

ASTM says," Transparency in the standards development process has always been one of the guiding principles at ASTM. With launch of our WIR system, we have taken transparency to an even higher level.”