Monthly Archives: February 2017

FEBRUARY 12, 2017 Trinidad Offshore Fabricators Unlimited (TOFCO) recently completed work for the Juniper offshore gas platform topsides at its facility in La Brea, Trinidad. The project is the largest offshore structure ever fabricated in Trinidad and Tobago.

Juniper is a Normally Unmanned Installation (NUI) measuring 145 feet to the top of the helideck and weighing approximately 5,200 short tons. It was recently installed 50 miles off the southeast coast of Trinidad at a water depth of 360 feet. An anticipated production capacity of 590 million standard cubic feet per day will flow through the Mahogany B offshore hub.

Projects of this size and complexity pose unique challenges. However, TOFCO not only delivered the historic project safely and within budget, but it was also fully completed and pre-commissioned prior to the scheduled sail-away date.

TOFCO says that, even with the aggressive schedule, quality was not sacrificed and global benchmarks were exceeded by working more than 2 million man hours on Juniper without a lost-time incident.

Over the past decade, TOFCO has installed management systems and processes to maximize efficiency and ensure quality control for all projects. As a result, the company has successfully fabricated ten major offshore structures, essentially establishing the offshore fabrication industry in Trinidad and Tobago and developing a base of skilled workers.

TOFCO's employee mentoring model has empowered its workers by providing internationally accepted skill set training, education and career development.

"The construction of the Juniper topside by TOFCO is as much a victory for Trinidad and Tobago and the community of LaBrea as it is for the companies involved in the project," said TOFCO General Manager Javed Mohammed. "We look forward to taking this success into securing future projects."

Fabrication of the Juniper topsides was significant for the Trinidad and Tobago economy because it provided local contracting and employment opportunities in a wide range of crafts and disciplines, helping to strengthen and stimulate the domestic oil and gas services supply chain. When Juniper begins production, it is expected to help close shortfalls experienced by the downstream and LNG processing plants.

TOFCO (Trinidad Offshore Fabricators Unlimited) was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Houma, LA, headquartered Chet Morrison Contractors and Trinidad's Weldfab, Ltd. Its 37-acre waterfront facility located in southwestern Trinidad is the country's leading supplier of offshore fabrication services.

TOFCO provides fabrication, installation, scaffolding, logistics, electrical and instrumentation, as well as on- and offshore labor services, brownfield and greenfield work. The facility has produced 10 major offshore fabrication structures, including the topsides deck for Juniper, the largest offshore platform in Trinidad and Tobago's history.

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TOFCO completes milestone Trinidad and Tobago offshore structure - Marine Log

Text: Levon Sevunts

Responding to criticism of the move from Darrel Nasogaluak, the mayor of Tuktoyaktuk, a remote community on the shores of the Beaufort Sea, during a town hall meeting in Yellowknife on Friday, Trudeau said one of his governments fundamental responsibilities was to protect communities and the environment from a potential environmental disaster.

There has been a lot of research, a lot of people over a long time have tried to look at ways to exploit and explore Arctic Ocean resources and quite frankly it has never been determined that it can be done safely, Trudeausaid. The cataclysmic impact of an oil spill in the High Arctic Ocean is unimaginable. Thats why we made the decision that there needed to be moratorium on Arctic oil and gas exploration.

David Miller, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund Canada, praised Trudeaus comments as positive and very consistent with the science.

Its quite clear from our work at WWF that risk to nature of drilling is far too great to be worth taking, Miller said in a telephone interview.

Unhappy territorial leaders

However, while environmental activists have applauded the ban, announced by Trudeau in conjunction with outgoing President Barak Obama on December 20, 2016, the Liberal leader has come under fire from local government and some Indigenous leaders in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, who have denounced the lack of consultations with them prior to the announcement.

Our people have been working with the industry over 50 years on and off, weve grown skills, weve got good employment, our businesses have grown, the region has grown, Nasogaluak said, addressing Trudeau. To lose an opportunity on oil and gas for our people is very upsetting. One elder told me, We cant just up and move to where the jobs are.

Trudeau acknowledged that the Liberal government has closed one door of potential economic opportunity but said the various levels of government need to work together to ensure that we are opening many more doors of economic opportunity.

Moratorium to be reviewed

Yet he did not close the door to future oil and gas exploration completely.

We make decisions based on science, Trudeau said. Thats why were working with the North, with communities, with the premier with the scientists to establish the framework so that we can evaluate every five years the science around the modern technologies, around spill response, around operating frameworks to make sure that the moratorium is still relevant.

The ban means Arctic ecosystems will be protected by default and it would be up to the oil industry to demonstrate that they can operate safely, which we are a long way from being able to do right now, Trudeau said.

Paul Barnes, manager of Atlantic Canada and Arctic for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said Canadas offshore industry has been operating safely for more than 50 years.

The oil and natural gas industry has a long history of meeting the challenges of Arctic exploration with technological advances, science-based research, applications of lessons learned from operating experience, traditional knowledge and adaption of best practices from elsewhere around the world, Barnes said in an emailed statement. Our members have been working to world-class standards in the offshore and have brought tremendous economic benefits to Northern and Atlantic Canada.

Canadas energy regulator, the National Energy Board, has strict filing requirements for offshore drilling in the Canadian Arctic and it the oil industrybelieves that itcan be done safely, Barnes said.

Weve done oil spill trajectory modeling and any deep-sea well puts the ecological health of huge swathes of the Arctic at risk, Miller said. And that is an economic challenge, not just an environmental challenge because it puts the jobs and livelihoods of people whose livelihood depends on sustainable exploitation of things like fish very much at risk.

And while the science on the dangers of offshore drilling wont change, the political climate could, Miller warned.

Im less concerned with Mr. Trudeau changing his position than the fact the moratorium isnt permanent, Miller said. Because Mr. Trudeaus successor could, perhaps, change that position sometime in the future whether it be in five, ten, fifteen or twenty years.

Hundreds of people had packed into the gym at the Yellowknife Multiplex to take part in the town hall, first town hall event north of the 60thparallel.

Trudeau answered questions on building roads to access northern mining resources and reduce the current reliance on the seasonal ice roads, as well as affordable housing and updating federal legislation to better protect Canadas rivers and lakes.

The Liberal leader was also grilled for abandoning plans to reform Canadas first-past-the-post electoral system, a key electoral promise during the 2015 campaign.

On Thursday, Trudeau was in Iqaluit the capital of Canadas Arctic territory of Nunavut, where he signed a declaration with Inuit leaders, setting apromised Inuit-to-Crown partnershipin motion.

This was Trudeaus first visit to the northern territories since his 2015 election victory.

This story is posted on Independent Barents Observer as part ofEye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.

Go here to see the original:

Trudeau: Arctic offshore drilling too dangerous - The Independent Barents Observer

European companies including Siemens and ORE Catapult have launched a project to improve the productivity of technicians performing service activities on offshore wind farms.

The Safety and Productivity of Offshore Wind Technician Transit project aims to widen the weather window for crew transfer vessels to increase turbine availability.

It will combine measurements both on board and the surrounding environment with psychological and physiological methods to monitor the well-being of technicians as they transit in different sea conditions.

This will result in a tool that will support the vessel launching authority to make the decision to launch, to not launch, or to launch but only with certain control measures.

This innovation will lead to a reduction in the levelised cost of electricity of about 0.7%, the partners estimate.

They comprise BMO Offshore, Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, Specialist Marine Consultants, University of Hull and MARIN, as well as ORE Catapult and Siemens.

The program has received funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Image: reNEWS

Excerpt from:

Offshore crew eyes weather gains - reNews