Thunder Horse News

U.S. offshore oil producers on Tuesday were keeping a wary eye on Hurricane Ian's track as the powerful storm shut-in at least 480,000 barrels of oil production as it heads toward Florida.The hurricane entered the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and is forecast to become a dangerous, Category 4 storm over the warm waters of the Gulf, according to National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecaster Eric Blake.Ian weakened after crossing Cuba and was packing winds of 115 miles per hour (185 km per hour), the NHC said.

BP Plc began turning off production at three platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico and evacuating workers because of the threat from Tropical Storm Cristobal, forecast to make landfall in Louisiana over the weekend, the company said.Norwegian state-oil company Equinor ASA began evacuating non-essential workers on Wednesday and plans to shut production on Friday at its Titan oil platform if the storm continues along its projected path, spokesman Hasting Stewart said.Occidental Petroleum Corp also began flying non-essential workers to shore from central Gulf of Mexico operations…

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is positioned for another year of record oil production in 2020, despite massive cuts in investment.According to Rystad Energy, most of this growth coming from deep water projects.“2020 is expected to be another record year with average production above 1.9 million barrels per day,” says Joachim Milling Gregersen, an analyst on Rystad Energy’s upstream team.Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has grown every year since 2013, with an average of 104,000 barrels per day added annually. An essential contribution has come from infill drilling in legacy producing fields such as Mars, Thunder Horse and Tahiti.The top contributors to supply growth in 2019 have so far been the Big Foot and Crosby fields.

At BP's massive Thunder Horse oil platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, a dog-sized robot called Maggie uses magnetic tracks to creep along pipes connecting the giant oil facility to the sea floor. Before MaggHD, dubbed "Maggie" by BP, the dangerous inspection job was reserved for highly paid specialist technicians who did their jobs while rappelling along the platform. The energy industry has turned to robots and drones to cut costs and improve safety in some of the world's tougher working environments. Drones inspect gear high up on floating rigs.

BP restored power at its Thunder Horse platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, according to a statement to Reuters Wednesday.   The platform lost power due to an electrical outage Monday.   BP said it was redeploying staff to the platform, which has the capacity to produce up to 265,000 barrels of crude a day. (Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault)

BP Plc halted production at its Thunder Horse platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Monday following a power outage, a company spokesman confirmed on Tuesday. The benchmark for sour crude rallied to its strongest in more than two years on the disruption. BP evacuated its workforce of about 300 people from the facility after the power outage as a precaution, according to the statement. Technical and essential personnel were scheduled to return to the platform on Tuesday. The platform has the ability to produce up to 265…

Technip was awarded by BP Exploration & Production Inc. a lump sum project for the design, engineering, fabrication, installation and pre-commissioning of the new production pipeline systems on the south side of the Thunder Horse production drilling quarters unit. At a water depth of approximately 1,900 meters, the current field development is located in Mississippi Canyon Blocks 778 and 822, in the ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico environment.  Pre-commissioning and testing. Technip will leverage its unique integrated approach in the subsea business. Technip's operating center in Houston, Texas, USA, will perform the overall project management. The infield flowlines will be welded at the Group’s spoolbase in Mobile, Alabama, USA.

BP Plc, citing low oil prices, tried to whittle away at $13.7 billion in potential fines under the Clean Water Act on Tuesday as the penalty phase started in its trial over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP said its fine should be modest as it took extensive steps to mitigate the worst offshore disaster in U.S. history and that the defendant named in the case, BP's exploration and production unit, known as BPXP, cannot afford a big penalty. "There has been no collapse of the ecosystem," BP lawyer Mike Brock said in opening statements, contending that the Gulf has been more resilient than thought. Environmental groups say it could take decades for the Gulf to recover.

1806  - Spring pole cable drilling developed in US. 1844  - Fluid circulating rotary well drilling patented in England. 1845  - Circulated fluid used to remove drill cuttings for first time. 1860  - Fluid circulation rotary diamond coring drill developed in France. 1869 – T homas Fitch Rowland  patents  a “submarine drilling apparatus,” a fixed, working platform for drilling offshore to a depth of almost 50 feet. The anchored tower had telescoping legs, similar to modern offshore platforms. 1878  - First bulk oil tanker begins operation in the Caspian Sea. 1891  - First ocean-going tanker launched. 1897  - Wells drilled off piers in Summerland, Calif. 1905 – Oil discovered in the Caddo Pine Island field in Lousiana. 1911  -  Gulf Refining Co.

FMC Technologies to manufacture and supply subsea equipment for BP's Thunder Horse Field in the Gulf of Mexico. The Thunder Horse oil field is located in the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico, 150 miles (240 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans in approximately 6,300 feet (1,920 meters) of water. FMC Technologies' scope of supply includes two manifolds and associated controls equipment . In addition, the scope includes several pipeline end terminations , flowline and well jumper kits and umbilical termination assemblies. Deliveries are scheduled to commence in the first half of 2013. "FMC Technologies is pleased to continue supporting BP as they further develop Thunder Horse," said Tore Halvorsen, FMC Technologies' Senior Vice President, Subsea Technologies.

BP Plc.’s Atlantis platform, its second-largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico, should be shut down until it’s proven to comply with U.S. safety and environmental laws, a lawyer for a whistle-blower told a judge. BP misled U.S. offshore regulators to win operating permits for its Atlantis platform, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of New Orleans, according to the whistle-blower. The facility produced an average of 60,000 barrels of oil daily last year and is capable of producing as much as 200,000 barrels a day, according to data on London-based BP’s website. “Atlantis is presently not fit for service under normal engineering standards,” David Perry, a lawyer for former BP contractor Kenneth Abbott, said at a hearing in federal court in Houston.

Hereema Marine Contractors Nederland B.V Inc. (“HMC”) has awarded a contract to BMT Fluid Mechanics in partnership with BMT ARGOSS, to provide Tow Simulation Services for the inshore tow of Chevron-operated Jack St. Malo and Big Foot Production Platforms to be installed in the Gulf of Mexico. BMT will be engineering, procuring, installing and commissioning a purpose built simulation facility to be located in Houston, Texas, for the purpose of training tug captains and other marine personnel involved with the inshore towing of the platforms from the Ingleside integration yards. The inshore tows are particularly challenging because of the extremely small hull clearances within the shipping channels leading from the yards out to the gulf.

SMIT net profit in the first quarter of 2009 amounts to $38m. The result includes a net contribution of $13.5m from the financial settlement of the Thunderhorse project. Without this exceptional income item, net profit from normal operating activities showed a limited decrease compared to the first quarter of last year. This is mainly due to a lower profit at the Harbour Towage Division and a reduced supply of work at the Salvage Division. EBITDA rose considerably (including the Thunderhorse contribution and the results of associated companies) as compared to the same period in 2008. SMIT’s CEO, Ben Vree, said, “It is obvious that the present recession affects our industry as well.

Subsea 7 Inc. (Oslo Stock Exchange: SUB) reported results for the first quarter of 2009. •    Good project execution and profitable in all regions. •    Successful completion of a number of projects, including Chevron’s Tombua Landana development. •    Awarded contract by Petrobras in Brazil valued at approximately USD 200 million in support of the Tambau Urugua and P-56 developments. The Group’s accounts are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Highlights for the quarter included the successful completions of Venture’s Chestnut P2 development and Ithaca’s Jacky project. Engineering and procurement…

•    Operating result for Harbour Towage increases, partly because of the extended interest in URS. •    Commencement of new contracts leads to growth Terminals. •    Result Salvage exceeds historical average. •    Considerable increase result Transport. •    Strongly improved result Heavy Lift in second half of the year. •    Net profit increases from EUR 105.6 million to EUR 107.8 million. •    Operating result increases 19% from EUR 94.7 million to EUR 112.5 million. •    EBITDA (including associated companies) rises 26% from EUR 159.4 million to EUR 201.0 million. •    Net profit per share decreases 9% from EUR 6.68 to EUR 6.11, owing to the issuing of shares. •    Proposed dividend per share remains EUR 3.00.

BP Plc reportedly posted a 53 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit as production rose, according to a Bloomberg report. Output rose for the first time since 2Q ‘05 because of new fields in Angola, Trinidad and the Gulf of Mexico. BP expects to raise extraction to more than 4 million BOE a day in 2009, which will rise to about 4.3 million barrels a day in 2012. BP in December started oil and gas exports from the Atlantis platform after a one-year delay. Pumping will reach plateau production, 200,000 barrels of oil and 180 million cubic feet of gas a day, by the end of 2008, the company said. It also plans to begin production at Thunder Horse by the end of 2008.

SMIT announced that it is expecting a growth in net profit of around 35 percent for 2007 compared to 2006. On July 27, SMIT announced that it was expecting a considerably higher profit over 2007 than the net profit of EUR 75 million over 2006. The company said all divisions performed well, in particular the Salvage Division due to a high activity level during the second half of this year. In addition a number of salvage jobs from previous years have been settled. Settlements for the “Thunder Horse”, “Development Driller 1” en “Arctic 1” have not yet been concluded and therefore have not been taken into account.

By James R. International Maritime Associates, Inc. Floating production has evolved to a mature technology that opens for development oil and gas reservoirs that would be otherwise impossible or uneconomic to tap. The technology enables production far beyond the depth constraints of fixed platforms, generally considered to be 1,400 ft. (426.7 m), and provides a flexible solution for developing short-lived fields with marginal reserves and fields in remote locations where installation of a fixed facility would be difficult. Floating production systems vary greatly in appearance - from ship-shape FPSO vessels to multi hull production semis to cylindrical shaped production spars.

Dockwise Shipping B.V. today set a new record by delivering BP’s 59,500-ton semi-submersible Thunder Horse platform in Corpus Christi, USA. Already on June 19, 2002 Dockwise has been awarded the contract for the sea transportation of the largest semi-submersible PDQ (Production & Drilling Quarters) unit ever built of its kind by DSME in South Korea. The Thunder Horse PDQ is transported on the largest heavy transport vessel of the Dockwise fleet the m.v. Blue Marlin. After a smooth float-on loading operation of the Thunder Horse PDQ, the Blue Marlin has set sail on 23 July for the 15,813 n.m.

Kvaerner announced that Aker Kvaerner has been awarded a contract, worth $11 million, to supply advanced drilling and mooring equipment for BP. The advanced deepwater equipment has been developed and will be delivered by Maritime Hydraulics and Maritime Pusnes. The equipment is due for completion and delivery in the first quarter of 2003, and is for a semi-submersible platform which BP is having built for installation on the Thunder Horse oil field.

Not all stability software is made equal. Even if all commonly available stability programs were of the same quality, virtually all of them are designed first and foremost for conventional vessels - and it's no secret that the unique characteristics of offshore platforms demand capabilities not usually required for ships. Rig stability is a very critical issue, and it can also be quite complex. What rig operators need is software that can constantly monitor and predict stability in any combination of circumstances; but what they don't need is an interface as complex as the problem. Enter Autoload Rig. Only recently released, yet already installed on more then 15 platforms, Autoload has also been chosen for the biggest floating rig ever built: Thunderhorse.

Autoship Systems Corporation (ASC) said its new Autoload-Rig and Autoload 6.0 programs have enjoyed significant early sales. M/T Seraya Spirit of Teekay Shipping Ltd. industry, including a completely new interface developed from rig operator recommendations. vessels as well – and thus “Autoload 6.0” followed soon after. flexibility. accurate damage simulation). direction – it calculates real shift of free surface in slack tanks according to any change in heel or trim. separate view frame monitors the actual maxVCG curve relative to the current condition (draft/vcg). Real-time sensor data is used for tank contents, drafts, and wind. taken for mooring and riser tension, while different criteria are used for different modes of operation.

following the passing of Hurricane Dennis. 30 degrees. has not yet begun production of hydrocarbons. The situation was discovered at approximately 8:30 a.m. Monday morning by a vessel in the area. unknown. hurricane's approach. known release of any fuel or hazardous substances. the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) and the U.S. the extent of the damage. the Coast Guard to create a response plan. potential causes of the issue. Unified Command in Morgan City, Louisiana.