Brazzaville
ABSTRACT The past decade has seen an increasing focus on the links between extractive resource (oil, gas and mining) wealth and conflict. Studies show that a combination of price fluctuations, a decline in accountability, corruption and extortion rackets often lead to chronic social conflict feeding off the politics of rage, race and revenge. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative was launched by Tony Blair in 2002 and seeks to address the lack of accountability in extractive rich states. The EITI seeks to build this accountability by working with governments and companies (multinational, national and state-owned); to capture and present in an intelligible form and in a trustworthy manner, data on the payments made by extractive industries companies to governments, and on revenues received by the government from these companies. Secondly EITI seeks to ensure that civil society is involved in this process of increasing fiscal transparency, and the scrutiny of the end result. At present, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Ghana, Congo Brazzaville, Sao Tome e Principe, Trinidad & Tobago, Timor Leste, Peru and Democratic Republic of Congo have committed to implementing the Initiative. Implementation is supported by the G8, the World Bank, the IMF, and EBRD as well as by an international grouping of companies, investors, and civil society groups. INTRODUCTION More than 50 countries are dependent on the extractives (oil, gas, and mining) sector.i Although the revenues generated from these industries are large, the benefits of such wealth often seems remote. One of the causes is the prevalence of conflict. Access to, and the control of, extractive resources have been major sources of conflict throughout history particularly when abusive militaries control these resources. On a structural level, a combination of price fluctuations, squandered revenues and extortion rackets often lead to chronic social conflict. Citizens of such countries can often end up worse off than previous generations, as corrupt elites use the revenues to insulate themselves from necessary reforms, to suppress dissent and to promote narrowly based groups of supporters. All of these pressures make low-income, resource-rich countries particularly prone to civil war. So, just how costly is a civil war? Collier calculates an average cost of ยฃ50 billion per civil conflict. He points out that at a country level any civil conflict casts a long shadow and costs continue to accrue for many years after the peace settlement such as low investment in public health and diseases spread by conflict. He estimates it takes a country 20 years to return to its pre-conflict economic status. That's a long time particularly in an interdependent world where insecurity can easily spread. So development, defence and diplomacy need to work together. It is not possible to address threats to human and global security without close collaboration. This collaboration, as a UK Government DFID report observes, is not easy. Security and development people - and one could add - business people, do not regularly talk to each other as their focus countries, timeframes and resources differ.
- North America (1.00)
- Europe > United Kingdom (1.00)
- Africa > Republic of the Congo > Brazzaville > Brazzaville (0.25)
- Law (1.00)
- Government > Regional Government > Europe Government > United Kingdom Government (0.69)
- Government > Regional Government > North America Government > Canada Government (0.63)
INTRODUCTION Scope of this paper is to describe the high pressure water jetting application to the case of platform pile cutting occurred during an offshore jacket installation. The problem was the crushing of the main piles just below platform legs, thus preventing to attain the project pile penetration. The possible solutions were either to restore the original pile or to shift the jacket from the original site and start repiling. GEOGRAPHICAL SITE AND PLATFORM DESCRIPTION The platform in object is part of the Loango oil field development structures in the offshore of Congo (Brazzaville) in a water depth of 90 mt. It is a jacket and deck structure for 10 drilling/ production wells. Jacket has a 92 mt height, a pyramidal shape, a square re base of 35.6ร35.6 mt, a square top of 12.6ร12.6 mt and 4 legs of 52" diameter for a total weight of 1.000 ton, without piles (Fig. 1). The anchoring system of the jacket to the bottom was based on a main pile of 48" diameter and 1" wall thickness driven into the soil for 10 mt and an insert pile of 39" diameter and 1" wall thickness into a pre-drilled bore for a penetration of 68 mt, using the main pile as conductor. PIPE COLLAPSE The installation commenced at the beginning of April '85 by launching the jacket from a barge and with the self-upending manouvre it took the correct trim. With the support of the SAIPEM derrick vessel "Castoro 8", the jacket reached the site and was lowered to the bottom. Once the four 48" piles were driven with a Delmag 62 hammer, a Wirth B6 drilling equipment was installed on the first leg to drill the bore for the 39" insert pile. When the 44" scheduled drilling bit was a few meters under the mud line, it couldn't progress. Bit diameters were reduced down to 39", but it was still impossible to run through the main pile shoe. After a series of attempts it was clear that the piles were crushed while crossing a hard soil layer (Fig. 2). PROBLEM SOLVING Unsuccessful field attempts were made to mill the main pile with local makeshift devices. Meanwhile a task force of experts was established in the head-quarters to study and solve the problem. Experts were confronted by two possibilities:to find an acceptable technical solution enabling to proceed piling with insert piles across the crushed section; to release platform from the ocean bottom and restart previous piling sequence. Since at this stage either possibility might have had equal chance of success, equipment for both solutions was prepared. Special mill tools and hydraulic expanders were designed and built to attain solution a). Solution b) could utilize various cutting principles; such as mechanical, thermal, explosive or water jetting. Each technique had pros and cons, but water jetting soon appeared as the most attractive because it promised to yield a clean cut without plastic deformations.
- North America > United States > Texas (0.29)
- Africa > Republic of the Congo > South Atlantic Ocean (0.25)
- Africa > Republic of the Congo > Brazzaville > Brazzaville (0.25)
ABSTRACT Seventy percent of the global surface is marine. Over the past 20 years, new-frontier oil exploration has largely shifted from land areas worldwide to the shallow waters offshore. Now in the late 1970's a .high percent of the remaining undiscovered oil and gas reserves are expected to be found in areas of much deeper water, i.e., between the 600 and 6,000 ft. isobaths. This is the new frontier. As relatively few wells have been drilled for petroleum in this environment, this paper attempts to anticipate and discuss the most significant factors affecting the prospect assessment of these areas. INTRODUCTION In January 1977, the Designated Authority of Western Australia called for bids by the International Oil Industry for five deepwater blocks off the northwest shelf of Australia. These five blocks in the Exmouth Plateau area, each measuring around 12,500 square miles, were eagerly sought by the industry as evidenced by the total work commitment of the winning bids announced by the government in October. According to press reports, thirty-four wells were committed to be drilled over the next four to five years. As water depths in this area (Fig. 1) range from 800 to 2,000 meters, it is safe to say most of these wells will be drilled in waters greater than 3,000 ft. in depth. In other parts of the world, in early 1978, an Exxon Corporation affiliate spudded a well off Surinam in 3,950 ft. of water; shortly thereafter Getty Oil Company, and others, announced spudding a well off Congo Brazzaville in 4,350 ft. of water; and others are said to be planning wells in greater than 4,000 ft. off Labrador and Newfoundland. Obviously, the technology exists to drill for oil on the continental slope in water depths over 3,000 ft. As rapidly increasing numbers of wells are being drilled in deep water, explorationists must ask, why? at what cost? and what is different about the exploration potential in drilling wildcat wells in this deepwater environment? WHY DEEP WATER? We look to deepwater drilling because we are looking for giant oil fields. Industry studies have shown that a mere 300 fields out of over 30,000 known worldwide account for over 85% of all the recoverable oil in the world. Statistics also tell us that over 85% of the world's known reserves cane from sediments of Mesozoic and Cenozoic age. We've also read that over 95% of all known oil has been found in marine sediments. And common sense tells us to look for giants in virgin territory on the assumption that few explorers could look at an "elephant" without recognizing it. To find elephants today we first search the frontier areas. The one frontier area open to all western oil companies that fits all of the above criteria is the deep water from 600 ft. to 6,000 ft. An outer limit, a 6,000 ft. isobath, is used here as an arbitrary limit dictated by current design of the existing drill ships, not as a geologic boundary.
- Oceania > Australia > Western Australia (0.55)
- North America > Canada > Newfoundland and Labrador > Newfoundland (0.24)
- North America > Canada > Newfoundland and Labrador > Labrador (0.24)
- Africa > Republic of the Congo > Brazzaville > Brazzaville (0.24)
ABSTRACT The paper deals with the four Agip/Elf steel gravity platforms, designed by Tecnomare and to be installed at Loango field (offshore Con go Brazzaville). Water depth at location is about 300 feet and the platforms are designed to accommodate 12 slanted conductors and 3 verticals. The platforms are assembled in Europe and towed for 5 000 miles to Congo in about three months. The origin of the particular structural geometry is explained together with the necessity to adopt a gravity platform instead of a piled one. Adopted design methods to analyze the structure during the construction, transportation and installation phases are described. Design steps are clarified for each of above phases, and main results are shown. The construction phases of the platform are summarized, and main procedures are discussed in relation to the main structural parts. INTRODUCTION The extension of the exploration of offshore petroleum reservoirs to deeper water and increasingly distant operation areas has, in recent years, emphasized the demand for a new type of marine platform. Many new solutions have been envisaged to meet such a demand. The engineering, construction and installation of such structures has required, in turn, the development of more sophisticated design methods and the study of new construction and installation procedures. The Loango platforms design follows a Tecnomare patented concept of a steel gravity structure, already developed as a research project begun in1969, for a water depth of over 100 meters./1/ The Agip/Elf-owned Loango field is located between the Guinea and the Angola basins, offshore Point-Noir, Congo Brazzaville. The field layout is shown in fig. 1; it consists of three drilling platforms (DPl-DP2_DP3) and one production platform (PPl) connected to DPI by means of a bridge. The production platform is connected to DP2, DP3 by flow lines and by an 18" sealine to the shore. Tecnomare S. p.A. began the design phase with a feasibility study in October '72 and carried out design analysis up to November '73 when Bid Drawings were delivered, followed by Contract Drawings in early 74. Construction started with prefabrication in workshops at the same date. STRUCTURAL GEOMETRY APPROACH Agip/Elf primary requests were initially concerned with the following basic requirements: (Available in full paper) On the basis of the above data a preliminary feasibility study was performed. Five structural configurations were analyzed: Solution A: Steel gravity type The platform is formed of an hexagonal tower superimposed on a triangular base structure with foundation pads and vertical stability cylinders at each corner. Although minor configurationally problems must be solved in order to make possible the connection between the two different shapes, the structure fits the conductor envelopes very well.
- Africa > Republic of the Congo > South Atlantic Ocean (0.45)
- Africa > Republic of the Congo > Brazzaville > Brazzaville (0.44)
- North America > United States > Texas (0.28)
- Africa > Republic of the Congo > South Atlantic Ocean > Lower Congo Basin > Loango Field (0.99)
- Africa > Equatorial Guinea > Gulf of Guinea > Guinea Basin (0.94)
- Africa > Angola (0.89)
Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers, P.O. Box 228, The Hague, The Netherlands. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines. Abstract Conventional investigation methods, such as logs, core analysis and production tests have been unable to provide data accurate enough for evaluating the Emeraude pool. In order to gather the informations, pool. In order to gather the informations, which in our opinion are essential, we have been led to use a closed circuit television system. In order to be safely operated in a bore hole, the available television camera had to be adapted to oilfield equipment. A number of preliminary tests was necessary to achieve this goal. This rather peculiar method provided means to assemble essential and sometimes spectacular data, which successfully completed the partial results available thus far. Introduction The Emeraude structure was discovered in 1969 by Elf Congo in the offshore waters of Congo-Brazzaville. The hydrocarbon in the reservoir is an undersaturated, highly viscous oil. Pay zones are located from 200 to 650 meters (650 to 2.130 feet) and consist mostly of more or less carbonated silts, slightly consolidated or unconsolidated, with indurated limestone breaks. The latter have an average thickness of about a decimeter. From the first wells on, the conventional formation evaluation methods proved to be insufficient, a striking example being the discrepancy between the permeability values determined from core analysis and the much higher permeability values deducted from the pressure build-up curves recorded on production tests.
- Europe > Netherlands > South Holland > The Hague (0.25)
- Africa > Republic of the Congo > Brazzaville > Brazzaville (0.25)