Halifax, April 30, 2012 - Welaptega Marine, world leader in subsea inspection technology in the oil and gas sector, will present two peer-reviewed technical papers at OTC Houston this week.
On Tuesday morning, Welaptega 3D-specialist engineer Marie MacCormick will present a paper entitled “Using 3D Subsea Inspection Technologies for Pipeline Incident Response.” (Room 600). The session is on ROV innovation and technology.
On Thursday at 11 am, Welaptega engineer Tyler De Gier will present a paper entitled “Manufactured Chain Link Dimensions and the Implications on In-Service Inspection.” (Room 604). The session is on deepwater moorings.
Welaptega will also be part of the Atlantic Canada booth #1817 on the OTC conference floor.
Founded in 1969, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is the world’s foremost event for the development of offshore resources in the fields of drilling, exploration, production, and environmental protection.
OTC is the largest and most prestigious oil and gas conference in the world. It takes place at Reliant Park Conference Centre in Houston April 30-May 3.
The US offshore safety regulator is getting a boost with the hire of 28 more engineers and 48 more inspectors to strengthen safety in the offshore drilling industry.
James Watson, Director Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, says the bureau wants to focus more on industry safety results than on specific rules.
“The first goal of BSEE is to ensure that the equipment is built and maintained to the right standards, that the people are trained and supported by the management and that there is a good monitoring of these activities,” Watson said.
Industry should take a long view of offshore accidents and safety
Watson said safety should go beyond Deepwater Horizon disaster and take into consideration accidents and incidents that have occurred offshore throughout its history.
The bureau was formed in 2011 in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in response to criticism that offshore regulators were failing to enforce safety in the offshore.
By Tony Hall, CEO and founder of Welaptega Marine
Two years ago today, the Deepwater Horizon drill rig exploded and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico after a series of catastrophic failures.
A blowout of BP’s Macondo well caused a fire and explosion at Transocean’s rig, killing 11 workers and spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
It was the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
Gulf of Mexico deep-water drilling was suspended for nearly six months in the wake of the spill.
Safety of rig crews must trump all
The greatest lesson is that safety of the men and women working on the rig must trump all other concerns, according to James Watson, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement at the U.S. Department of the Interior.
He says the U.S. government has made the most far-reaching reforms to offshore energy safety in history.
Sadly, all of those lessons had already been learned in other accidents and operations outside of US jurisdiction. This accident did not need to happen.
Industry is now required to meet strong new safety standards on everything from the design of wells to the way cement is tested to the way human and environmental risk is managed on drilling rigs and production platforms.
Welaptega helped with the oilspill response
Welaptega played a role in stopping the spill. Our 3D modeling cameras were used on site to model the dimensions of the leaking wellhead. This information was used to verify the size of the cap which stopped the leak.
Let’s hope that new safety regulations will take into account the experience of the Deepwater Horizon and other accidents outside the United States so that a tragedy like this will never happen again.
