The future of Offshore
Following on from the editor’s page in the June issue of the magazine, I would like to continue with this topic of Offshore as I think it still is, and will probably be, an even more important theme with regards to valves and the whole process industry.
While writing these lines, it seems that BP has made a breakthrough in the Gulf of Mexico. BP was able to exchange the top of the oil well and put a new cap on it, which should be able to close the flow of the well completely. At the same time, this new cap should also enable BP to pump the oil from the well direct into the tankers and bring it to shore for processing.
But whether the new cap holds or not, the resulting questions remain the same. What influence has the catastrophe had on the flow control industry? Will there be more extensive testing of equipment and their materials? Newer and stricter rules and regulations for offshore drilling? Will oil companies have to develop new guidelines for the valve companies? OR will it perhaps all stay as it was before, because it was just an unfortunate accident, which could not be foreseen and is not expected to happen at other platforms – because they are all running fine. To be honest, I do not expect the latter because the catastrophe was too big and too much of an international topic in the past days, weeks, and months. I have started up a discussion in the Valve World Group on LinkedInTM and I would like to read your opinions on this and also on the way forward. How do you see the offshore industry? Will the Gulf of Mexico disaster have an impact on the future of the offshore industry in the sense of even turning away from offshore drilling? An increase in renewable sources (solar, wind, biomass, etc. perhaps even more atomic energy)? OR are we not ready for this yet? Let me know what you think and if we get enough comments in, we might run off an article based on this discussion.
However, as important as this topic is, there is still a lot of other stuff going on in the Oil & Gas / Offshore industry as you can see in the 116 pages of this issue. James Chater has written an industry focus article on Offshore and Mr John Wilson from Quantapoint talks about 3D laser scanning for offshore asset management. Other offshore focused articles come from Metso Automation Inc. and SchuF-Fetterolf. Also, I recently visited two engineers from Ultramar in Canada, who talked to me about their working day and their experiences with valves at their refinery.
So, I hope you will enjoy reading this issue of Valve World and please feel free to participate in the above mentioned online discussion.
Best wishes,
Christian Borrmann
Senior Editor – Valve World
c.borrmann@kci-world.com
Online exclusive!
If you look at our website (www.valve-world.net) and check out the section Editor’s Choice you will find a selection of interesting topics. One of these topics is the online-only retrospect of the “Ros-Gas Expo” in Saint-Petersburg, Russia from our Russian correspondent Mrs Lena Mikhailova.
The event took place from 25-28 May, 2010 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. It was the 14th international exhibition of gas industry and equipment (Ros-Gas Expo), which is the largest specialized exhibition for natural gas in the Northwest region. Organized by FAREXPO (co-organisers were Gazprom, Gazpromregiongas and Gazpromexpo), Ros-Gas aims to demonstrate up-to-date projects, technologies and equipment for the natural gas industry, to promote gas-saving ideas and to attract foreign investments.