If life throws you a break, you get to meet and be friends with a special person. Bil Loth was one for me. Unfortunately the ‘was’ is intended as Bil passed away this morning at the relatively young age of 81. So very sad. He was a one-off – do […]

Thirty two years ago, in the aftermath of the Piper Alpha platform accident in which 167 UK offshore workers died, I was asked by New Scientist magazine to write an article about the future of offshore production. The question which was asked was, could offshore oil and gas production be […]

There were two announcements of note last week. Firstly, the proposed Global Underwater Hub will supercede, replace and absorb Subsea UK and secondly that the National Subsea Research Institute will now be absorbed into Subsea UK before the Hub arrangements are finalised. These are not before time. The UK offshore […]

I have to admit that this pandemic has not been great for creativity and thought. It might have seemed the opposite – lots of time to mull and consider and no shortage of ideas. It has, though, been enervating – energy sapped, no enthusiasm, worry about family and friends and […]

Over the course of the last four decades, there have been projects that have been noteworthy for advances in technology and others that have changed the way the industry has done business, but few that have done both. One of those was Kerr-McGee Gryphon in the UK sector of the […]

I had such a a good chuckle a week or two back that I could not resist commenting on. Please indulge me. The offshore oil and gas supply and service sector has had a long history of bad names. Some of the less than glorious monikers tagged onto companies have […]

(PROLOGUE: I feel that it is necessary to repeat something I wrote when I started my subsea history series. It was never way meant to be comprehensive. It is written from my point of view having edited Subsea Engineering News for 30 plus years. I am sure some folks will […]

AFTER LAST WEEK’S BLOG, I had a note from Dave Brookes, ex-BP, commenting on a few points from the most recent portion of my subsea history lesson. Firstly, Dave reminded me that the Snorre subsea controls failure was the result of problems with the wet mateable connectors, so I was […]

LAST WEEK I came upon a review, from Journal of Petroleum Technology, of a paper written for this year’s OTC, which, of course, was not held due to the current virus pandemic. The paper, prepared by three Saipem engineers was entitled ‘Developing Technologies Can Lower Subsea Tieback Cost’ (OTC30667). I […]

{Prologue: It is quite interesting to recall – my memory jogged by reading endless back issues of Subsea Engineering News – the unconstrained enthusiasm for new technology back in the mid 1980’s when subsea production was still very new and seen as the next big thing. So much money was […]

[As a prologue, firstly I would like to say sorry for being so long between episodes. Been overwhelmed as most people have just trying to stay safe and well and have also had problems with my office glasses. Such a sign of age – what an admission! My regards go […]

POST-UMC: SCAPA and HIGHLANDER It is easy to divide everything subsea from the early days of the UK sector as before and after Shell/Esso’s Underwater Manifold Centre (UMC), which was deployed on the Central Cormorant field. Except maybe not, at least philosophically. Shell/Esso, or Shell UK Expro as it was […]

Most of my readers over the years think of me as an oilfield journalist and commentator, but I began my career as a general reporter and feature writer. As such, I feel the need to run up the flag to campaign for freedom of the press. The events of this […]

No one, as of yet, has written the definitive history of subsea production technology. It probably should be me. Back in 2018, I spoke at two different Subsea UK events and during the course of each of those days, young engineers came up and thanked me for giving them a […]

During the first decade of publishing Subsea Engineering News – that is beginnning in 1984 – the North Sea, and the UK sector specifically, was the epicentre of the subsea/floater world. It was not that there was not meaningful activity elsewhere – assuredly the Brazilians were moving slowly, but surely […]

After 40 years in the UK, I have to admit that no one can do cliches like the Brits. One of my favourites is you wait for a bus and then three come along one after another referring to something long awaited. Then again, a friend of mine and I […]

From Vaasa, Finland: Zoologists often speak about the long gestation periods for elephants, but as we in the oilfield know, it ain’t nothin’ compared with the time required to get a new piece of technology developed, tested and deployed. So it is no surprise it has been six years since […]

When I was editor of Subsea Engineering News, readers often asked how I managed to gather so much information. It was a matter of effort – making contacts, lots of phone calls, endless schmoozing at conferences and generally putting in the time. It wasn’t easy, but why should it have […]

I am excited. OK, I am enthused, just so no one calls out the fire brigade. In the last fortnight, the subsea project market seems to have come alive. Of course, all of the work that was announced was bid three to six months ago, so in essence they are […]

I’m back – sorry to have been gone so long, but holidays are requisite. My wife and I did a two-week touring trip around northwest Spain and northern Portugal in September. This might seem irrelevant to the nature of this blog, but bear with me as there is a link, […]

When I gave the last blog this title, it did not occur to me that I would start stirring up memories, even if mostly very good ones. What I received – a comment available for all to read – was a very heartfelt missive from the estimable Ian Ball. I […]

Offshore Europe 2019 starts next week and as per usual, there are talking points a many, some actually to do with business and others, maybe not. TechnipFMC’s (TFMC) decision to split itself into two entities – a specialist upstream/subsea company and an onshore/midstream/downstream one – will have some scratching their […]

If there is any figure of speech that is overused – not surprisingly! – it is the hyperbole. And so is the oft-used expression ‘the end of an era’, but it truly is as ExxonMobil, or Esso as it used to be called, has reportedly called time on its activities […]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…the UK had offshore oversight authorities that could only remind you of Jaja Binks of Star Wars fame – fairly toothless and incapable of making any sensible judgments. A good deal of blubbering went on. Operators were allowed to abandon fields […]

The announcement this week that the entity created by the merger of drilling contractors Ensco and Rowan Drilling was to be named Valaris made me laugh. Yet another new company name that means absolutely nothing to its customers or to the marketplace in general. I recall going to Aberdeen in […]

After venturing recently somewhat off piste, I thought I would return to the heart of the matter – subsea engineering. It is quite interesting how quickly some technology innovations and ideas have gone from the realm of the Grimm Brothers, ie fairy tales, to mainstream thinking. To wit, Chariot Oil […]

One of the catchphrases of the modern computer-based, digitised world is ‘disruptive technology’ which for those unfamiliar with the term is an innovation that changes the way an industry or even the world in general does something or even the way it thinks. It is difficult to recall an oilfield […]