Skip to content
Back home

SubseaWatcher

  • Here we are again – for the first time!
  • Search
Back home

SubseaWatcher

  • Search
  • Here we are again – for the first time!

I have to admit that since I stopped publishing SEN fortnightly seven years ago, I am not quite on top of all of the technical issues as I formerly was. But as I often suggested in the past, the oil and gas industry is never the quickest off the mark […]

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

For those of you who used to be readers of Subsea Engineering News, you might be surprised to realise that it is now seven years since I hung up my editor’s eyeshade. SEN continued after I sold it and finished my two year ‘golden handcuffs’ period, but within a year […]

THE WAY IT WAS

Contributions to the Anthony Nolan Cancer Trust can be made at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/judith-gunton1.

SHE DID IT – NOW HELP OUT!

I will lay my cards on the table as I have always done. I have never had any time for Oil & Gas UK nor now for its successor Offshore Energies UK. It is just a mouthpiece for the oil companies with hardly ever any suggestion of how the industry […]

TIME TO STOP WHINING

The oil and gas industry, like most distinct parts of the world, is filled with memorable people. I could not even begin to list all those I have encountered over the years unless I wanted to write a book and who wants to read a tome about oilfield folk at […]

THE WING WALKING EXTRAVAGANZA

It is not easy to be a commentator in a time of war if your chosen subject is not normally world politics. Sure it would be a doddle to write about oil – or maybe more relevantly gas – prices at the moment or maybe about more aggressive moves in […]

WHEN IT WAS A SIMPLER WORLD…

THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN profiteering from war. Don’t forget it was a Republican (!) president (Ike) in the 1950’s who coined the phrase ‘military industrial complex’. But we are not talking about arms now, we are talking oil and gas. It was 50 years ago that OPEC finally realised that […]

GUESS WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS WAR? …

I think that I might have fibbed in my last blog. I suggested that it was likely to be my last visit to Subsea Expo. I may have been wrong for several reasons. Firstly, it was so great to be at an event face to face with people. I have […]

NICE TO BE BACK, BACK TO BEING NICE

I am getting on a plane tomorrow for the first time in over two years, going to Aberdeen for Subsea Expo – which begins on Tuesday – for maybe the last time. It would be an end of era, at least for me, but that era actually ended earlier this […]

SUBSEA IS DEAD. LONG LIVE SUBSEA

Sorry to have been away so long, but some times life gets in the way of working – sort of. Despite having a reputation for always speaking my mind, unlike some bloggers, I don’t think I should say something simply to be saying something. There is a good deal of […]

HERE WE ARE FOR THE FIRST TIME – AGAIN!

With the COP26 climate-change summit taking place in Glasgow next month, everyone and their uncle is trying to show their commitment to the energy transition, net zero and generally making a difference. This is at least trying to stop the world from reaching the catastrophic 2oC increase in temperature which […]

HOW TO REACH NET ZERO: SHOW THEM THE MONEY

As an industry observer, it is possible to be safe from criticism. I do not have to take any decisions. I can simply wait for others to step on a banana peel and then, either stroke my chin in contemplation or laugh. To wit, while some believe themselves to be […]

The energy conundrum: to produce or not to produce?

I really can not let Bil Loth’s passing be finished with a single commentary. There just had to be more. Yesterday my wife Jane and I went to his ‘remembrance’ gathering. What else would you call an event when many of your friends, colleagues and most of your family gather […]

Bil 2: One could never be enough

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 […]

A bad deal – Bil passes on

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 […]

Is subsea the panacea for all ills?

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 […]

The subsea world gets its consolidation – finally!

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 […]

What’s new? It’s 2021 and we are bursting out

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 […]

SUBSEA HISTORY TAKE 5: BACK TO THE 1990’S

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 […]

What’s in a name, Take II: Well, quite a lot

(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 […]

TALES FROM AN OFFSHORE JOURNALIST II

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 […]

Tales from an offshore journalist: Part 1

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 […]

Back from the past: is there anything new?

{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 […]

Subsea IV: And now from across the median line…

[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 […]

SUBSEA HISTORY III: the fpso era begins

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 […]

HISTORY OF SUBSEA: PART II

2 Comments

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 […]

Freedom of the press – defend it!

3 Comments

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 […]

Something old, something new, something repeatable, something yellow: Subsea I

WOULD YOU LIKE TO REACH ALL OF THE READERS OF THIS SPECIALIST OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS BLOG?  YOU CAN PUT YOUR COMPANY’S LOGO HERE OR ELSEWHERE ON THIS PAGE.  IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, GET IN TOUCH NOW!

Archives

  • June 2022 (2)
  • May 2022 (4)
  • March 2022 (1)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • October 2021 (1)
  • September 2021 (1)
  • August 2021 (2)
  • July 2021 (1)
  • June 2021 (1)
  • April 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • October 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (3)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (2)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (2)
  • October 2019 (2)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • August 2019 (2)
  • July 2019 (3)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • May 2019 (3)
  • April 2019 (5)
CONTACT

Knighton Enterprises Ltd
PO Box 27
Cheltenham
GL53 0YH
UK
Tel: 44 1242 574027
Email: steven@keltd.co.uk

© 2022 SubseaWatcher – All rights reserved

Powered by WP – Designed with the Customizr Theme