West Australian Future Subsea Intervention Strategy:

What Do We Really Need?

19 October 2006 Australasia Branch Evening Meeting

Chairman Martyn Witton, BHP Billiton
Sponsored by BHP Billiton

Evening meeting report by Graham Bonner

Flyer

With the growing subsea infrastructure in Western Australia, there are opportunities to upgrade both the current available methods and approaches to subsea intervention.

Presentations

Operators Perspective on Subsea Intervention Requirements

Davinder Manku, Subsea Operations Engineer, Chevron Australia Pty Ltd

Davinder highlighted the typical subsea intervention tasks needed for a high reliability subsea field. Current intervention methodology and the need for improvements in terms of mobilisation time and a West Australian–based capability and light weight well and subsea intervention opportunities were discussed. He also suggested multi-operator cooperation opportunities in terms of spares, tool pooling, pipeline repair, vessel sharing, back-up control systems and umbilical repair.

Trends in Subsea System Design and Their Relation to Subsea Intervention System Requirements

Brian Woodman, Field Development Manager, FMC Technologies Australia Ltd

Brian discussed the trends in design and configuration of large subsea developments and how these affect the requirements for intervention systems. Issues such as large bore diverless connection systems, module size, subsea pig launching, back-up control systems were talked about, along with local WA support requirements. Other intervention options such as the installation of subsea trees on wire were mentioned.