Health, Safety and Environmental R&D Don Smith International Association of Oil and Gas Producers

R&D within a Global Industry Industry invests billions of dollar on R&D related activities covering the full spectrum of industry interests (eg ExxonMobil invested ~$700m in 2005) A range of mechanisms through which the industry funds R&D including: –Directly funded R&D –Grants –In-house R&D capabilities –Foundations –Involvement in government programmes Difficult to establish the nature and extent of R&D activity in the health, safety and environmental areas

Offshore Structures Various floating system behaviour JIPs (Deepstar) Moorings JIP Decommissioning methodology JIP SCI/TWI Brent Flare Tower Fatigue Jack-Up Studies (related to SNAME and ISO) FPSO Research Forum

To identify the common technical issues facing those involved in designing, fabricating and/or operating FPSOs, and to foster JIPs to tackle them for the common good of the industry. Current projects: –Numerical modeling of non-linear fluid loads by means of Volume of Fluid Method –Analysis of out of plane bending fatigue in mooring chain –Shallow water wave kinematics related to near-shore terminals –Investigation in mooring failures –Simulation of side-by side offloading –Intelligent Structural Health of FPSO’s –Fatigue analysis of steel structures –Investigation of structural integrity by inspections

Metocean Range of hindcasting JIPs: –North Sea (NUG/NEXT) –North West Approaches (NWAG) –Caspian Sea (CASMOS) Regional JIP –West African Gusts –West African Swell Wave Studies –10 -4 Waves –Shallow water waves Co-ordinated through OGP Metocean Committee

Involvement in EU Programmes

SIMORC (System of Industry Data for the Offshore and Research Community) To create a central index and database of metocean data sets, collected by the oil & gas industry To facilitate harmonisation in quality and formats, storing and retrieving of these industry metocean datasets To create a searchable overview of hindcast studies

Virthualis Objective: to produce an affordable and accessible virtual reality technology to help reduce human factor related incidents in the oil and gas industry EU funded programme: –4 year duration –Total funds Euro 15 million (9 from EU) –Over 40 partners

Health Related R&D Malaria Sexually transmitted disease control

Environment Related R&D Long term effects of cutting piles in the North Sea Produced water discharge ‘Zero harmful discharge’ related studies Arctic Conditions: –Chemical dispersion of oil in ice covered water –In-situ burning of oil in ice covered waters –Detection of spilled oil under ice Establishment of a lab (Qatar) to study environmental effects associated with LNG production Drill cuttings monitoring JIP (Brazil)

E&P Sound and Marine Life JIP

Background – increasing focus on sound in the marine environment and its potential to cause harm to all forms of marine life JIP Objective - to address the E&P relevant knowledge gaps, with the overall aims of better risk assessments and improved mitigation measures JIP: –3 to 5 year R&D programme –>$20m funds –9 participants to date (more expected)

OGP Future Activities Fire and Blast Directory Human Factors (Tools/Culture) Geohazards Position Paper Land Transportation Safety Managing Major Accident Hazards

Summary On a global basis the industry spends a considerable sum on R&D related activities Many different approaches adopted to funding R&D Information on industry funded R&D (on a global basis) difficult to access –OGP currently exploring how this position can be improved