Flow Assurance For Deep Water Production

Almost 95 million barrels of oil and fuel are produced each day in order to provide energy and fuel to people the world over. A major component of the oil industry is the transportation of oil through various means including oil pipelines. These pipelines are capable of transporting thousands of barrels of oil thousands of miles per day. In the United States one possible pipeline has caused a lot of controversy and discussion on the impact it will have on the United States. The difficulty in deciding if the Keystone XL Pipeline should be built is in whether the possibility of economic growth outweighs the possibility of environmental destruction. In order to make a decision, one must first look into the history of oil pipelines. It is crucial

Opponents of the use of the pipeline mode to transport fuel claim that it is responsible for numerous deaths that occur annually. The rate of increased accidents is attributable to the fact that as a mode of fuel transportation, minimal oversight, outdated pipes, and insufficient precautions subject

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a proposed natural gas pipeline that is planned to go through three states along the east coast; West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. The pipeline is claimed to create 19,440 jobs and provide clean reliable power to the residents within the borders of the three states. The pipeline seems to be beneficial in improving the livelihood of the residents of these states, however, the pipeline is also taking from the communities it is planned to go through. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline has created some controversy, among individuals especially when it comes to the equity of specific communities. Equity is the quality of being fair when it comes to making decisions.

The Gulf houses half of the world’s oil reserves and a third of the natural gas. The Gulf States still continue to supply the international markets with a significant amount of the hydrocarbons. The stability of the region is crucial for the stability in the global oil markets. The Gulf also hosts one of the most strategically and important choke points in global trade, The Straits of Hormuz, which moves about 35% of the global seaborne oil, natural gas and other trade goods.

St. Croix River Association’s (SCRA) mission is to protect, restore and celebrate the St. Croix River and its watershed. With an approach based on partnerships, SCRA is a 501(c)3 non-profit working to realize a vision for the St. Croix as a place where rivers run free and clean, a diverse habitat sustains our unique and diverse flora and fauna, people have access to our National Park and the park flourishes, towns throughout the basin thrive, and people celebrate the river. The St. Croix River association is one of Minnesota’s oldest citizen organizations focused on natural resources and, up until 2009, was exclusively run by volunteers. The St. Croix River

In the article Dakota Access ' Commitment to Safety, Energy Transfer company, the owner of Dakota Access Pipeline project, claims that it will do its best to guarantee the safety of the pipeline. For sure, that is what Energy Transfer will do. However, how long will it do? What if Energy Transfer company is gone? Contract and treaty could be broken overnight. Business could fail at any time. But we will live on the earth from generation to generation. If the company closed down one day, who would guarantee our or later generation’s safety? There two examples of oil pipeline leak. “In September 2010, the rupture and explosion of a natural gas transmission pipeline in San Bruno, California, killed eight people and destroyed more than 38 homes, damaging many more. The pipeline was built in1956 (Burns and Hoang).” Also “in March 2013, in Mayflower,

According to a study conducted by Dr. Dagmar Etkin of Environmental Research Consulting, pipelines are not the safest mode of petroleum transportation. In accordance with this information, transportation by train is more effective and safer than using pipelines. The mode of transportation with the highest ratio of oil spillage in waterways is by vehicles such as fuel trucks. Between the years 1980 and 2003, land vehicles were in the lead with 44% oil spillage per transport, while pipelines had 32%. The remaining 24% of oil spills were awarded to train transports. These special train cars are the safest mean of transportation out of the three. Even though the percentages seem to be very close in the spectrum, the total volume of spilled oil from pipelines exceeds road vehicles by over 100,000,000 gallons of oil (Wile). However, a more recent source, the official Dakota Access Pipeline webpage states, “…pipelines are the safest, most efficient method of transporting oil, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation” (“Dakota Access

Offshore drilling has become an essential part of today’s oil production and demand for energy. With the growth of population comes the increasing demand for oil. The oil industry today, is one of the most used providers of energy. Today in the 20th century the majority of the population in America has a car and cars needs gas to run. The oil reserves in the earth that are easily accessible via land are starting to run dry and are becoming harder to find. This is why we have begun to see more and more offshore oil drills. Although there are benefits of offshore drilling such as profit, lower gas prices, and becoming less dependent on foreign oil. There are also many drawbacks in which if something were to go wrong, the mistake would be catastrophic impacting the environment, the nature, and have trickling effects all around the world.

Considering the potential negative effects this pipeline would have on the environment if a leak

Where this agreement usually ends, however, is with the question of quality control refining processes from my viewpoint. Anotherwords, what control measures are enforced to ensure all contaminants are entirely removed to guarantee a high level of quality assurance and security of the petroleum sectors within the nation’s infrastructures? Are there residual contaminants affecting the quality of fuel supplied to the nation’s energy consumers? From a preceding viewpoint, it can be related to the Colorado Floods that occurred in September 2013. Even the prevailing thought of hazardous waste introduced to the Colorado geographical landscape does not eliminate the second and third order affects imposed on the nation’s petroleum pipeline infrastructure by way of corrosion, introducing chemicals into the pipeline arteries through small cracks that may extend beyond Colorado, an implication that cannot be ruled out. Water contamination prevention-or across the board programs-from the negative effect of hydraulic fracturing should be an expectation from petroleum energy producers. Moreover, it reminds us of an infrastructure security vulnerability, which is not often specified, when hydraulic fracturing is correlated to the role water functions through the conventional petroleum refining process, along with vast arrays of petroleum pipelines that exist across the nation’s geographical landscapes. These concerns should be brought

Recently, oil companies have increased their search for oil in water deeper than 1,500 feet, which is classified as "deep water." While that is where the companies hope to find the largest untapped oil reserves, seeking out and extracting oil there presents unique challenges. For one thing, platforms in deep water cannot sit on legs connected to the sea floor the way they can in shallower areas, so other methods must be used to protect them from strong currents.

Recently, oil spill management has become a serious concern and subsequently, it has become a big issue as it takes a large, specifically trained team effort to solve the devastating problem. It also requires consistent efforts of the workforce. The Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico was perhaps another major contributing factor to highlighting the need for Oil Spill Management to be addressed. The director of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, Michael Bromwich stated that this oil spill proved that oil and gas organizations were not prepared to deal with oil spills. (Merolli, 2010).

Currently, the conventional approach is to aggressively explore and develop new fields. This has led to a growth in drilling deeper wells and looking to ‘off-shore’ sites for new production of ‘light’ crude. However, as recent events in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrate with the British Petroleum incident and the resulting clean-up costs and loss of credibility, this approach has risks. It

The issue of whether offshore oil drilling is a safe operation or not has been arguing for a long time in the United States. ( SPE International, N.D.) Drilling on water started in early 1930s in Louisiana by shallow-draft barges. Nevertheless, the first oil well on water was drilled in 9th of September, 1947 by Kerr-McGee’s unit Tender Assist Drilling (TAD) in the Gulf of Mexico (SPE International, N.D.). A year after year, oil companies used more and more sophisticated equipment to drill on water, but the number of spilled accidents has been rising since 1964 (Ivanovich, and Hays, 2008). After all, while

Since the past few decades, owning a car has become a necessity in order to commute from one place to another. However, cars do not work automatically, they require fuel. Since the past decade, the petroleum industry has become one of the leading industries impacting the nation’s economy. Oil has become an essential commodity as it is utilized in transportation vehicles, serves as a raw material for manufacturing plastics, and is utilized in homes for cooking. America’s economy is greatly dependent on petroleum as it is the “black gold” of the nation. The considerable significance of oil has led to the drilling of it, which is not only limited to land, but also the oceans. Offshore drilling is a method in which petroleum is extracted from underneath the seabed. It is one of the significant technological advancements in the past few decades. However, the ones who are involved in the process of offshore oil production are humans, and humans tend to make mistakes. In 1969, due to a human error, an oil spill occurred and natural gas, oil, and mud shot up the well and oozed into the ocean (“Offshore Drilling”). The oil spilled led to an environmental disaster which killed thousands of marine animals and distorted the environment. In order to prevent the same error, the government passed a moratorium in 1981, banning more than 85 percent of the country’s oil drilling sites (“Offshore Drilling”). The moratorium restricted the United States to mass-produce its natural resource.