Been there, done that.

INTEC assembled an engineering team whose key members had been leaders on the successful deepwater Canyon Express project (see QJ Winter 2001) for BP's King’s Peak, Total's Aconcagua and Marathon's Camden Hills developments in water depths up to 7300 feet. A group of companies, known as the Atwater Valley Producers, chose this project team in February 2004 to perform the Concept Engineering for development of their fields in the Atwater Valley, Desoto Canyon, and Lloyd Ridge areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It is approximately 180 miles south of Mobile, Alabama, in water depths up to 9200 feet. This was followed with the same INTEC team performing the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) that started in May. INTEC continues to provide engineering support during the Execution Phase that has just started. First production is expected in 2007.

Atwater Valley Producers and Fields
The Atwater Valley Producers Group includes Anadarko Petroleum, Dominion Exploration & Production, KerrMcGee Oil & Gas, Spinnaker Exploration, and Devon Energy. BHP Billiton participated during the Concept Engineering and FEED phases.

Six fields are currently planned for the initial development. Atlas and Atlas NW, on Lloyd Ridge Blocks 5 and 4950, are owned and operated by Anadarko. Jubilee, on Atwater Valley Blocks 305 and 349 and Lloyd Ridge Blocks 265 and 309, is also owned and operated by Anadarko. Merganser, on Atwater Valley Blocks 3637, is operated by KerrMcGee and has Devon as a partner. San Jacinto, on DeSoto Canyon Blocks 618619, is operated by Dominion and has Spinnaker and KerrMcGee as partners. Spiderman, on DeSoto Canyon Blocks 620621, is operated by Anadarko and has Dominion and Spinnaker as partners. Vortex, on Atwater Valley Blocks 217 and 261 and Lloyd Ridge Blocks 177 and 221, is jointly owned by Anadarko and KerrMcGee.

The wells will be completed subsea and tied uninsulated flowlines in a hub and spoke arrangement to Independence Hub, a 105foot deepdraft, semisubmersible platform to be located in Mississippi Canyon Block 920 in a water depth of 8000 feet. It will have a twolevel production deck which will be capable of processing 850 million cubic feet of gas per day. Anadarko will operate the platform that Enterprise Product Partners will design, construct, install and own. Heerema Marine Contractors will transport and install the hull and mooring systems. INTEC is also providing engineering support to Enterprise Product Partners for the 140 miles of 24inch export pipeline, named Independence Trail.

There are six main production flowlines servicing the fields, comprising of the Northeastern, Eastern, Southern, and Western areas. Spiderman forms the hub for the Northeast areas, with San Jacinto to the West tied in via intrafield flowlines and produced back to the host through dual 8inch and 10inch flowlines. Atlas and Atlas NW fields are located in the Eastern area and are produced back to the host through a single 8inch flowline. Jubilee and Vortex are produced from the southern spoke through dual 8inch and 10inch flowlines run in parallel. Merganser has a single dedicated 10inch flowline in the Western area.

Umbilicals are routed to the four areas generally following the flowline routes, with subsequent Subsea Umbilical Termination Assemblies (SUTAs) and intrafield umbilicals to service the outlying fields from the area hubs. Where infield umbilicals are required, Stab and Hinge Over (SHO) assemblies will be used to terminate the umbilicals at the main umbilical SUTA.

Project Challenges
Some of the significant challenges to the project are:

• Deepest subsea completion
• MultiOperators/MultiClients with various requirements and preferences
• Fasttrack schedule with multiple major changes such as addition/deletion of fields, and relocation of the hub

• Preparation and Maintenance of Design Basis
• Development and evaluation of alternate field development architectures
• Technology tradeoff studies
• Cost estimates
• Identification of gaps of technology for this ultra deepwater application
• Prequalification of vendors and equipment
• Field layouts
• Flow Assurance and Operability
• Flowline Engineering and Specification for Materials and Installation
• Flowline Equipment Preliminary Design and Specifications: PLETs, inline sleds, well and flowline jumpers
• Support for the SCR Engineering
• Subsea Production Equipment Engineering and Specification
• Subsea Control System Engineering and Specification
• Control Umbilical Preliminary Design and Specification
• Materials and Welding Engineering
• Survey Assistance
• Project Scheduling for the Subsea Facilities
• Procurement Support/Bid Preparation and Evaluation
• Preparation of Deepwater Operations Plans
• Preparation of Project Execution Plan

Blind Faith is an oil system with a highpressure reservoir with the potential of high temperatures at the wellhead in excess of 250°F. The high pressure and high temperature production at 7,000 ft. water depth make Blind Faith a technically challenging project. These parameters put design requirements at the leading edge of industry supplier capability.

INTEC has been assisting CVX in evaluating development options and supporting CVX's steps through their project evaluation process, ChevronTexaco Project Development and Execution Process (CPDEP), since April 2004. The options identified were in two categories; subsea tiebacks to existing facilities and new build local host facilities. CVX has not selected an option at this time.

Robert Money led a team to assist CVX with the first half of their Phase 2 step for CPDEP by developing a detailed cost estimate for several development options that are being considered. The three month study included establishing a base case field architecture and preliminary engineering in flow assurance, riser analysis, corrosion as well as addressing flowline sizing, routing, expansion and insulation requirements. EDG Consulting Engineers provided costs for topsides equipment in each of the cases.

A team of INTEC staff led by Ron Ledbetter started work on the second half of Phase 2 Concept Selection, as part of a joint project team comprised of EDG Consulting Engineers and INTEC. The scope of work was to identify viable development options, develop these options for evaluation, prepare detailed cost estimates for each option, evaluate the options, and help CVX select preferred options to carry into Front End Engineering (FEED). INTEC was responsible for subsea equipment including trees, cals, jumpers, PLETS, flowlines, and risers. INTEC also provided support for their evaluation of hull structures and flow assurance support.

Included as part of INTEC's scope of work was the evaluation of several technologies that might be considered in the development plan. Studies were performed for artificial lift, subsea multiphase flowmeters, subsea multiphase pumping, High Integrity Pipeline Protection System (HIPPS), electric flowline heating, subsea chemical injection distribution system, and riserbase gaslift. Position papers were prepared for those technologies not fitting into the Blind Faith development plan. For those technologies with potential to add value, recommendations for further development in FEED will be given in the technical reports produced for each.

The oil and gas industry is actually quite small in people terms, despite the large projects we execute. When you further subdivide the industry into offshore and, more specifically deepwater activities, that number dwindles considerably. It's an unwritten rule that you don't burn bridges in our industry because you will cross paths again with those folks you just torched. And, next time they might be in a position to do something about it. I'll bet most people could name previous colleagues now working in at least three different countries. This business is amazing in the way that we can be so globally interconnected to each other over the course of a career. If you have worked in another industry, you will know that it is quite possible that you will never meet a customer or a competitor. I cannot imagine that situation in this industry.

All this familiarity makes for a chummy and cozy atmosphere at industry gatherings and celebrations. However, there are also some downsides to this tight community. When we need to expand, our small 'club' has trouble accommodating the growth. We don't, unfortunately, have a steady supply of young people willing to join us. Of course, the blame lies predominantly at our feet. We have let our collective reputations be soiled by others who really don't know or, worse, care about the facts, and we have let the cyclical nature of the petroleum market whipsaw our employees in and out of the business, offering no steady lifelong opportunity. The result is an aging workforce in a world steadily demanding more oil and gas to fuel rapidly expanding economies like India and China. How do we cope with this dichotomy? One response that we have seen recently is to lure employees from one segment of our industry to another, i.e. from service providers to clients. I can only see this as a zero sum game with no ultimate winners. If neither service companies nor operators are sufficiently inclined to increase the talent pool, then we will just cycle the same folks back and forth with no net inflow of resources, only higher costs.

To solve this problem I believe our clients have to

From an engineering service provider's point of view, we face two hurdles when deciding to hire new graduates. One is that new graduates, as in all companies, have limited utility or billability until they have received sufficient training. Secondly, most of our clients want only the 'most experienced' folks on their projects. While I completely understand this requirement, it does pose a difficult dilemma. How do we reconcile our, and a client's, need to introduce new talent into the resource pool and concurrently provide the right level of skill and experience to get the job done?

Perhaps a solution could be built around the formation of a partnership between the service provider and the client. The service provider could select and recruit new graduates at their expense, but with the client’s needs in mind. The new graduate's training period costs could be shared between both with training time actually being spent in both companies. Part of the training would naturally be spent on the client’s projects. The costs to both participants would be minimized while developing these new resources. You can imagine many variants of this scheme, including training graduates hired by the client, and several issues which would need further clarification, but I believe we must start somewhere to resolve our joint concerns. The naturally symbiotic relationship with our clients should be used to our advantage to increase the talent pool, not squandered by competing for a same pool with no value added in the end.

Johnny Reed
CEO

The event took place in the remote picturesque location of St Katherine, South Sinai about 650 km from Cairo and 150 km from Sharm el Sheikh.

The first day of the Event was comprised of a 15 km hike across flat desert, through canyons, valleys and oases. Needless to say, this was a combination of blissful relaxation and extreme pain bittersweet experience for four 'not exactly fit' young people. 117 people in 26 teams started out with an easy walk along the feet of several mountains, followed by a hike up the narrow ridge of Mt. Hudra (where the pain began). After enjoying the wonderful panoramic scenery of Wadi Rum from the summit, it was time to descend to the oases of Ain Hudra through very slippery rocks, to say the least, and continue on through the stunningly beautiful White Canyon. This was really pretty though some of us had to hold on to each other for support since at this time our muscles were extremely sore and our mobility through the loose sand was a challenge. Christiana encouraged the team with her singing, which was partly to keep herself moving.

After surviving the first day, we were awakened at 4:30 am by Chris screaming as he jumped out the cold shower on the start of our second day. We were told it was only a couple of hours climbing to the summit of Egypt's highest mountain, Mt. Katherine, at 2640 m. What the organizers had forgotten to mention was the 5 km "warm up" walk to the base of the mountain which was made increasingly difficult with the temperature as low as 3°C and the protests from our muscles and feet.

However, once we had started the accent we forgot the pain and were left mesmerized by more breathtaking scenery made more wondrous by the morning rays of sunlight making the red granite rocks of the St Katherine Protectorate appear golden. We were following one of the trails less frequented by tourists, which was further enhanced by walking side by side with camels and rock hyrax, which seemed to find the route much easier than we did.

This whole journey was crowned with the beautiful view from the top of the mountain. Blue skies, a gentle breeze and scenery that will leave anybody speechless. The descent over the loose stones was perilous and by now our bodies had enough’ and a few old injuries resurfaced to add to the screams coming from our legs and feet! These could not dampen our spirits and Team INTEC crossed the finish line in unison proud to have taken part in a great event.

We finished 13th out of the 26 teams that participated in this event alongside other companies mainly from the oil and gas industry. The event surpassed its original goal and raised an impressive 180,000 USD, which will be used in various CARE development projects in Upper Egypt such as basic education, water sanitation and agricultural advancement for the poor communities.

Further information about the event and Care Egypt projects can be found on the CARE web page www.care.org.eg.