The annual Subsea Tieback (SSTB) Forum & Exhibition returns to San Antonio Feb. 22-24, 2011, at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center. More than 3,000 attendees and 150 exhibitors are expected at this year’s conference.
This year’s theme, “The Pressure Is On,” reflects the growing focus on improving the quality, safety, and economics of the subsea tieback industry.
The conference Advisory Board once again has put together a program of two days of key presentations by industry leaders.
As in the past, only by participating in this conference will attendees be able to receive its benefits, as proceedings will not be published and no media is allowed in the conference area. Subsea Tieback is presented as a closed forum to encourage free and open discussion for the most benefit of all attendees.
Key Elements Seminar
Tuesday, Feb. 22, will feature a one-day seminar sponsored by Aker Solutions on “Key Elements of Subsea Tiebacks (SURF)” to be conducted under the auspices of the Society of Underwater Technology. There is a separate cost to attend this seminar. The day-long event has four sessions plus an update on intelligent well interface standards. Session 1 schedules Bill Donlon, BHP Billiton, to set the scene with a deepwater activity forecast, facts and figures regarding tiebacks, issues and key components, as well as sample layouts. He will be followed by Tom Kelly, FMC Technologies, who will discuss system considerations, subsea completions, control systems, manifolds and tie-ins, and installation and workovers. In Session 3, umbilicals, risers, and flowlines will be the topics for Chuck Horn of Technip. He will be followed by Cory Loegering of Mariner Energy to discuss production handling agreements. After that, Don Schlater, SUT, will talk about intelligent well interface standards and is scheduled to end with questions and answers.
The Opening Plenary Session, starting at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 23, will begin with a welcome and introduction by Eldon Ball, Conference Director, US Offshore Group, and Senior Editor, Technology & Economics, forOffshore magazine.
He will be followed by Richard Case, W&T Offshore and Chairman of this year’s Subsea Tieback Forum.
Stephen L. Schroeder, Senior Vice President and COO–W&T Offshore, Inc., will deliver the keynote presentation. Schroeder joined W&T Offshore in 1998 as a Staff Reservoir Engineer. A leader in W&T’s growth to the public company it is today, he held positions of increasing responsibility, including Production Manager and Vice President of Production before becoming the COO in July 2006. Prior to joining W&T, Schroeder was with Exxon USA for 12 years, serving successively as an Offshore Division reservoir engineer; financial analyst conducting deepwater profitability studies; team leader evaluating company reserves, gas plants and operating expenses; and an acquisition engineer responsible for acquisition and divestiture evaluations.
A few session highlights
Session 1, Artificial Lift: Testing & Qualification, begins with a presentation on “Full Scale Testing of a Subsea Boosting System at Prototype Facility” by Charles Deuel & Jim Hale of Shell. The presentation will discuss the challenges and learnings of testing a full scale subsea separation and boosting system prior to use on Parque Das Conchas and Perdido. Charles Deuel is a senior process and flow assurance engineer at Shell Upstream Major Projects – Americas. He has worked on projects such as Llano, Habanero, Ursa Princess waterflood, and Parque das Conchas. Jim Hale has 29 years of deepwater experience in the oil and gas industry. He has spent the last 12 years with Shell and the previous 17 with Brown & Root. Hale is currently Shell’s deepwater Gulf of Mexico surface lead for opportunities in Selectphase and earlier.
Their presentation will be followed by Chris McMillan of Chevron, who will speak on “Applying New Pump Technology on the Jack & St. Malo Project.”
He will be followed by Alexander Hague of Petrobras America, speaking on the “Petrobras Cascade and Chinook Pump System Design and Development.” The presentation will cover the early concept of this pump system design through the detailed development, qualification and system integration testing. Hague has worked for 13 years in the oilfield industry after graduating with a Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Houston. Currently he is working as the Pump Systems Lead Engineer for the Petrobras Cascade and Chinook Field Development.
Session 2, Project Learnings, will begin with a presentation on “Field Performance of a Caisson/ESP Subsea Separation and Boosting System” by Wade Schoppa of Shell. It will include an overview of the subsea separation and boosting system at Parque das Conchas (BC-10), including assessment of subsea processing performance with field data. Dr. Wade Schoppa is a senior staff flow assurance engineer at Shell Upstream Major Projects-Americas. He serves as the flow assurance technical authority for deepwater projects in Shell-Americas, including Europa, Angus, Nakika, Parque das Conchas (BC-10), and Perdido.
His presentation will be followed by a discussion of “Pyreness Development & MPFM Remediation Effort,” presented by Karl Schnakenburg, of BHP Billiton.
He will be followed by Jim Burk, of BP America, who will present on “Subsea Challenges – Thunder Horse HP/HT Systems – Umbilicals, Flowlines, Manifolds Risers, and General Subsea Equipment.” The presentation will give an overview of the material challenges for delivery of a HPHT subsea system in ~ 5,000 ft water depths with a 15,000 psi rate wellhead and tree system. To successfully deliver the system equipment, many subsea components required materials that needed to perform on the edge of current technologies. The 8-year effort to develop and deliver these materials will be reviewed and key points will be discussed to enable this subsea leading materials technology.
The conference ends with the Recognition Awards & Chairman’s Closing Remarks by Conference Chairman Richard Case. For more of the latest in information and schedule updates, or to register for the event, go online tohttp://www.subseatiebackforum.com.
