Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 1996)

ship boatbuilcling tech 110Iogy

Vast opportunities for Gulf Coast (Continued, from page 35) west of New Orleans. This project is scheduled for completion in 1998.

According to Mr. Covington of

Texas Drydock, semi-submersible and drillship conversions are underway or planned for 1996/97 for Diamond Offshore, Reading &

Bates, Sedco-Forex, Sonat, Global

Marine and Noble Drilling, along with several other semi-sub- mersible contracts being consid- ered. TDI's current backlog includes: three semi-submersible and one jackup conversion for

Diamond Offshore; two jackup con- versions for Noble Drilling; one jackup conversion and one jackup refurbishment for Ensco Drilling; and one jack-up refurbishment for

Cliffs Drilling. Mr. Covington added that numerous other conver- sions for both ships and semis are planned, but have not yet reached the contracting stage.

All Well At Shell

Shell Oil Company has finalized development plans for Ursa — its $1.45-billion deepwater project.

Ursa — which will be developed with a TLP in approximately 4,000 ft. (1,219.2 m) of water — is expect- ed to achieve record deepwater production rates of 150,000 barrels of oil and 400 million-cu.-ft. of nat- ural gas per day. Ultimate recov- ery from Ursa is estimated at approximately 400 million barrels of oil and gas equivalent. "Ursa is another important advancement in the evolution of deepwater development," said

Rich Pattarozzi, general manag- er of Shell Offshore Inc.,

Deepwater division. "The platform will be the largest structure in the

Gulf of Mexico, and its individual wells are expected to produce at rates not thought possible just a few years ago."

Ursa's current development plans include as many as 14 wells, some reportedly producing with initial rates of up to 30,000 barrels of oil per day. The highest individ- ual well rate achieved to date is approximately 13,000 barrels per day at Shell's Auger project in the

Gulf.

Regulatory Hang-ups

Despite all the offshore activity taking place and planned in the

Gulf, legislative obstacles must be overcome. "A lot of the industry is waiting for there to be a definition of what an offshore supply boat is when you relate it to the

International Tonnage Conven- tion," said Charles Burrell, sales manager at Leevac Shipyard Inc.

Currently, all vessels built today, intended to be used in internation- al markets either now or in the future, need to be built to meet all international regulations (includ- ing SOLAS). But as U.S. manning requirement regulations of today read, if a vessel is more than 500 gt, it is no longer a supply boat.

Thus, the problem arises that a typical supply boat of less than 500 gt domestic may be 13,000 to 18,000 gt international. According to Mr. Burrell, this, in effect, forces builders to add tonnage steel which does nothing but cost money, in order to meet domestic tonnage requirements.

Bob Alario of Offshore Marine

Service expanded on this legisla- tive debate: "The problem is that recent ratification of the interna- tional tonnage convention has cre- ated a dilemma in that we have to comply with an International

Tonnage System, but there is no domestic requirement to corre- spond. The international stan- dards (effective 1994) and domestic laws and regulations are not com- patible. "We need to harmonize the two through the U.S. Coast Guard

Authorization Bill which is presently stalled in service. We need this bill passed in order to set up alternate tonnage measure- ments for offshore vessels without confusion with respect to building and manning the vessels. "Right now we are in a twilight zone where we can not make busi- ness judgments with respect to which rules and statutory roots determine what a vessel can be, should be, and will be.

Considerable amounts of construc- tion are being held up because you need to be two contradicting things," said Mr. Alario. At press time, Mr. Alario was hopeful that before its August recess, Congress would take action and pass the provisions needed in order to design and construct the offshore vessels of the future.

While definitive questions in the market remain, industry leaders agree on a positive future for the offshore market in the Gulf of

Mexico. "As to the future, we take our cue from the drilling contrac- tors who, at this time, are highly optimistic. It is obvious that unless they (industry leaders) have totally misjudged the future mar- ket, they are not investing hun- dreds of millions of dollars based on short-term prosperty," said Mr.

Covington. According to Mr.

Charbonnet, with world con- sumption of oil increasing at the rate it is, the industry must contin- ue to find large produceable sources to meet the demand.

There will be a lot of activity just completing the current work in progress, as well as the recent announcements of deepwater dis- coveries in the Gulf. Mr. Husta offered a positive summation of the market's future: "I personally believe that this level of activity will be sustained for a while.

There are a significant number of offshore blocks which have yet to be worked. The level of seismic survey activity indicates that there should be a continued effort to hit 'pay' in the Gulf of Mexico over the near term." then check out ours.

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