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n a recent Sunday afternoon, one devoid of children running amok, I had the opportunity to do something that I rarely find myself able to do: browsing the Sunday paper at leisure while watching TV. Being that this particular Sunday was the end cap of a particularly hellish work week, I nearly changed the channel when a Discovery Channel program on subsea construction in the offshore industry came on. In retrospect, I'm happy that I did not. This particular program detailed efforts to secure a broken rig leg in the face of an approaching hurricane. Though over-dramatized -- as these programs usually are, at least to my taste -- the visual of watching a group of divers working in 150 ft. of water, trying to accurately fit and weld a piece of metal that weighed in excess of two tons, truly drove home the importance of strides made in the subsea technology industry every single day, in an effort to make subsea operations of every variety and depth more efficient, cost-effective and safe. I had the opportunity last month to investigate an innovative project now going on in the Gulf of Mexico: Tyco Telecommunication's project to connect a series of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico with its 'long haul' communication technology, the first reported use of this technology in the offshore Oil & Gas environment. The concept is simple, really, and closely mirrors consumer trends, in that we all strive for better, faster and cheaper means of communication. While I'll leave the assessment of 'better' and 'cheaper' to those that are writing the checks in this case, there is no question that physically connecting the rigs with wires will provide a communications pipeline that is unrivalled in speed or capacity by satellite or microwave means. In fact, BP is connecting an initial seven rigs -- the system can be expanded to support up to 64 rigs -- to one of its new, cutting-edge technology centers in Houston, where it will dramatically increase the number of rig monitoring and functions that can be conducted remotely. The system is touted by both companies as a boon to safety as well as the bottom line, as it will allow rigs to be shut down later and restarted sooner in the face of another hurricane.
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Vol. 50 ISSN 1559-7415 USPS# 023-276
No. 4
1 1 8 E a s t 2 5 t h S t re e t , N e w Yo r k , N Y 1 0 0 1 0 tel: (212) 477-6700; fax: (212) 254-6271
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