For CGDustDevil and Others

[Wyandot Jim]

In the Lindbergh we started talking about the past of what we did.
So I thought I would show Pete how his stuff got installed and used.
I'm sure it is probably boring to most. I didn't want to clutter up the great thread about Lindbergh.
Jim

Pete,
This was the last major project I did with McDermott in 1987 that used Solar Turbines eight total. It is a gas compressor platform for Mobil Oil in Nigeria.
This is what your stuff got used for
As you can see there are four exhaust stacks. The ones on the right are for generation and have waste heat recovery on them. This was to heat the Glycol for the Glycol regeneration recovery system which removes the water from the gas which is used for fuel gas. This platform also had four compressors on the other side of the deck. Six in total for gas compression. Starting form low press. intermediate press. to high pressure. All of the gas was reinjected into the oil zone for gas lift. Makes the oil flow.
My job was to size the platform, locate all of the required equipment, oversee the piping systems, and make sure the equipment could be maintained. During construction I also did the final inspection of the systems.
This was the first platform produced that was what is called a Float Over. It did not require a barge mounted crane to pick it up and lower it onto a jacket (the part that is anchored to the ocean floor)
Anyway I thought you might like to see what your stuff was used for other than just onshore generation.
Yea I did win an award for design of this facility. No money just a piece of paper
You can also see the Quarters platform in the background which will be Bridge connected to this platform.

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[CGDustDevil]

Jim,

Yeah! I'm real familiar with these sorts of rigs in fact. Although not that one in particular obviously! Did they use single-bodied compressor packages or tandem/Triple-Tandem units? (Triple tandems were common for these sorts of reinjection applications back in those days)

That's a darned good looking rig! I did some offshore duty back in the late 80s through the mid 90s... Shell used to operate a platform (Elly/Ellen) off Long Beach that had 8 turbines. (2 Mars Gensets no heat recover, 3 Centaur gensets with HRS and 3 Saturn Waterflood units driving Bingham pumps)

This was Elly/Ellen, commonly known as "Beta Platform" in the old days. It's been sold a half dozen times since it looked this good! Production platform on the left (Elly) and the drilling, bunks and offices on the right (Ellen). You can see the 3 Saturn waterflood unit stacks on the right side of the Elly. The big room in the center is where the Mars engines live. Lordy I've spent a LOT of hours on that contraption! Getting onto the thing was a joy... The boat backed up to the bottom of Elly (lower right) and we'd swing over on a rope. Always a challenge in rough seas! But hell I was young and bulletproof in those days.

The platform to the west was a Unocal rig that's gone now I think. We also had rigs up in the Santa Barbara Channel that used to be Chevron, but like everyone else, they've been sold over & over again.

Last accounts, Elly was still in production, but they were running on a shoestring budget. With oil in the tank, I'd be surprised if they could keep it on line at 30-40 bucks a barrel for oil or where ever it's at these days.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

The boat backed up to the bottom of Elly (lower right) and we'd swing over on a rope. Always a challenge in rough seas! But hell I was young and bulletproof in those days.

Pete,
I NEVER had to use the swing ropes on the boat landing. We used the deck crane with the doughnut/ring with netting to hang on to. After you do it once it isn't to scary. You just have to judge the rise and fall of the swells when you get on the boat. Riding the helo is a lot more fun fer sure. Rode one every day for a couple of months while in Nigeria.

The tandem/two stage I think is what we used on Expe. We took the low pressure Off Gas and boosted the pressure enough for gas lift. Can't remember what the final discharge pressure was 2500# ANSI maybe. In the picture the two existing platforms are the well head/drilling platform also used for the helo deck and the other one has a quarters and the production equipment on it.
Mobil did things a little different with their platforms. Since there were several close to shore and in 150-200' water they did the water oil separation on shore rather than on the production platforms. They only did gas separation and in the 80s most of it was vented to atmos. Now they gather it and reinject or produce NGL with expander compressors/cold process.
I spent some time up the coast from your picture. EXXON Hondo platform off the coast of Santa Barbara. At the time we installed that jacket it set a record for deep water fixed jacket installation. It was a two piece and went into around 850' water depth. I think this was mid/late 70s. I went there in early 80s to add three pipeline booster pumps.

Take care,
Jim

Hondo

 

[CGDustDevil]

Jim,

The picture of Hondo is familiar! I never was on it but I saw it often enough. I preferred the rope actually... I watched as the crane dropped a basket of equipment into the BBTB (Big Blue Tool Box) and told Charlie the boat captain: "Just back this puppy up to the rope and I'll go over the easy way!" As you said... Timing is everything. And if you don't get the swing just right you could find yourself hanging around waiting for the boat to come and try to break your legs!

I took the chopper out a few times, but really preferred the boat. In the AF, we used to call helicopters "loosely associated clusters of aircraft parts flying in close formation...". After my old buddy Carlo Palermo went into the drink on takeoff some good years ago, I decided I wouldn't be doing that anymore. Carlo got out before the aircraft sank, but a couple didn't as I recall. That was the end of Carlo's career too since it collapsed his back when it hit the water. But he was a cool character under fire and knew just how to get out.

 

[Diamondtreo]

I was born (1949) & raised in Santa Barbara & I remember back in 1957, when the first oil platform was installed in the Santa Barbara Channel.... It was sold to the public as a boon to the local economy. HA! After the spill in 1969, the locals started up GOO! (Get Oil Out!), forgetting that oil and tar had been washing up on the "pristine" beaches for centuries.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

I was born (1949) & raised in Santa Barbara & I remember back in 1957, when the first oil platform was installed in the Santa Barbara Channel.... It was sold to the public as a boon to the local economy. HA! After the spill in 1969, the locals started up GOO! (Get Oil Out!), forgetting that oil and tar had been washing up on the "pristine" beaches for centuries.

Yep A lot of crazy stuff took place around Santa Barbara and still is.
Yep they just don't understand the history of the area. I guess it is OK to buy oil from Texas But we don't want to produce any here. I could go on and on about the facilities we wanted to design in that area. Well we didn't. Might be why they have a production ship off the coast for Hondo Oil.

 

[CGDustDevil]

Talking about helicopters vrs swinging from the rope.

It's easy in calm seas!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGnt2P2ZDKY

Not quite as calm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGgpEsyOw9M

Here's a real lucky one! This is similar to the accident down in the gulf that retired some Solar reps... Only they kept this one out of the pond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CChyoNZrBfI


An ugly helocopter crash while erecting a tower. This exemplifies the 'loosely associated cluster' theory quite well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5aMT9MBfZI

 

[Colonialgirl]

I was born (1949) & raised in Santa Barbara & I remember back in 1957, when the first oil platform was installed in the Santa Barbara Channel.... It was sold to the public as a boon to the local economy. HA! After the spill in 1969, the locals started up GOO! (Get Oil Out!), forgetting that oil and tar had been washing up on the "pristine" beaches for centuries.

Santa Barbara USE to be called COAL OIL POINT back in the good old days thanks to all the oil and tar washing up on the beaches from leaks off shore.

 

[exavid]

I used to charter helicopters often in SE Alaska to get to FAA mountain top VHF repeaters. I always suspected those things really couldn't fly. Turned out I was right, they just beat the air into submission. I was also surprised the my Super Cub could carry more ice than a Hughes 500 can on its rotors. The pilot and I sat in a clearing in the woods near Hawk Inlet for a couple hours until conditions changed. Once flying a DeHavilland Beaver I thought I knew vibration when one propeller blade threw some ice and the other didn't. Nope, helicopters are in a world of their own with vibes.