Lecture 5.2

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CRICOS Provider No. 00126G copyright © The University of Western Australia
BL Oil & Gas History, Economics and Geopolitics OENA8433

Lecture 5.2: Historical Overview Oil & Gas Industry Technology – Brown & Root
Dr. Karin Oerlemans
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Unit Overview
Topic 1: Introduction – The Founders
Topic 2: The Global Struggle
Topic 3: War and Strategy
Topic 4: Oil and Gas Economics
Topic 5: Oil and Gas Technology in context
Lecture 1: Technological History of the Oil & Gas Industry
Lecture 2: Brown & Root
Lecture 3: North Sea Oil – a study of technology in action
Lecture 4: The Middle East – a Geopolitical case study
Lecture 5: Western Australian Oil and Gas – WAPET
Topic 6: The Energy Industry Today
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Lecture Outcomes
Upon successful completion of these two lectures you should be
able to:
Understand the significant development made in offshore
technology over the last 150 years
Begin to grasp the major changes in the offshore industry
Gain an overall perspective of oil and gas technological change
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Recommended Reading
Pratt, J., Priest, T. & Castaneda, C. (1997). Offshore pioneers,
Brown & Root and the history of offshore oil and gas. Houston:
Gulf Publishing Company.
http://www.offshore-
mag.com/articles/save_screen.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=307364
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1897
First hole drilled from wharf
Summerland, California
Really just an extension of onshore production
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3
Lecture Structure
Introduction
Before the dawn
Beyond the horizon
Maturing
New sophistication
Deepwater
And beyond
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Introduction
Offshore structures
Brown and Root
1997
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4
Introduction
Brown and Root
Houston based engineering and construction firm
Kermac GOM
Nov 14, 1947
Beyond the sight of land
43 m South of Morgan City Louisiana
Offshore production of oil
1947 – negligible
1974 – 14% of world production
1996 – 33%
Offshore production of gas
1996 – 25% of world production
Not the only company!

Initially GOM
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Introduction
Innovation
Gradual
Trial and error
Close working relationship between engineers, fabricators &
construction crews
Radical change – computer assisted design and mobile drilling
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5
Introduction
Challenges
Environmental
Wind
Waves
Weather
Soil movements
Earthquakes
Ice
Deepwater
Economic
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Introduction
Equipment
Environmental
Available
Factors
Derrick barges,
Waves, Wind,
pipelay barges,
Quakes, Ice,
design tech
Depth
(comps)
Economic Costs
Price of Oil/Gas
Construction
costs
Design Process, courtesy of University of Houston Media Services

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6
Before the Dawn
Brown & Root – road building company, Texas
Herman and George Brown & Dan Root
Late 1910’s
Moved offices to Houston, 1926
During the depression did any work – including move garbage
1936 won the contract to construct Marshall Ford Dam on
Colorado River
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Before the Dawn

1928 – submarine used to
survey parts of the GOM
1933 – 1st geological survey of
Galveston Bay using the torsion
balance system
Higher costs of production for

offshore – but two companies
Humble (Standard Oil of NJ)
and Pure became offshore
pioneers with Brown & Root
B&R Had prepared drill sites

and build roads to oil fields
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Before the Dawn
Drilled from:
Platforms (such as at Summerland) made from wood
Drills on tender vessels
Drilling barges
Submersible barges resting on “mats” constructed from oyster
shells
Finally, drove piles for an offshore platform – adapted from bridge
building techniques
Built a 50ft two pile trestle to tie the drilling barge to
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Before the Dawn

1936 laid the first submarine pipeline, welded on shore, from the
offshore tank to onshore facilities
Developed a machine for burying pipeline using high pressure jets to

dig the sea bottom from under the pipe to create a trench
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Before the Dawn
But little oil found so turned attention to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM)
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Before the Dawn

McFadden Beach –
Trestles approximately 1 mile from shore,
Separate drilling platform – 50 by 90 ft
Cost of $38,000
Train track carried equipment and supplies and boat serviced the
platform from the pier
Plank road on the beach to the trestle
Hundreds of wooden piles used
Water 18ft deep
Again similar to California and Baku
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Before the Dawn
Problems:
Wood structurally weak
Not driven deeply enough into the ocean
Vulnerable to ocean borers
Hurricane! 1938
Not enough oil – economic decision: shut it down
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Before the Dawn

1937 One further attempt for Pure
Oil
Wooden platform in the Creole field
– one mile out
Utilised techniques developed in the
swamplands
Had to last 20 years
Build a large system of platforms
supported by 300 creosoted wooden
piles made from pine 11 inches in
diameter
Platform to be 180 by 320 ft
Derrick
Drilling mud
Pipe racks
Water tanks
Power supply
No crew quarters
15ft water
Artificial island
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Before the Dawn
Changes along the way!
Diesel electric rig instead of steam powered rig – smaller hole for
exploratory wells
Hurricane knocked out the smaller piles – so drove in some more
larger ones
Directional drilling experimented with from central platform to
reduce cost! Reached out in a circle to cover 300 acres
Overall cost about $70,000
Core samples of soil taken
Experimented with weight bearing capacities of the wooden piles
Calculated the benefits of round piles compared to flat ones
(resistance – drag – in the waves)
Designed platform to withstand 150mph winds and decks 12-15 feet
above the mean sea level
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Before the Dawn

Difficulties
No crew quarters
Workers carried to and fro in boats – 10m trip more than 1 hour
Many lost days – no crew to the platform
No communications between platform and land crews
Eventually about $150,000 invested in the eleven wells

Produced almost 2000 b/d
Total of 4 m barrels
March 18, 1938
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Beyond the Horizon
After war steel shortages constrained the growth of the industry
Fighting between states and federal US govt over the ownership of offshore
lands
Settled in Tidelands Act of 1953 – established a legal framework for shared
control. Feds had authority beyond a given distance from the shores – 3 miles
During the war B&R moved into boat building for the Navy
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Beyond the Horizon

After war Brown & Root built roads, dams, military installations,
petroleum and chemical plants, industrial facilities, onshore
pipelines, offshore oil and gas platforms and pipelines
1946 - $6m in assets
Became on of the largest contractors
Led investors in the purchase for the Big Inch and Little Big
Inch pipes – converted these from oil to gas for the growing
domestic market
Need for new sources – back to the oceans and the GOM
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12
Beyond the Horizon
Challenges of the GOM:
Hurricanes
June to November
Harsh winds
High waves
No systematic data
Decks needed to be high (more than 20ft)
Soil conditions unknown and varied
Mudslides!
Stick building technique costly in wood and short term – replaced by
steel, diameter? Offshore or onshore fabrication?
Giant barges needed to lift heavy loads at see and large hammers
for pile driving
WW2 materials shortages
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Beyond the Horizon

Three approaches
Small platforms with tender vessels
Larger self-contained platforms
Mobile drilling vessels for exploration combined with permanent
platforms if large reservoirs found
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13
Beyond the Horizon
Kermac 16 – 1st offshore well!
$10,000 lease
10.5 miles offshore
$200k-$300k
38 x 71ft platform
16 steel pilings 24 inch diameter
140 ft long – 104ft into ocean floor
Main drilling deck 38 x 58 ft
Derrick, rotary table, shale shaker,
drilling engines, bay tank, small mud
tank and auxiliary mud pump
Tender barge (260 x 48ft) held
everything else
Mud pits and pumps, dry mud,
cement and chemicals, pipe racks,
logging equipment, fuel, drilling
water and quarters for 40 workers
Problems …
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Beyond the Horizon

Other firsts:
Magnolia Petroleum Company built self contained platform in may
1946 – though not ‘out of sight of land”
Combined wood and steel in construction
77 x 173 ft platform
20ft above water
But no oil!
Grand Isle Block 18

Cost $1.23 m
6 m offshore
45 feet of water
Dual platform construction 48 ft above see
Included living quarters on the platform
Used only steel
Templates prefabricated onshore
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Beyond the Horizon
Jackets
Prefabricated templates for the base of the platform
Vertical sections made of tubular steel members, and piled into the
seabed
Developed by Ray McDermott
Strengthened offshore platforms
Easier installation
Lower cost
Stronger underwater bracing
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Beyond the Horizon

1950
First application of wave force studies
Morrison
Morrison’s formula, the wave force acting on the cylinder can be expressed as
0 0
FT = ∫ dFD + ∫ dFl
−l −l
where
uu
dFD = CD ρD dz ,
2
πD du
2
dFI = C M ρ dz
4 dt
in which D is the diameter of the cylinder, l the submerged length of the cylinder, C M the
inertia or the mass coefficient, and CD the drag coefficient.
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Beyond the Horizon
Drilling barge
Submersible
Used for exploratory drilling
Mobile drilling – saved huge costs especially for dry holes!
Converted war ships
With a 50 ton crane
1953 drill 27 miles of the coast to 45 ft depths
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Maturing
Submersibles
Jack-up rigs (early ones capsized)
Solved by attaching mats or large diameter spud cans to the end of
the leg
To address greater bending stresses on legs in deeper water used
open fabricated legs
Most common used LeTourneau's design and increased depth
capabilities to 150 ft
Then 1960 250 feet
First offshore
submersible barge
Breton Sound 20
John Hayward
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Maturing
Pipe laying barges
Developed by Brown and Root
Use of a Stinger to prevent
bending
1954 first truly offshore pipeline
– 10 inch diameter concrete
coated line 10 miles to the
shore
Gas
Water depths 14-30ft
1955 48 mile 12 inch pipe 40ft

deep
1957 60 miles of 26 inch pipe …
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Sophistication
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17
Sophistication
1960s expansion
Takeover by Halliburton – but
maintain independence
New computer aided design
Reduced economic costs – no more
guess work
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Sophistication
1962 Divers reach 285 ft depth

US Gulf
Ketchman
1967 600ft
1962 First commercial reel pipelay

vessel launched
U-303
Many technological innovations

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18
Sophistication
Price of Oil still only $2-3 a barrel

Technological innovation had to facilitate this expansion
Deeper water
Harsher conditions
Economies of scale
15 wells per platform
Longer larger pipelines (3000ft – 48 inches)
More sophisticated lay barges, derrick barges, diving chambers
New pipe laying vessels
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Deepwater
1973 Oil Embargo by OPEC increased cost of oil to $17 and
then $22 a barrel
1973-1984 major achievements in deepwater development

1962 platform in 209 feet
1967 285 feet
1973 362 feet
1979 708 feet
Jackets evolved to meet changing demands

Environmental loading
Foundation conditions
Stresses on tubular joints
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19
Deepwater
Brown and Root opened new fabrication yard
300 acres
500 skilled workers
20 cranes
2 Manitowoc 6000 cranes – capable of 500 ton lifts
Handle single section jackets 1000 ft in length
Chevron’s Garden Banks – 708 ft, 12,000-ton steel jacket launched in 1979 with
a base of 180 by 300 ft
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Deepwater
Exxon’s Lena – Guyed Tower
Design a structure that oscillated so slowly that waves moved past
before it had time to respond?
2 types
Buoyant tethered or tension leg
Or guyed tower – slender steel tower held uprights by a radial array
of anchor cables or guy lines
Guy lines would support the tower in response to environmental
forces
Eliminate need for large foundation on ocean floor
Lighter then conventional jacket
Effective in the 1000 to 2000 ft range
$420m in 1981
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Deepwater
One of a kind
Tension leg platforms
Compliant towers
Subsea systems
More practical and cost effective
1985 bubble of oil prices burst
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Beyond
Oil Floating Production Systems

Source: http://www.oilpubs.com/v_catalog/print.asp?orderdetail=99
First concrete-hull TLP

Heidrun Norwegian North Sea, Conoco 42
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Beyond
1997
Production exceeds 5,000 ft water
depth
Shell
Mensa
1999
First 10,000psi subsea Christmas
Tree
Schlumberger on Texaco’s Gemini
field
3,400ft
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Twenty First Century

2001
Drilling Water Depth 9,687ft
First 15,000psi subsea Christmas
Tree
TOPS Gyrfalcon field in Green
Canyon
Block 20
Gulf of Mexico
USA
2004
3rd Generation Cell Spar
7200t in 5,300 feet of water
Garden Banks
Kerr-McGee
Red Hawk
Production Water Depth 7,600ft
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Twenty First Century
2008 – Deepest offshore well
GOM
9,356 feet, or 1.77 miles
http://energybloggers.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/perdido.png
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In Summary
This overview of technological advances looked at offshore
structures
Brown and Root as the starting point
Many other companies
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Lecture Conclusion
This is the end of lecture 2, topic 5
You may now progress to Lecture 3, Topic 5
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1

CRICOS Provider No. 00126G copyright © The University of Western Australia

BL Oil & Gas History, Economics and Geopolitics OENA8433

Dr. Karin Oerlemans

CRICOS Provider No. 00126G copyright © The University of Western Australia

 Not the only company!

 Radical change – computer assisted design and mobile drilling

Design Process, courtesy of University of Houston Media Services

Before the Dawn

 Higher costs of production for

 B&R Had prepared drill sites

Before the Dawn

 Developed a machine for burying pipeline using high pressure jets to

Before the Dawn

 Again similar to California and Baku

Before the Dawn

Before the Dawn

 Eventually about $150,000 invested in the eleven wells

 March 18, 1938

Beyond the Horizon

Beyond the Horizon

Beyond the Horizon

 Grand Isle Block 18

Beyond the Horizon

 1953 drill 27 miles of the coast to 45 ft depths

 1955 48 mile 12 inch pipe 40ft

 1957 60 miles of 26 inch pipe …

 1962 Divers reach 285 ft depth

 1962 First commercial reel pipelay

 Many technological innovations

 Price of Oil still only $2-3 a barrel

 1973-1984 major achievements in deepwater development

 Jackets evolved to meet changing demands

Oil Floating Production Systems

First concrete-hull TLP

Twenty First Century

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Not the only company!

Radical change – computer assisted design and mobile drilling

Higher costs of production for

B&R Had prepared drill sites

Developed a machine for burying pipeline using high pressure jets to

Again similar to California and Baku

Eventually about $150,000 invested in the eleven wells

March 18, 1938

Grand Isle Block 18

1953 drill 27 miles of the coast to 45 ft depths

1955 48 mile 12 inch pipe 40ft

1957 60 miles of 26 inch pipe …

1962 Divers reach 285 ft depth

1962 First commercial reel pipelay

Many technological innovations

Price of Oil still only $2-3 a barrel

1973-1984 major achievements in deepwater development

Jackets evolved to meet changing demands