The subsea market is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the international oil and gas industry, involving the development and deployment of some of the most advanced technology ever created in increasingly inhospitable environments. Where once a water depth of 500 m or 1000 m was considered an industry challenge, many technologies are being designed for or can now operate at 3,000 m. And depths of 4000 m and 5000 m may not be too far away.
More shallow regions will continue to be extremely important as subsea installations migrate to deeper depths for economic and environmental reasons. More and more subsea processing benefits all offshore production where the lack or the removal of permanent structures becomes the norm and all production is tied back to floating systems or directly to shore.
The drive to place technology and equipment on the seabed as close as possible to the hydrocarbon source will continue. In the next few years, this trend could result in the emergence of production systems similar or more advanced than those coined as “subsea villages” or “subsea factories,” which may incorporate full processing capabilities. As these subsea centers continue to grow, so too does the size and scale of the systems now being considered.
Every “village” or “factory” needs chemicals, communications, information, and power. The question of how that will be delivered to these subsea centers of the future is a key factor that needs to be considered in the early stages of development. However, when the industry refers to subsea “systems,” umbilicals and cables appear to be an afterthought. Most subsea equipment suppliers and operators seem to believe these are purchasable, off-the-shelf products. Contrary to this belief, umbilicals and power cables have become increasingly more complex and require a more customized approach to design and connectivity. These products should be at the forefront of an operator’s vision when it comes to powering the future systems.
In his June 2014 JPT column, SPE President Jeff Spath wrote: “The power and the value of integration across several product lines, within a single company, could not be more evident than in subsea systems. Over time, contracting methods for subsea systems have changed from a best-in-class approach—with operators buying Christmas trees, manifolds, and controls from different suppliers and providing the integration and interface management internally—to a more likely scenario in which entire systems are being procured from a single supplier.” I could not agree more because providing products for more technically challenging systems cannot be done discretely without unacceptable cost escalation.
“Connection” may be a buzzword in the subsea industry, but focus should be placed on the present and future challenges of linking subsea assets to an integrated system. There seems to be a disconnect between the companies that develop and make these incredibly advanced technologies and those that provide the very products that allow them to operate.
System engineering needs to view the entire system as a horizontal and vertically integrated scope of work. In the industry, the seeming premise is that companies in the subsea manufacturing sector are moving ahead with highly developed technologies without fully considering the systemic integration of the most critical link: umbilicals and cables. When the system is nearing the advanced stages of completion, it is assumed that the umbilical and cable providers will have independently developed the appropriate products and have them readily available. It is often not the case and will definitely remain unchanged in the near future.
The umbilicals and cables of today have evolved into extremely complex engineered products for the transportation of a range of items including fiber optics, control cables, high-voltage power, high-pressure hydraulics, and aggressive production chemicals. It is axiomatic that more umbilicals and cables are custom-engineered with a multiplicity of components for unique system requirements. Oil and gas operators are spending billions of dollars on subsea systems and must maintain uptimes of 24/7/365 for 25 years. Umbilicals and cables being designed for these systems can have lead times of 1 year to 2 years and demand enormous amounts of testing and qualification. Without them, the subsea system will not operate and the economic loss to the operator is obvious. This must be factored in for current and future system designs.
Some of today’s systems are being designed to last up to 50 years in 3000 m of seawater and virtually all of them require suitably robust and appropriate umbilicals and cables to support them. Unique conditions, local regulations, a range of depths and the operator’s own personal preferences can all come into play when the decision is made on the type of products to be deployed. Flexibility, fast response, and the ability to deliver the appropriate solutions for projects with their own unique challenges are the essential requirements of today’s subsea service providers. The days of a service company presenting operators with prepackaged products that can be bolted together and called a system are dwindling. This model presents the highest cost in a time when costs should be optimized wherever possible. In addition, as unheralded hostile operating environments become common, increasing costs to first production squeeze profit margins, environmental liabilities loom in the background with increased governmental involvement, and accessibility to the right technology at the right time becomes more difficult. Maybe the time has come to actually develop these new and vital technologies of the future with traditional system engineering principles.
The subsea industry is growing with more impressive systems being designed to take as much technology as possible to the seabed. This drive toward bigger and deeper is determined by the economic incentives of major offshore operators as they continue their quest to find and produce large sustained production of hydrocarbons. To facilitate these developments requires a significant rethink of how the industry does things and an acceptance that what is appropriate for one project may not be appropriate for another. The phenomenon is geographical and varies from operator to operator.
Getting the most out of the systems of the future will require greater communication and collaboration between the manufacturers and the umbilical/power cable suppliers to reduce the risks of “life at the deep end.”
