working offshore - Frequently Asked Questions
What is the offshore industry?
The UK offshore oil and gas industry is Britain's greatest industrial success story in
the last 50 years.
Offshore oil and gas provide energy and essential chemicals for our transport, industry
and homes, and earn valuable tax and export revenues to support the British economy. The
figures tell their own story. The UK offshore oil and gas industry:
- provides ¾ of the UK's primary energy
- provides employment for 260,000 people
- has invested £150 billion over the last 25 years
- has paid £150 billion in taxes since the 1970s
- adds £4 billion a year to balance of payments
- accounts for one-fifth of UK annual investment
Britain has been self-sufficient in oil and gas for some 20 years. Today new
technology is employed to reduce the cost of finding and producing oil and gas, to give
the fields a longer productive life.
On current forecasts Britain can expect to remain a major producer of oil for
at least another 10
years, and self-sufficient in gas well into the next century. Over the next 25 years, the
industry expects to make 130 new discoveries, and 240 new developments.
The UK offshore industry is located mainly off the east coast of Scotland and England,
but fields have also been developed in the Irish Sea, west of the Shetland Islands, and in
the English Channel. About 18,000 people work offshore on a regular basis on fixed
production platforms, mobile drilling rigs, or floating production storage and offloading
units (FPSOs).
Who employs people offshore?
Different types of company employ people offshore:
- Operating companies hold the exploration
and production licences and operate the production facilities. Some of them are household
names, but others are less well known. Most of them are international companies, working
in many different parts of the world.
- Drilling companies are contracted to
undertake the drilling work, and often operate and maintain their own mobile drilling
rigs. Like the operating companies, they tend to work globally.
- Major contractors provide integrated
operations and maintenance services to the operating companies. On some installations they
employ almost all the regular offshore personnel (the 'core crew'). Some of these
contractors are huge international companies, while others are small by comparison.
- FPSO operators operate and maintain
floating production storage and offloading units. These look like ships, but are designed
to remain on station for months or even years on end, and are packed with equipment for
processing oil and gas.
- Service companies provide specialist
assistance to both operating and drilling companies, e.g. well service firms, drilling mud
suppliers, cementing companies, well testing specialists, seismic firms, divers, caterers
etc.
What are offshore installations?
Oil and gas offshore installations are industrial towns at sea,
carrying the personnel and equipment needed to access reservoirs thousands of feet below
the seabed, and maintain continuous hydrocarbon production. The most important functions
are drilling, preparing water or gas for injection into the reservoir, processing the oil
and gas before sending it ashore, and cleaning the produced water for disposal into the
sea.
Big fixed platforms may have all these functions in one location, but
smaller platforms may be dedicated to just one function, such as drilling or gas
compression. Some installations can be moved from one location to another, for example
mobile drilling rigs and production FPSOs.
What actually happens offshore?
The popular image of offshore work often centres on a muddy drill floor, where wells
are drilled to target the reservoirs of oil and gas below the surface - but this is only
the beginning of the story.
The top end of each production well sprouts a branching series of pipes, gauges and
valves called the 'Christmas tree'. At this point, crude oil is a hot, frothy, corrosive,
high-pressure fluid containing gas, water and sand.
After separation, the crude oil is metered and pumped into the pipeline, or stored
until sent ashore by tanker.
The gas separated from the oil may be used for fuel, or compressed and piped to shore
or re-injected into the reservoir. Any gas that cannot be used is burnt in the platform's
flare. Very little gas is now flared.
Processing systems for the gasfields of the southern North Sea are relatively simple.
The gas liquids are removed, then the gas is compressed, cooled, dehydrated and metered
before being piped to shore.
All production and drilling systems have to be monitored constantly for leaks, since
oil and gas are hazardous and extremely flammable.
There is no mains electricity offshore! Power has to be generated on the installation
to drive production and drilling equipment, and to support life.
In other words, offshore installations are packed with complex equipment and systems
that need to be operated and maintained carefully by highly skilled people who understand
the technology and the processes involved, and who can work together in integrated teams.
What do offshore technicians do?
Technicians form the core of the shift teams on offshore production and processing
facilities. They operate and maintain production systems, unsupervised and with a high
degree of competence.
They need to understand not just what is happening within a piece of equipment, but
also how that equipment affects the working of the overall system - and the effect it has
on other related systems.
They need good diagnostic skills to be able to troubleshoot problems. They also need to
plan work carefully, communicate effectively with their colleagues, and use information
systems both as a source of data and to record what has happened.
- Production operations involve the
management of hydrocarbons (oil & gas) from the reservoir to the initial customer.
This means producing, processing and delivering the correct quantity and quality of
product, and ensuring that all the production systems are operating in the most efficient
way. The total production system can be divided into four distinct subsystems: wells,
process facilities, utilities (such as water supplies and power), and storage and sales
metering.
- Process technicians start up, control,
monitor, and shut down these subsystems to maintain safe operations and achieve production
targets. Process technicians who are assessed as competent in all the subsystems on a
platform may progress to work as control room technicians, controlling
the overall production process via computerised distributed control systems.
- Maintenance technicians keep all the
equipment and systems in good repair and running order. They monitor and test the
condition of equipment, diagnose faults, carry out maintenance routines, and where
necessary dismantle and re-assemble engineering assets. Most specialise in one of three
main engineering disciplines.
- Mechanical technicians look after not just
valves, pumps and transmission systems, but also prime movers such as diesel engines and
gas turbines (similar to jet aeroplane engines).
- Electrical technicians are not like
domestic electricians; they look after high voltage power generation and distribution
systems, motors, control systems and electrical equipment specially designed for use in
hazardous areas.
- Instrument and Control technicians
calibrate and maintain measurement systems (for flow, level, pressure and temperature),
electronic and pneumatic process control systems, and fire and gas detection systems and
analysers.
What's it like working offshore?
Offshore installations vary in size, but a typical one houses a core crew of 50-100 men
and women. Living quarters are compact but comfortable. Food is good and plentiful, but
there is strictly no alcohol, and smoking is prohibited except in a few designated areas.
Off-shift, a worker can choose to work out in the gym, watch a video, play snooker,
read or learn to use a personal computer. Living with work colleagues, however, means that
an offshore worker has to be able to co-operate in a group.
Working hours are normally 12 hours on and 12 hours off continuously for two weeks
followed by a two/three week rest period ashore. So home life is very disrupted. However,
pay is good and experienced technicians can expect to earn upwards of £30,000 a year.
The minimum age for working offshore is 18, but in practice most workers are
considerably older than that. The long working day, the harsh weather conditions, the
remoteness, and the reliance on helicopter travel do not suit everyone. Others find it a
challenging but refreshing environment, quite different from the nine-to-five routine and
rush-hour commuting of many onshore jobs.
How are things organised offshore?
The Offshore Installation Manager is in charge, making sure that all operations run
smoothly and that safety standards are met. He co-ordinates the work of different groups
such as drilling, production and maintenance, and communicates progress or problems to
'the beach'.
Safety is always the principal concern in every aspect of the offshore oil and gas
industry's activities. Every offshore installation has a Safety Case setting out how the
risks will be managed. The industry is proud of its safety record over the last few years,
and offshore workers are encouraged to report any health, safety or environmental
problems.
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