Safety Challenges in the Arctic
International Conference on Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry
Trondheim, 25.09.13
Børre Johan Paaske, DNV GL
Agenda
 Defining the Arctic
 Safety and environmental risk drivers
 Opportunities for Integrated Operations in the
Arctic
Photo: US Navy
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The Arctic - A region of opportunity and interest
 Growing economic interest
 Large resources – oil and gas, minerals, fisheries
 USGS estimated that the Arctic may contain 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil (90
billion barrels of oil) and 30% of its undiscovered gas (1670 trillion cubic feet)
 Rystad energy projection (2013): The Arctic provides 3% of global petroleum in 2020,
9% in 2035
 Shell drilled first offshore well in Arctic Alaska in 1963
 Norwegian oil industry moving northwards (Snøhvit, Goliat, Johan Castberg), 72 of 86
blocks in 22 licensing round in the Barents Sea
 Russia mobilises, new LNG transportation deal between Atomflot and Novatek, new
nuclear icebreakers under construction, new tax breaks for offshore Arctic
 Rosneft, Lukoil, Novatek, Gazprom all active in Russian and Norwegian Arctic
 Majors such as ExxonMobil, Shell, Statoil, Conoco, Total gear up for Arctic competition
 Global market conditions of 2013 challenge Arctic oil and gas
 Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world - retreating ice cap and
warmer waters.
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The Arctic environment
Wind
Waves
Current
No additional
challenges
compared to
NCS
Temperature
Visibility
Marine icing
Atmospheric icing
Precipitation
Polar lows
Sea ice and icebergs
Sensitive environment
Remoteness and lack of
infrastructure
Combination of loads
Uncertainty in data
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Caution: Variations are
great – arctic is not
uniform
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Current and future activities
Subsistence living
Fisheries
Maritime transport
Petroleum (onshore and offshore)
Tourism
Extractive industries
Research
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6
Some accident experience from Arctic
 From DNVs World Offshore Accident Database the following accidents have been
found:
- Drilling unit Kulluk ran aground off Sitkalidak island in the Gulf of Alaska. It was being towed to its
winter home in Seattle when it encountered a storm, and broke loose. 2013
- 1 m3 hydraulic oil spilled from the Eirik Raude drilling rig, leak in hydraulic tube, SW Barents Sea,
2005.
- Drill ship broke loose under towing in heavy arctic seas. Ran aground on a sandbank. Alaska,
1993.
- Helicopter crashed into sea ice, partly due to ice fog that reduced visibility and hence visual
control with rig lights. Canada, 1990.
- The crew overflowed a slop tank aboard the platform, and 4620 gallons (17 m3) of crude oil spilled
onto moving ice patches. Cleaning operations was impossible due to the low temperatures and
ice, 1989.
- Damage to two anchorlines and one anchorwinch due to heavy weather. Canada, 1981.
- Ice breaker had stopped due to heavy ice. The rig ran into its stern. Canada, 1979.
- Drill ships forepeak shell plating was set in due to heavy ice, and ruptured below main sheer,
Canada/Beafourt Sea, 1973
- The rig was hit by ice floe causing 3 anchor cables to break and damage to anchor winch.
Repaired. No further information available.
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Norske
Veritas
AS. All
Slide 7
Arctic factors influencing safety and major hazard risk
 Cold and harsh climate require protection of
personnel and process equipment by enclosing the
process areas.
 Low temperature
- affects material properties and operational characteristics
of equipment, process fluids and utility fluids etc.
- cause a need for additional heating and mechanical
ventilation.
 Snow, slush, fog and icing may affect the safety
barriers, and reduce their functionality and
availability.
Sevan Hummingbird, North Sea
 Remote location for offshore activities in the Arctic,
long periods of darkness, and cold climate cause
evacuation and rescue operations to be
challenging and time consuming.
 Sea ice and impact on loss of stability
 Human performance in cold climate
 Very limited satellite communication capacity north
of 75ON, no geostationary satellite communication
north of 81.3 ON
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Sevan Goliat, Barents Sea
What makes Arctic ecosystems special ?
Physical constraints
(temperature, ice coverage, seasonality)
Ice edge and polynyas
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Arctic Species – vulnerable and robust
 Slow growth-rate
 High lipid content, fat used as energy in times of low availability of food
 Specialized
 Travel huge distances to search for food and can gather in huge numbers to feed
 Breeding colonies, molting
 Pollution could influence large proportion of the population
 Pollution at other times will not have any effect ( animals are not there..)
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IO in Arctic – possible development phases
t, development in Arctic
Data collection and
represenation
Risk communication
Common risk information
Operational support
Operational
support
Shared situational
awareness in changing
external conditions
Several stakeholders – operations
and logistics
Photo: Olga Bogdanova
Data analysis, prediction
Data collection
Photo: Olga Bogdanova
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Opportunities for integrated operations in the Arctic
 Scarce data on ice and metocean, and biology baseline
 Remoteness, e.g;
- Situation management for emergency response
- Support from expert teams
- Remote sensing; detection and location of accidental spills to
sea.
 Real time operational data, e.g:
- Ice management; detection and tracking
- Marine mammals observations
- Weather windows and forecasts
 Cold climate operation
- Remote operations to compensate for limitations of human
capacity and performance in cold climate
- Increased number of handover operations
 Cooperation between many stakeholders
- Shared information of risk data among stakeholders
- Shared situation awareness
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Met stations in the North Sea (upper) and the Barents Sea (lower).
From website of US National Climatic Data Center
Safeguarding life, property
and the environment
www.dnv.com
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