Visits to North Sea platforms normally involve a journey of at least an hour in a hot, noisy helicopter.
All passengers have to wear a rubberized survival suit that would not be out of place in a medieval torture chamber.
My most recent trip to a platform, however, involved me sitting in a comfortable chair in a quiet, air conditioned room. The most uncomfortable thing I had to wear was a tie.
The visit, to a platform that hasn't been built, was made possible through 3D design technology known as virtual reality (VR).
The trip took place at what is best described as a VR cinema at the headquarters of Silicon Graphics Ltd., Theale, U.K. The Reality Centre, as it is called, has a viewing room with 30-40 seats around the focal point of a huge curved screen.
A controller "flies" viewers onto and around the platform-even through walls. That's so engineers can review the design without the need to wear "bucket on the head" helmets normally associated with VR technology.
Conoco's experience
Conoco (U.K.) Ltd. and design engineers Brown & Root Ltd. have used the Reality Centre to show designs of Conoco's Murdoch compressor platform to fabrication, hookup, and installation engineers.
The platform is to be installed this summer in U.K. North Sea Block 44/22a, alongside the Murdoch production platform that was placed on stream in October 1993 (OGJ, Mar. 22, 1993, p. 31). The new platform will increase pressure in Murdoch and nearby Caister fields and enable tie-in of Schooner field, under development by Shell U.K. Exploration & Production.
The first operator to benefit from Brown & Root's VR experience was BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. during the design of Andrew platform. Conoco engineers viewed this design in 1994.
Conoco's Jupiter fields development team decided to use VR in development of Ganymede and Callisto fields as part of its Jupiter project, which was then under way (OGJ, June 20, 1994, p. 31).
Way into design
Simon Gorringe, Jupiter hookup and commissioning manager at Conoco, said the company saw a need to get installation and hookup engineers involved in the design process.
Gorringe said, "Hookup teams are 'hands-on' people and not used to working with 2D drawings. Brown & Root gave us a presentation using the bucket-on-the-head approach, and we saw VR gives operations people a way to get into the design."
Because the Ganymede platform had already been designed, Gorringe said VR could be applied only to installation and hookup.
Gorringe said, "We found we had to make a couple of changes to the Ganymede platform, which would not have been necessary if we had VR available from the first."
The Reality Centre has been used to review the Murdoch compressor platform design. Operations teams have told designers of changes needed to enable a hookup free of problems.
"VR has brought cost savings of 2-3 million ($3-4.5 million) on a 60-70 million ($90-$105 million) project," Gorringe said. "In future, designers will work more closely with operations teams. Design will no longer be isolated."
Copyright 1996 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
