Page 660 - The ROV Manual - A User Guide for Remotely Operated Vehicles 2nd edition

23.5 The bottom line 661
23.5 The bottom line
So, what’s the bottom line? The bottom line is the bottom line—profits! But profits are easily lost when a disaster happens. Let us again consider the 2010 Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Could it have been prevented with more logic-driven processes? Maybe not, since it was the result of well design and human failings. But the immediate need for robotic intervention, by both AUVs and ROVs, to solve the problem and end the environmental catastrophe could not be immediately met.
But Macondo is just the latest major offshore disaster . . . not the only one to date. Could other disasters have been prevented if more inspections and maintenance had been done? What about the future? Where will the funding come from to develop the hybrid vehicles, the advanced work systems, or an “Inter-Sea-Net”
type infrastructure?
Most vehicle operators run their business on a tight budget—responding to contracts as they can get them. They cannot afford to change the system. The oil companies have realized this in the past when they went beyond diver depth and needed to use ROVs for underwater intervention, so they changed the system. Now ROVs conduct all IRM at those depths.
It will take the combined cooperation of both the oil companies and government to again change the system. Offshore operators have periodically teamed to solve specific common issues, but a wider collaboration is needed to address the ever-evolving needs of the future oilfield. As mentioned above, Chevron took the lead and teamed with several oil companies to form the DeepStar consortium to address common issues. But this organization is by no means industry- wide. The US government recognized the need for high-risk/high-reward revolutionary develop- mental projects to assure its future energy independence. What arose from this perceived need is the quasi-governmental Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA). RPSEA’s goal within its mission statement is “... to identify and develop new methods and integrated sys- tems for exploring, producing, and transporting-to-market energy or other derivative products from ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resources . . ..”
What RPSEA is doing is a step in the right direction. But there must be more. In order to develop the vast array of technologies that will not only efficiently integrate the robots of the future (and hopefully prevent the next costly disaster), operators and government will be financially ahead of the game if they will cooperate for the common goal of safety and energy security. Tens of mil- lions of dollars are lost in a flash when an oil and gas production facility goes down. Why not invest those tens of millions now to change the future ... to develop the robotic infrastructure of the future—the “Inter-Sea-Net” and the robots that operate within it.
We now look afar and see the end from the beginning. It is indeed an exciting time for the ROV industry.