Brazil to replace oil rigs with 'underwater cities'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

Brazil to replace oil rigs with 'underwater cities'
Traditional oil rigs will be replaced with “underwater cities” within a decade under ambitious plans being drawn up by Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned energy group.
Wednesday 29 December 2010

By Robin Yapp, in Sao Paulo 6:00AM GMT 29 Dec 2010

Petrobras plans to turn science fiction into reality to extract oil from the vast pre-salt oil fields discovered off the south east coast of Brazil.

The plan is to construct 'cities’ more than 2,000 metres under water, containing machines, giant pieces of equipment and robots that could inspect the systems being used to extract millions of barrels of oil. Many operations would be fully automated while others would be controlled by humans at a distance.

“Our target is that we won’t need platforms in ten years from now,” said Carlos Tadeu Fraga, executive manager of the Petrobras Research Centre.

Petrobras already owns virtual reality laboratories where engineers can inspect 3D images of oil fields. But now they want to take a further technological leap by installing floating rig equipment on the sea bed.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8228548/Brazil-to-replace-oil-rigs-with-underwater-cities.html

[Blue_Tires]

1. So our future really WILL have SeaLab 2021?

[social_critic]

5. It won't be Sealab 2021.

This is a little overblown. The technology they plan to use has been developed in the North Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico, but it is still in its early phases. The article is written by somebody who doesn't understand the technology, because the "rigs" would not be replaced - rig is a term used for the drilling unit. What would be replaced is the production unit, which in deep water is usually a ship loaded with equipment.

The Brazilians would like to use a system whereby the oil wells feed their production directly to an oil treating system on the seabed, to avoid having to send raw production to the surface for treatment. This means the oil, water and gas would be separated, the water reinjected or dumped to the sea, and the oil and natural gas would be sent by pipeline to a shallower location or to a central hub where tankers can load the oil and where the gas can be compressed to ship to shore.

One interesting issue coming out of this surge in production by Brazil is the implications for Bolivia - it produces mostly natural gas, and the Brazilians are about to produce so much, they will not need Bolivian gas at all. And if the production targets the Brazilians set are met, then Brazil will be by far the largest oil producer in the Western Hemisphere after the USA.

[Frank Booth]

12. Is this new technology safer than having a traditional production unit?

[xchrom]

2. what could go wrong? nt

[cali]

3. my thought exactly? what could possibly go wrong?

[social_critic]

11. Some things could go wrong

The water is so cold, the oil can "freeze" in the pipes. Valves can malfunction, allowing oil to flow when it's not supposed to. Control pods can breakdown. It would mean having to close the wells. If the wells are high pressure, then they can also leak oil to the sea, but this is something the industry has to face today.

I don't think the risk is as high as the industry faces when the wells are drilled - until they are sealed properly and the valves are set at the sea floor, the well can become a wild well, and this leads to the well known consequences. I suppose the Brazilians are making sure they won't have something like the BP incident in the future.

[jmondine]

13. The only thing I can see going wrong is this:

An American nuclear submarine, chasing an odd glowing craft, crashes near the site, and the crew is offered triple pay to join a group of navy seals to search the sub for survivors. Afterwards, the commander of the seals is given secret orders to retrieve and arm one of the sub's nuclear warheads. Meanwhile, the crew encounters members of a strange alien civilization existing at the bottom of an abyssal trench. The commander, suffering from pressure sickness, uses an ROV to pilot the nuclear warhead straight down the trench. The aliens, in retaliation, threaten to drown the coastlines of every continent on Earth with giant tidal waves the likes of which have never been seen.

Let's just hope that one of the crew members can take an experimental diving suit on a suicide mission down to the bottom of the trench and disarm the warhead, thus demonstrating to the aliens the human potential for self sacrifice and persuading them to halt the tidal waves just before they crest.

[tavalon]

14. Exactly!

Geez, can't anyone think around here! LOL

You win the Abyss award, affectionately known as the Bissy.

[freshwest]

16. Gigantic octopi and killer squids, I'll bet.

Or Captain Nemo or Khan Nooien Singh. Maybe Replicators...

[pam4water]

4. Is that before or after they catch the unicorn?

[social_critic]

6. No magic involved in their plans

And don't imagine it will be cities with people or anything like that. It will look like a a set of large cylinders with pipes and little square boxes coming out, and little submarines operated remotely from the surface moving around slowly tweaking things. People don't do very well in such depths, and it's too costly to keep them alive down there.

[WhiteTara]

7. thanks for your explanations

it was very enlightening.

[pam4water]

9. It's not a city if it doesn't have people. It's an under water automated pumping plant :P

[conspirator]

8. Wait until some alien force from the depths starts killing people. It better have escape pods n/t

[freshwest]

17. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

[AngryAmish]

10. Fuck them and fuck all those mermen oil workers.

[freshwest]

18. Wow, I had no idea there were mermen working for the fire department. Thanks for the pic.

[unkachuck]

15. "...ambitious plans being drawn up by Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned energy group."

....who says Socialism can't be high-tech, creative, innovative and original? If given a chance, Socialism could work for us too....

....imagine Petro USA, financed by the Bank of the United States creating jobs and a better future for all Americans....you must admit, our current trickling economy just isn't working very well....

....$3.569/gal today and rising....

[social_critic]

19. I can't imagine it

Petrobras sells its shares in the Brazilian stock market, it's partially privatized. It also works side by side with foreign multinationals. And of course most of the actual work is being done by contractors - all of them privately owned.

Socialism such as you propose, with state owned enterprises, has been shown to be a miserable failure. It destroys value, and it usually degenerates into a corrupt oligarchy, a one party state from which people love to flee.

[jayfish]

20. Andrew Ryan... Is that you? -NT-