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Hydraulic fracturing solutions use a gelling agent known as guar gum to transport proppant. Flowback water can have guar gum concentrations has high as 1% by volume creating treatment challenges prior to reuse or disposal.

Flow assurance is a burgeoning field that offers many opportunities to young engineers—provided they are willing to develop expertise in a range of technical disciplines to obtain additional nontechnical skills.

Who are facilities engineers and what is it that they do? The author discusses how the answer to this question has changed during his career in the oil and gas business.

Roughly one-half of global gas reserves are considered stranded gas--uneconomical because of the remote location of potential markets, lack of economic transportation and infrastructure, or the lack of conversion technology. An FPSO with gas to liquids conversion is an option for stranded gas.

Human error is identified as a root cause of accidents and incidents in 60% to 80% of the cases and a causal factor in another 50% to 60% of all mishaps across many industries.

I was an employee of Union Carbide Corp. (UCC), and like other employees, I know exactly where I was when I first heard the news. Analyzing the root cause of this horrible accident provides insight and opportunities to learn from the mistakes that led to Bhopal.

Good early production caused an FPSO to reach the design topside limit with only five wells connected. A study was undertaken to determine how bottlenecks could be reduced to allow greater production without compromising process safety.

During OTC in Houston last month, offshore construction capabilities drew a room-capacity audience to a technical session about advances in deepwater construction techniques and vessels, including pipelaying and heavy lifting.

Linhua4-1 was China’s first tieback subsea development project. To develop this marginal oil field, a number of technical challenges were overcome through a series of new technologies, and their successful development and implementation.

As offshore development moves into deeper waters, harsh environments, and longer distances, the economic and practical advantages of moving as many components to the seafloor as possible has become a driving factor in technology development.

With inconsistent inlet water quality being the rule rather than the exception, sizing and operational considerations of the treatment system components must vary accordingly to make the most economic sense.

The growing attention on sustainable development has prompted many oil and gas companies to take a hard look at their operations and to build a framework for making them more socially responsible.